TLabs focus on startups featuring Philadelphia-based PackLate.com.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
PackLate.com is a travel website that provides great deals to consumers looking to book at the last minute while allowing property managers to clear out excess inventory.
We have turned the vacation booking experience into a game that challenges consumers to watch for opportunities and to book at the right time to win a great deal. Prices fluctuate with market conditions.
When there is an oversupply in the market, prices drop as the arrival date draws closer. Consumers can closely track prices all the way down to hugely discounted levels while playing with and against other members trying to book last minute vacation rentals.
Personnel:
Steve Barsh - Steve leads the PackLate team driving the vision, strategy, and execution. Steve has owned vacation rental property in Park City, Utah for over 10 years and founded SECA, Inc, a software and consulting company which he sold to MCI seven years later. In 2008 Steve camped out with First Round Capital and in 2009 became a partner in DreamIt Ventures, a pre-seed venture firm.
Rob Di Marco - Rob has spent the last decade guiding fast growing technology teams serving as an interim CTO/VP of Engineering for a range of start-up and small companies. Prior to this position, he was the VP of Technology for Health Market Science and previously the software development group manager for The Adrenaline Group, a software development consultancy based in Washington DC.
Steve Caron - Steve has more than 16 years as a hospitality technology and business development leader, most recently the president of VRGateway, the largest online marketplace for vacation rentals that was sold to VacationRoost where he filled the role of CTO and VP of Business Development. He also co-founded Sterling Resorts and was formerly CIO/CTO of ResortQuest International.
Jonathan Tran - Jonathan is all-around problem solver and developer who has been building web apps since 1999. He earned 2 bachelors degrees from Carnegie Mellon and has a passion for functional programming, life hacking, and snowboarding
Backstory:
CEO of PackLate, Steve Barsh, has owned vacation rental property in Park City, Utah for over 10 years. In 2004 Steve started publicly disclosing progressively discounted prices as the check in date approached. As the risk of a night going unsold increased, Steve would continually lower the price under the simple theory that as price decreases, demand should increase.
Year after year, Steve personally achieved revenues and nights booked higher than anyone else in his building using this simple method. With the global recession in full force in 2009, it seemed the perfect time to take Steve’s idea to a whole new level — building an exciting vacation rental marketplace where prices change as the check-in date nears.
Property managers and owners were sitting on an ever increasing amount of inventory (more second home owners were putting their vacation homes into rental pools to generate more income for themselves), at the same time demand was down dramatically, and nearly every traveler was looking for a deal and booking much closer to their check in date.
In late 2009 the PackLate.com founding team came together and started developing the business strategy, building the marketplace software, partnering with property managers, and raising a round of seed venture capital funding. Five months later, in February 2010, PackLate launched with inventory in its first geography, the US Rockies.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
Seed round of funding from 4 VC Firms: Genacast Capital, First Round Capital, ETF Ventures Funds, Firstmark Capital.
What problem are you trying to solve?
For vacation rental property managers: increasing their revenue and profitability by driving additional last minute bookings of their perishable inventory while at the same time not eroding their brand and market pricing.
For consumers: helping them save money while they book closer to their travel dates.
Describe the business, core products and services?
How it works:
PackLate partners with vacation rental property managers to deliver great deals for our members. We find available properties and match them with members who are willing to book closer to the check-in date.
Members decide when to travel and where to go. Members pick out available properties and book in real-time. As the check-in date gets closer, prices fall until the properties are rented.
The longer one waits, the lower the price. But members need to careful not to wait too long as another member could steal the deal!
Other interesting features:
Consumers don't have to wait for prices to fall. They can also "make an offer" to see if they can dip below the current price displayed on the site.
Members can set a Price Drop Alert on properties and PackLate lets them know when the price changes or others are interested in the same property
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
Over a dozen property managers throughout the US Rockies (including Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and California).
Users are throughout the US looking for great last minute vacation rental deals.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
Yes, on both sides of the marketplace.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
Business and revenue model is commission based tied to bookings. Strategy for profitability is using out-of-box consumer acquisition techniques to consistently grow the customer base while minimizing customer acquisition costs.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
Alternative user acquisition models, unique positioning and messaging to property managers that allows us to get lower pricing and favorable contracting measures.
Solid financial footing.
Weaknesses:
Limited markets at launch (which was the plan).
Opportunities:
Geographic inventory expansion.
Continually lower user acquisition costs.
Threats:
Firms with much greater brands, SEO, SEM spend, and inventory.
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?
Several VC firms. We did not listen to them as they did not seem to spend the time to understand the vacation rental market.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
Success metrics include (1) bookings per month, (2) cost of customer acquisition, (3) user growth and (4) number of geographies that are open.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)? PackLate.com is a travel website that provides great deals to consumers looking to book at the last minute while allowing property managers to clear out excess inventory.
We have turned the vacation booking experience into a game that challenges consumers to watch for opportunities and to book at the right time to win a great deal. Prices fluctuate with market conditions.
When there is an oversupply in the market, prices drop as the arrival date draws closer. Consumers can closely track prices all the way down to hugely discounted levels while playing with and against other members trying to book last minute vacation rentals.
Personnel:
- Steve Barsh - Steve leads the PackLate team driving the vision, strategy, and execution. Steve has owned vacation rental property in Park City, Utah for over 10 years and founded SECA, Inc, a software and consulting company which he sold to MCI seven years later. In 2008 Steve camped out with First Round Capital and in 2009 became a partner in DreamIt Ventures, a pre-seed venture firm.
- Rob Di Marco - Rob has spent the last decade guiding fast growing technology teams serving as an interim CTO/VP of Engineering for a range of start-up and small companies. Prior to this position, he was the VP of Technology for Health Market Science and previously the software development group manager for The Adrenaline Group, a software development consultancy based in Washington DC.
- Steve Caron - Steve has more than 16 years as a hospitality technology and business development leader, most recently the president of VRGateway, the largest online marketplace for vacation rentals that was sold to VacationRoost where he filled the role of CTO and VP of Business Development. He also co-founded Sterling Resorts and was formerly CIO/CTO of ResortQuest International.
- Jonathan Tran - Jonathan is all-around problem solver and developer who has been building web apps since 1999. He earned 2 bachelors degrees from Carnegie Mellon.
Backstory:
CEO of PackLate, Steve Barsh, has owned vacation rental property in Park City, Utah for over 10 years. In 2004 Steve started publicly disclosing progressively discounted prices as the check in date approached. As the risk of a night going unsold increased, Steve would continually lower the price under the simple theory that as price decreases, demand should increase.
Year after year, Steve personally achieved revenues and nights booked higher than anyone else in his building using this simple method. With the global recession in full force in 2009, it seemed the perfect time to take Steve’s idea to a whole new level — building an exciting vacation rental marketplace where prices change as the check-in date nears.
Property managers and owners were sitting on an ever increasing amount of inventory (more second home owners were putting their vacation homes into rental pools to generate more income for themselves), at the same time demand was down dramatically, and nearly every traveler was looking for a deal and booking much closer to their check in date.
In late 2009 the PackLate.com founding team came together and started developing the business strategy, building the marketplace software, partnering with property managers, and raising a round of seed venture capital funding. Five months later, in February 2010, PackLate launched with inventory in its first geography, the US Rockies.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
Seed round of funding from 4 VC Firms: Genacast Capital, First Round Capital, ETF Ventures Funds, Firstmark Capital.
What problem are you trying to solve?
For vacation rental property managers:
- increasing their revenue and profitability by driving additional last minute bookings of their perishable inventory while at the same time not eroding their brand and market pricing.
For consumers:
- helping them save money while they book closer to their travel dates.
Describe the business, core products and services?How it works:
- PackLate partners with vacation rental property managers to deliver great deals for our members. We find available properties and match them with members who are willing to book closer to the check-in date.
- Members decide when to travel and where to go. Members pick out available properties and book in real-time. As the check-in date gets closer, prices fall until the properties are rented.
- The longer one waits, the lower the price. But members need to careful not to wait too long as another member could steal the deal!
Other interesting features:
- Consumers don't have to wait for prices to fall. They can also "make an offer" to see if they can dip below the current price displayed on the site.
- Members can set a Price Drop Alert on properties and PackLate lets them know when the price changes or others are interested in the same property
Who are your key customers and users at launch? - Over a dozen property managers throughout the US Rockies (including Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and California).
- Users are throughout the US looking for great last minute vacation rental deals.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors? Yes, on both sides of the marketplace.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
Business and revenue model is commission based tied to bookings. Strategy for profitability is using out-of-box consumer acquisition techniques to consistently grow the customer base while minimizing customer acquisition costs.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
- Alternative user acquisition models, unique positioning and messaging to property managers that allows us to get lower pricing and favorable contracting measures.
- Solid financial footing.
Weaknesses:
- Limited markets at launch (which was the plan).
Opportunities:
- Geographic inventory expansion.
- Continually lower user acquisition costs.
Threats:
- Firms with much greater brands, SEO, SEM spend, and inventory.
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them? Several VC firms. We did not listen to them as they did not seem to spend the time to understand the vacation rental market.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
Success metrics include:
- bookings per month
- cost of customer acquisition
- user growth
- number of geographies that are open