TLabs focus on startups featuring KeepMeBooked from the UK.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
We are a web-based software to help B&B and guesthouse owners manage their reservations and guests, and take online bookings. We are trying to do for guesthouse reservations what people like Xero are doing for accounting software, Zendesk does for helpdesk software, etc. etc.
Nothing to install, easy on the eye, simple to get started, only see the complexity if you need it.
Bruce Greig (entrepreneur: 0800handyman, ViaPost, Ifyouski.com) is MD/sales/chief tester and wannabe usability guru.
Roy Hadrianoro is our superstar Ruby developer, supported by Fiqi (servers and stuff).
Thomas (front end styling and layout, which generally means spending most of his time just getting the app to work in Internet Explorer).
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
Greig funds it for now. Depending on how expensive it turns out to acquire customers, we might later need to tap up some angels.
What problem are you trying to solve?
Many small B&Bs and guesthouses still use pen-and-paper because existing software, even that aimed at smaller establishments, is pretty clunky and hard to use.
Our main competitor in the UK devotes 12 pages of their instruction manual to explaining how to update room prices. It doesn't need to be that hard. We don't even have an instruction manual - we want you to be able to figure it out by just playing around a bit.
After all, a paper reservation book doesn't come with instructions. And by being web-based (with a free trial) it is easier for people to give it a try and see how it compares to whatever process they use at the moment.
Developers of software aimed at B&Bs or guesthouses seem to have started by looking at full-blown hotel management software and trying to make it simpler. We've started from looking at pen-and-paper and worked upwards from there.
Describe the business, core products and services?
One product: web-based software to help B&B and guesthouse owners manage their reservations and guests.
Two subscription levels: Regular (guest and reservation management only) at $5 per room per month; and Plus (which includes the widget to take online bookings from your existing website) at $12 per room per month.
Later we'll add a third level which will include distribution to OTAs.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
Right now we have a hundred-odd users, of which just a handful are actively using it, and smaller handful paying for it.
We are testing different ways of finding customers (SEO, PPC, telemarketing, direct sales, affiliate program, etc.), and once we know enough about the best ways to find customers we'll throw our efforts (and money) into those channels which work best.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
No. The cost of developing a prototype is lower than the cost of market research, so better just to build something and see if anyone likes it.
Obviously helps that the founder is also sole investor - an external investor might have expected somewhat more rigorous research.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
Selling subscriptions. Lean team means that we have very low overhead, don't need that many customers to break even.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
Lean, nimble business. Founder is experienced in launching and running businesses.
Weaknesses:
We are outsiders, not industry experts.
Opportunities:
Cloud computing revolution: as more software goes web-based, will become ever easier to recruit customers
Threats:
Someone else executing a competing product really well.
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?
Well, a few industry insiders have said things like "what about [this feature], how are you going to deal with that? Or [this other feature]? Or what about those guesthouses that price by [some obscure, overly-complex mechanism]? Do you really think you can produce something better than software that has been decades in development?".
They might be right, of course, but our hypothesis is that there are a whole load of B&B and guesthouse owners out there who have never even thought about some of the complexity that traditional software tries to cope with, and have no need for this type of solution.
So it isn't about how many features something has. It is about how easy to use the core features are.
If that means we don't allow you to vary occupancy discounts by time of check-in and orientation of bed, then so be it.
We are going after that segment of the market that needs a good, easy-to-use core feature set that lets them spend more time running their business and less time learning their software. Time will tell if if that segment is as big as we think it is.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
Number of subscriptions sold.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?We are a web-based software company to help B&B and guesthouse owners manage their reservations and guests, and take online bookings. We are trying to do for guesthouse reservations what people like Xero are doing for accounting software, Zendesk does for helpdesk software, etc. etc.
Nothing to install, easy on the eye, simple to get started, only see the complexity if you need it.
People:
- Bruce Greig (entrepreneur: 0800handyman, ViaPost, Ifyouski.com) is MD/sales/chief tester and wannabe usability guru.
- Roy Hadrianoro is our superstar Ruby developer, supported by Fiqi Fitransyah (servers and stuff).
- Thomas Muliawan (front end styling and layout, which generally means spending most of his time just getting the app to work in Internet Explorer).
What financial support did you have to launch the business?Greig funds it for now. Depending on how expensive it turns out to acquire customers, we might later need to tap up some angels.
What problem are you trying to solve?
Many small B&Bs and guesthouses still use pen-and-paper because existing software, even that aimed at smaller establishments, is pretty clunky and hard to use.
Our main competitor in the UK devotes 12 pages of their instruction manual to explaining how to update room prices. It doesn't need to be that hard. We don't even have an instruction manual - we want you to be able to figure it out by just playing around a bit.
After all, a paper reservation book doesn't come with instructions. And by being web-based (with a free trial) it is easier for people to give it a try and see how it compares to whatever process they use at the moment.
Developers of software aimed at B&Bs or guesthouses seem to have started by looking at full-blown hotel management software and trying to make it simpler. We've started from looking at pen-and-paper and worked upwards from there.
Describe the business, core products and services?
One product: web-based software to help B&B and guesthouse owners manage their reservations and guests.
Two subscription levels: Regular (guest and reservation management only) at $5 per room per month; and Plus (which includes the widget to take online bookings from your existing website) at $12 per room per month.
Later we'll add a third level which will include distribution to OTAs.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
Right now we have a hundred-odd users, of which just a handful are actively using it, and smaller handful paying for it.
We are testing different ways of finding customers (SEO, PPC, telemarketing, direct sales, affiliate program, etc.), and once we know enough about the best ways to find customers we'll throw our efforts (and money) into those channels which work best.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
No. The cost of developing a prototype is lower than the cost of market research, so better just to build something and see if anyone likes it.
Obviously helps that the founder is also sole investor - an external investor might have expected somewhat more rigorous research.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
Selling subscriptions. Lean team means that we have very low overhead, don't need that many customers to break even.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
- Lean, nimble business. Founder is experienced in launching and running businesses.
Weaknesses:
- We are outsiders, not industry experts.
Opportunities:
- Cloud computing revolution: as more software goes web-based, will become ever easier to recruit customers
Threats:
- Someone else executing a competing product really well.
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?Well, a few industry insiders have said things like "what about [this feature], how are you going to deal with that? Or [this other feature]? Or what about those guesthouses that price by [some obscure, overly-complex mechanism]? Do you really think you can produce something better than software that has been decades in development?".
They might be right, of course, but our hypothesis is that there are a whole load of B&B and guesthouse owners out there who have never even thought about some of the complexity that traditional software tries to cope with, and have no need for this type of solution.
So it isn't about how many features something has. It is about how easy to use the core features are.
If that means we don't allow you to vary occupancy discounts by time of check-in and orientation of bed, then so be it.
We are going after that segment of the market that needs a good, easy-to-use core feature set that lets them spend more time running their business and less time learning their software. Time will tell if if that segment is as big as we think it is.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
Number of subscriptions sold.
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