TLabs – Startup Introduction Questionnaire
Respond to the following ten questions with as much detail as possible but please keep answers concise [some editing may take place for style, grammar and punctuation]
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
We are two young entrepreneurs and this is our first business. Guillaume Gosselin (aged 29), a graphic designer of ten years in web and marketing agency, cultural newspaper, design agency and a printer. Chantale Villeneuve (aged 26), a tourism technician and administrative assistant for three years. We also contract with Sampitech technology, an agile development team, web marketing and SEO specialist.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
Tripsourcing is financed by bootstrapping and love money. We have contacted angel financing but we never had favorable responses.
What problem are you trying to solve?
Today, everyone with an internet access can give comments in online travel guides about accommodations, places or restaurants they visited. In order to prepare an itinerary there is now an abundance of extraordinary ways to obtain informations: online travel guides, community, blogs, prices comparison, social networks, etc.
The choices are numerous and it is very difficult to not get lost in this overabundance of information. This profusion created a huge gap for every web novice or for experimented traveler wishing to rapidly obtain tailor-made travel itinerary that match their current needs.
Tripsourcing stands as a web tool that will let you build up and manage a trip diary, as well as finding out which places are the ones that make locals tribes truly proud so that you won’t miss a thing.
Tripsourcing's goal is to create an ecosystem we're passionnate travelers will find and promote in your Trip, unique accomodations, restaurants or activities for your destination. We simplify the online travel planning process by providing a better and unique planning experience to travelers.
Describe the business, core products and services?
With the rising power of social networking, everyone becomes a local media. With Tripsourcing, local residents and passionnate travelers voice their opinions and help travelers to make better itineraries by working closely with them. All participants and contributors to itinerary request are awarded with Dollotrips for their advice and assistance. With it, they can buy gifts in our store offered by business owners.
Favorites are at the core of Tripsourcing. They are all the accomodation, restaurants, activities or places and locals are their fans. Our SuperPromoter can pack their suitcase with favorite attractions, accomodations or restaurants. Every Favorite earns them Dollotrips. The more they pack, the more they earn and the more they contribute to help travelers in their itinerary planning. Other members will promote their packed Favorites too.
Travelers can explore our site to find and pack popular Favorites or they can add an exclusive new Favorite in their suitcase to promote it later. Every Favorite has a kiosk and SuperPromoter can get exclusive customization privileges on it.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
Our first key customers are the locals. We want to encourage them to explore the web and to share their neighborhood with our traveler that come to tripsourcing to find help in their planning.
Our second key customers are the small business owners. Tripsourcing offers an exceptional way for them to deliver their message directly to worldwide real-time Influential travelers. Our members give them the permission to customize their marketing and to promote their business to them. As a business ecosystem based on coopetition, Tripsourcing offer the chance to see, participate, influence and assist their prospect or to engage and encourage our SuperPromoter to do it for them.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
Over the past two years we have seen the market for online travel is booming. We have received a lot of feedback from people who think that planning a trip online is a complex task and that our idea will really help them. Currently many players in the tourism industry are watching us and looking at our evolution: travel agents, DMO or small businesses.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
We have Dollotrips - 100 dollotrips = 1$ (Can). Our Dollotrips will be the core of our business model. Travelers will need to have Dollotrips to get e-coupons for gifts. They will earn Dollotrips by helping travelers but they will also have the possibility to buy Dollotrips. Our business owners will offer e-coupons to be sold in the shop. By purchasing these e-coupons, members will be eligible for a 15% discount on the real value of goods or services included in the coupon.
Members will be able to buy virtuals goods and to show or to share what they have bought to their friends.
Business owners will need to have Dollotrips to promote themselves on Tripsourcing. Tripsourcing's potential for hyperlocal marketing is awesome. Imagine, though, a traveler will receive tourism targeted ads and advice from their travel destination. As a small business owner, the concept is powerful and offers great opportunities. They will also have the opportunity to generate leads with the help of their SuperPromoters by rewarding them with Dollotrips. Also, travelers or SuperPromoters will be rewarded when they succesfully complete a survey, published by one of our business owners.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Negatives:
High level of competition in this industry.
Difficulty to find a way to monetize it.
Small tourism businesses have low marketing budget.
Our limited funding
Our small team
Positives:
Location-based app boom like foursquare, gowalla, loops, tellmewhere etc…
Originality of our ecosystem and the Dollotrips rewarding/reputation system.
The growing interest of small businesses for the social web.
The growing popularity of online game and virtual goods.
Our influential and ready to buy members (travelers)
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?
In fact, no one really advised us that our idea was not going to be successful. In the early days of our concept we have received constructive advice of Montreal Startup that allowed us to properly adapt the concept to the market reality. We are an agile team and
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
We will be successful if we have 100,000 SuperPromoters and 10,000 business owners as members.
We also want to release an iPhone app that will help our members to add favorites by checkin-in with their phone. This application will also be used to display e-coupons near them and buy e-coupons directly in our business owners venues. Worldwide Locals superpromoter will be able to trace travelers with this application to meet them. They will be able to share dollotrips in person.
NB: Tripsourcing is also in French under TonTrip.com.
TLabs focus on startups featuring Canada-based
TripSourcing.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
We are two young entrepreneurs and this is our first business. Guillaume Gosselin (aged 29), a graphic designer of ten years in web and marketing agency, cultural newspaper, design agency and a printer. Chantale Villeneuve (aged 26), a tourism technician and administrative assistant for three years. We also contract with Sampitech technology, an agile development team, web marketing and SEO specialist.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
Tripsourcing is financed by bootstrapping and love money. We have contacted angel financing but we never had favorable responses.
What problem are you trying to solve?
Today, everyone with an internet access can give comments in online travel guides about accommodations, places or restaurants they visited. In order to prepare an itinerary there is now an abundance of extraordinary ways to obtain informations: online travel guides, community, blogs, prices comparison, social networks, etc.
The choices are numerous and it is very difficult to not get lost in this overabundance of information. This profusion created a huge gap for every web novice or for experimented traveler wishing to rapidly obtain tailor-made travel itinerary that match their current needs.
Tripsourcing stands as a web tool that will let you build up and manage a trip diary, as well as finding out which places are the ones that make locals tribes truly proud so that you won’t miss a thing.
Tripsourcing's goal is to create an ecosystem we're passionnate travelers will find and promote in your Trip, unique accomodations, restaurants or activities for your destination. We simplify the online travel planning process by providing a better and unique planning experience to travelers.
Describe the business, core products and services?
With the rising power of social networking, everyone becomes a local media. With Tripsourcing, local residents and passionnate travelers voice their opinions and help travelers to make better itineraries by working closely with them. All participants and contributors to itinerary request are awarded with Dollotrips for their advice and assistance. With it, they can buy gifts in our store offered by business owners.
Favorites are at the core of Tripsourcing. They are all the accomodation, restaurants, activities or places and locals are their fans. Our SuperPromoter can pack their suitcase with favorite attractions, accomodations or restaurants. Every Favorite earns them Dollotrips. The more they pack, the more they earn and the more they contribute to help travelers in their itinerary planning. Other members will promote their packed Favorites too.
Travelers can explore our site to find and pack popular Favorites or they can add an exclusive new Favorite in their suitcase to promote it later. Every Favorite has a kiosk and SuperPromoter can get exclusive customization privileges on it.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
Our first key customers are the locals. We want to encourage them to explore the web and to share their neighborhood with our traveler that come to tripsourcing to find help in their planning.
Our second key customers are the small business owners. Tripsourcing offers an exceptional way for them to deliver their message directly to worldwide real-time Influential travelers. Our members give them the permission to customize their marketing and to promote their business to them. As a business ecosystem based on coopetition, Tripsourcing offer the chance to see, participate, influence and assist their prospect or to engage and encourage our SuperPromoter to do it for them.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
Over the past two years we have seen the market for online travel is booming. We have received a lot of feedback from people who think that planning a trip online is a complex task and that our idea will really help them. Currently many players in the tourism industry are watching us and looking at our evolution: travel agents, DMO or small businesses.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
We have Dollotrips: 100 dollotrips = 1$ (Can). Our Dollotrips will be the core of our business model. Travelers will need to have Dollotrips to get e-coupons for gifts. They will earn Dollotrips by helping travelers but they will also have the possibility to buy Dollotrips. Our business owners will offer e-coupons to be sold in the shop. By purchasing these e-coupons, members will be eligible for a 15% discount on the real value of goods or services included in the coupon.
Members will be able to buy virtuals goods and to show or to share what they have bought to their friends.
Business owners will need to have Dollotrips to promote themselves on Tripsourcing. Tripsourcing's potential for hyperlocal marketing is awesome. Imagine, though, a traveler will receive tourism targeted ads and advice from their travel destination. As a small business owner, the concept is powerful and offers great opportunities. They will also have the opportunity to generate leads with the help of their SuperPromoters by rewarding them with Dollotrips. Also, travelers or SuperPromoters will be rewarded when they succesfully complete a survey, published by one of our business owners.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Negatives:
- High level of competition in this industry.
- Difficulty to find a way to monetize it.
- Small tourism businesses have low marketing budget.
- Our limited funding
- Our small team
Positives:
- Location-based app boom like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loops, Tellmewhere etc.
- Originality of our ecosystem and the Dollotrips rewarding/reputation system.
- The growing interest of small businesses for the social web.
- The growing popularity of online game and virtual goods.
- Our influential and ready to buy members (travelers)
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?In fact, no one really advised us that our idea was not going to be successful. In the early days of our concept we have received constructive advice of Montreal Startup that allowed us to properly adapt the concept to the market reality. We are an agile team and
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
We will be successful if we have 100,000 SuperPromoters and 10,000 business owners as members.
We also want to release an iPhone app that will help our members to add favorites by checkin-in with their phone. This application will also be used to display e-coupons near them and buy e-coupons directly in our business owners venues. Worldwide Locals superpromoter will be able to trace travelers with this application to meet them. They will be able to share dollotrips in person.
NB: Tripsourcing is also in French under TonTrip.com.
TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.
To be featured as a startup in TLabs Showcase or to demonstrate a new product, email Tnooz for more details.