STARTUP STAGE: OffWeGo streamlines safety features for traveling students

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

On the business side, OffWeGo is the first student-centric solution addressing the large information gap while students are traveling on university-sponsored programs. 

Equally valuable and appealing to university risk managers and student travelers, our central platform serves as a direct connection for a university to reach and interact with their students off-campus in real-time, in the ways that the student wants to be reached and engaged.  

A direct way to read the student’s travel pulse, if you will.

On the technology side, OffWeGo streamlines the data collection of student travel by bundling key safety features from our travel assistance partners, with social and monetary incentives that keep students engaged in the necessary data reporting process. 

We incentivize students by helping solve their first two travel anxieties (social and financial). The more they self-report their travel data, the more social groups, events and student discounts they’ll receive.

By offering them a way to connect with other student travelers and take advantage of our partnerships to explore, we can provide a fun, safe and central environment.  

What inspired you to create this company?

On the user (student) side of things, Duff and John were part of the problem: Nearly 70% of students do not report their itineraries or update their locations on independent travel while on their study abroad programs. 

John got into a motorcycle accident while on a side-trip to northern Thailand, while studying in Australia, and got stitched up at a gas station. 

Like the other 70% of students, he didn’t let his school know his travel itinerary and thus they were unable to assist him in his time of need. 

Unaware at the time, this lack of data creates a duty of care risk to the university since they can’t properly “advise and assist” their students if they don’t know where their students are in the first place. 

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.

Strengths: Our large university network and our age… We see our age as a double-edged sword. When it comes to market validation or product development/management our youth is a huge asset. Duff and John have extensive experience traveling with university-sponsored travel and have direct access to the student market to test the product swiftly. Additionally, they’ve cultivated an extensive network and relationships with potential client schools.

Weaknesses: Our age… However, on the business/fundraising side of things, it can be a weakness, not having much experience founding previous companies. Nevertheless, we’re working with a fantastic team of advisors to help aid the business front that combines decades of experience in both the travel-tech and ed-tech markets, in addition to other entrepreneurial pursuits.

Opportunities: Although we’re starting in the niche of United Stated students who are abroad, we see great opportunities for growth across all university-sponsored travel, as well as entrance into the corporate “bleisure” market and with travel insurance partners.

Threats: As with most travel startups (and startups in general), there’s always the threat of one of the big corporations coming into the space. To mitigate this threat, we need to work fast to build a strong brand and community. 

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective?

For the customer, current travel-tracking solutions are antiquated and ineffective.

To the extent a university has the foresight and maturity to offer products and services such as emergency contact cards or check-in apps, students are overwhelmingly unaware or disengaged. 

The schools own the risk but are flying blind. The information gap is bad for everyone.

Students need safety and security services, but don’t voluntarily adopt them, even when available or made mandatory. Social connections, adventure and budget drive student travel behaviors. 

Safety and security are after-thoughts or “no-thoughts” - third on students’ totem pole of travel anxieties. 

When something goes wrong, the school is exposed to incident-related loss and expense, as well as disproportionate harm to reputation.

From the industry perspective, we see applications of our product across the “bleisure” travel segment. More and more business travelers are extending their stays but still technically covered under their company’s travel policy.

Although we’re starting in the education market, we envision a broader application of our product across the corporate travel market. So, if you’re an employee that wants to meet up with some friends/like-minded travelers, you can log on to OffWeGo and score deals. This is valuable information insurance agencies need to process any claim that comes their way.

So you've got the product, now how will you get lots of customers?

The key component of this process is that our marketing must be data-driven.

By joining strategic partners and organizations such as NAFSA, IIE and URMIA, we can attain essential data to aid in the sale of our product.

In terms of user acquisition, we plan to market test our beta version with a cohort of more than 150 students. Personal social networks are adequate to generate this. 

We will deliver safe, fun, discounted, social travel free to students. Using the results, we will launch our pilot school program to those schools who are ranked highly for percent participation in study abroad. 

Once onboarded, the school directs to OffWeGo during the mandatory pre-departure training.

Tell us what process you've gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

• Total available market: $320 billion
• Serviceable available market: $5 billion 
• Serviceable obtainable market: $1.3 billion

We expect beta testing for this semesters’ students. Universities make commitments to new contracts once during the spring and once the fall, so Fall 2020 is the first opportunity to launch at a school-level.

The target market of student travelers needed to create enough engagement to scale is quite easy to reach, compared to other consumer platforms, due to a critically large captive audience being concentrated among a limited number of institutions. 

According to OpenDoors’ annual survey, the 25 leading institutions send 68,000 students per year to participate in academic study abroad programs, but non-credit experiential programs are also a relevant market. 

Market research from more than 1,000 student travelers who were surveyed found that they were engaged with the OffWeGo brand and concept at a CI 95% and ME 4%. 

Findings validated average spending, number of trips, social factors and lack of attention to security. Assuming the success of beta, three institutions have a keen interest to adopt about 1,100 expected users.

After speaking with many schools and travel assistance firms, we’ve confirmed that although schools will always care about engagement, the existing solutions - provided by the assistance firms or corporations - cannot guarantee wider user adoption. They’re bringing corporate travel solutions to the education market and it’s not working because of the mismatch in priorities between students, parents and universities.

How and when will you make money?

We sell directly to the university, who then pushes the product to the students in the mandatory pre-departure orientation.

We operate on a flat rate model combined on a per student basis, offering the most flexibility in terms of the size of university, the risk tolerance of the institution, and volume of students going abroad.

Additionally, we operate on a commission basis from OTA services utilized, and a secondary market for aggregated data, such as white page annual reports for industry leaders and insurance providers.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team, and why do you have what it takes to succeed with this business?

Duff and John met in high school and developed OffWeGo while attending St. Lawrence and Colgate in New York, from which they graduated in 2018.

OffWeGo was incubated at the Shipley Center for Innovation at Clarkson University, and later Startups Ignite. Duff and John originally conceived OffWeGo as a fun and easy group booking platform based upon time studying abroad in London, Copenhagen and Australia.

Post-graduation, after extended research and networking with universities and travel assistance firms, the team shifted to the present model: combining the “fun” of travel with risk management, a top issue of concern for the sponsoring institutions (and students, post-crisis).

They work full time on OffWeGo.

What's been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

From the industry perspective, it’s been hard to overcome the misconception that student travel is not worth it… too many obstacles, students are poor, crowded space, etc. 

However, people don’t understand that students are ready and eager to travel to lots of new destinations. In fact, we’ve found that the average American abroad student will take seven independent trips and spend $3,500 on airfare and accommodation alone per semester abroad.

Although niche, this translates into over a billion-dollar market, with over 380,000 individuals studying abroad a year, growing at more than 2% a year. 

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact - so why are you going to be one of lucky ones?

OffWeGo transforms the needed security steps of (i) enrolling in travel assistance products or insurance, and (ii) informing sponsoring institutions about whereabouts and side travel from "have to" (ignored) to "want to" (adherence as a reward).

The model will succeed with students first and then expand to other travel affinity groups. The assistance firms focus resources on in-country services and big-ticket sales to universities.

Fiscally, they are indifferent to lack of student adherence or engagement. The universities care but lack the platform to offer students that is sufficiently appealing to change behaviors.

OffWeGo bridges all the gaps, with a delightful, student-focused experience, created by and for students studying abroad.

Do colleges and universities have a Duty of Care to their students? Even if they’re studying abroad?

Yes! Colleges and universities have a duty of care to their students both on-campus and off-campus if they are on university-sponsored travel. 

This has been shown in various upheld court decisions over the last 30 years. A lawsuit against Earlham College in 1995 (Earlham College v. Eisenberg) questioned for the first time whether American-sponsored study abroad programs should be held to the same Title IX standard as their domestic equivalents.

Increasingly, U.S. courts are expecting a proper duty of care for students participating in off-campus programs, and scrutinizing whether specific precautions have been put in place.

First, this specific lawsuit matters since the 68% of students studying abroad are women. Second, this becomes a huge issue when students aren’t engaged and/or not reporting their itineraries and other travel data to their schools.

If the school doesn’t know where their students are, they are unable to fulfill their duty to advise and assist in the case of an emergency. (See Look Before Leaping: Risks, Liabilities, and Repair of Study Abroad in Higher Education by Greg Malveaux for more.)