TLabs Showcase - Groupenture

TLabs Showcase on travel startups featuring US-based activities and tours distribution platform, Groupenture.

Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?

Groupenture.com is the first Group Buying Marketplace to focus exclusively on Adventure Tours and Travel. Groupenture technology provides our hundreds of thousands of registered members the ability to save big on Adventure Travel through a group buying process.

Groupenture technology provides our hundreds of registered tour operators the ability to maximize trip occupancy and expand their customer base.

Groupenture’s CEO, Andrew Atkin, is an experienced entrepreneur. He also has over 25 years of experience in developing marketing/business for large global companies. He also loves adventure travel.

In addition to an experienced support team Groupenture’s strategy is shaped by a board of experienced business and travel experts including:

Richard Weiss – Former Vice President of Operations for Disney Adventures and Founder/Head of Operations for Mountain Travel-Sobek.
Mike Linton– Former Chief Marketing Officer for EBay and Best Buy
Mike London – Former CEO of Polaroid

What financial support did you have to launch the business?

The company has funded all development through cash flow generated by an unrelated business. We are currently seeking Series A strategic funding.

What problem are you trying to solve?

Groupenture solves key issues for travel suppliers, travel buyers and passionate online adventure travel communities with the distribution of tours and activities to an online audience.

Describe the business, core products and services?

Travel suppliers benefit by:

Maximizing tour occupancy through group purchasing
Increasing conversion rates through a carefully scripted sales process powered by Groupenture technology
Market expansion through access to hundreds of thousands of Groupenture Members.

Groupenture Travellers benefit by:

Substantially lowering trip cost through group purchase
Better purchase decision tools powered by Groupenture Technology
Access to global suppliers
Ability to interact with other trip members prior to departure.

Groupenture benefits online travel communities by:

Providing any community the opportunity to create a co-branded Groupenture Marketplace attached to their site at no charge.
Generating a substantial revenue stream through the Groupenture Partner Revenue Program

Who are your key customers and users at launch?

Confidential, but we have signed a large number of high quality tour operators that span every continent. Groupenture will have access to reputable travel brands on every continent and across all major Adventure Activities.

Several of the largest travel, luxury, lifestyle and activity based communities representing 700,000 passionate travellers.

Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?

Yes, we tested group buying in several niche marketplaces before deciding on Adventure Travel. We will open additional marketplaces within 1 year.

What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?

Currently the revenue model is commission based. The Adventure Travel industry already uses this model so we saw no reason to change.

In the future we will launch additional revenue streams focused on listing placement fees, addition of tour Adventure Day Trip add-ons to traditional itineraries.

SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?

Strengths:

Unique/protectable customer acquisition process.
First mover status.

Weaknesses:

Need capital to fund growth.

Opportunities:

Global expansion.
Additional product expansion.

Threats:

Slow growth if funding does not materialize.

Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?

We performed a substantial amount of market due diligence before investing our cash flow in Groupenture. By assembling experienced advisory board members we were able to 1) focus on key industry challenges and 2) avoid typical roadblocks within the industry.

Thus we have had a fantastic response from travellers, tour operators and online communities.

What is your success metric 12 months from now?

We are laser focused on the following 12 month success metrics: