pango business plan
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PAN-GO BUSINESS PLAN
THE TEAM Miwa Ikemiwa | Project Manager
Shima Khaki | Lead Visualizer
Max Sims | Lead Writer
Cansu Tecimer | Lear Archivist & Researcher
THE MARKET NEED
CURRENT MARKET TRENDS
The world is getting smaller in a number of ways.
People are connecting to one another internationally
and locally online through social media with 540 million
on Facebook and counting. Ordinary individuals have
the resources to get a lot of things done on their own
without the help of large institutions or companies.
This is evident in the rising trend of micro-business
websites where anyone can turn an extra room, a car,
or a skill into extra income. The value these websites
bring is creating a platform on which people can
showcase their offerings to an international
customer base.
Currently, in the market, there are social websites that
create online communities, there are peer-to-peer
marketplaces for resource sharing, and there are travel
blogs and tour companies geared towards what to do
when traveling.
THE PAIN POINT
“People love exploring new places but have trouble
meeting local people and having genuine non-touristy
experiences.”
social community
travel
experiences
peer to peer
VISION, MISSION & VALUES
VALUE PROPOSITION
Pan-go is a platform integrating 3 key concepts into its
business plan:
• A strong sense of community
• A peer-to-peer platform
• Database of travel experiences
Fundamentally, it is a website with a database of peer-
to-peer local experiences offered at affordable prices.
VISION & MISSION
We envision a travel platform for the college-age
international traveler that offers a secure way of
exchanging meaningful local experiences at
affordable prices.
COMPANY VALUES
We are committed to diversity.
We have an appreciation for life and exploration.
We promote the entrepreneurial mind-set and agile thinking.
We are an idea democracy.
We value ethical and empathetic behavior.
We offer trustworthy and secure environments.
We promote playful collaboration.
VISION STATEMENT
Creating cultural understanding in the youth of the world
through shared authentic experiences.
TARGET MARKET
CURRENT TOURISM MARKET
880 million people travel internationally each year. There
is a rising trend in the tourism market of “Independent
Travelers”, people who do not book through travel
agents, who do not travel in packs, who do their own
research and are increasingly using social media to do
so. Conservatively, they make up well over 50% of the
tourism market.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Within this Pan-go is targeting the college age traveler.
Specifically:
Study abroad students
Students who have just graduated
Backpackers
The college age traveler has the right attitude, the need
and fits in with our company’s vision.
Attitude: They are flexible, open to trying new things, and
want to explore.
Need: They have the need because they want to find
smart ways of saving money, and they are already familiar
with cultural exchange through student exchanges and
study abroad.
Vision: We want to foster a sense of curiosity about the
world in a way that builds perspective and will inform the
way they lead the rest of their lives. We envision these
young people becoming dedicated customers of Pan-
go as they grow up.
COMPETITORS
Skyara Like-a-Local STA Travel AirBnb Pan-go
Primary Offering
Potential weakness
Potential weakness
What customers value
What customers value
What customers value
San Francisco
peer-to-peer
experiences
Local
peer-to-peer
experiences
Travel agency for
student age
Person-to-person
places to stay
Network of local
experiences for
collage age
Having novel
experiences
Having otherwise
inaccessible
experiences
Worldwide Stay in cool
places
Save money
Meeting &
networking in San
Francisco
Meeting new
people in other
countries
Activities targeted
toward students
Save money Join a vibrant
community
Only in San
Francisco
Stagnant
offerings, spread
too thin
Prepackaged
tours
Security of
overnight stay
Unknown brand
Opportunities to
break from daily
life
Affordable prices Cheap prices,
discounts
Potentially meet
new people
Extensive offerings
in targeted
countries
Too expensive? No sense of
community
Age limit Maintaining
quality worldwide
Meeting
expectations
no network
engaged community
genericexperiences
uniqueexperiences
panoo
tour companies
POSITIONING
POSITIONING MAP
Pan-go is a vibrant community of smart, young world
travelers exchanging local genuine experiences.
POSITIONING STATEMENT
no network
engaged community
generic experiences
unique experiences
tour companies
Skyara and airbnb are not direct competitors;
they do not offer travel experiences.
They are business models Pan-go used as
successful examples.
WEBSITE
HOME PAGE
TRAVEL OFFER COMMUNITY sign in sign up
CATEGORIES
Pan-go is a vibrant community of smart, young world travelers exchanging local genuine experiences.
Share authentic experiences...
Join our Community
Offer the ultimate, unique experience you can think of with the pan-go community. There will be voting and some extra pan-go points for the best ideas. Yes, this is definitely a competition!!
get creative with your culture
Offer an Experience
HIGHEST RATED NEW
Art Beauty & StyleCrafts & HobbiesEducationFood & DrinkHealth & WellnessHistory & CultureNightlifeOutdoorsShoppingSports & FitnessTechnology
Where do you want to go?
Pan-go experiences...
SEARCH
Learn to curse in Italian over futbol & beerwith Gio Venessi
$20.00Rome/ITALY
A bike tour around Notting Hill with storieswith Damien Jones
$30.00London/UK
Make crepes in father’s family restaurantwith Marie LaCroix
$28.00Paris/FRANCE
I have anIDEA
The Pan-go home page displays the newest and highest
rated experiences being offered. The customer can
browse through the experiences or search by city or
category.
TRAVEL OFFER COMMUNITY sign in sign up
CATEGORIES
Offer an Experience
HIGHEST RATED NEW
Art Beauty & StyleCrafts & HobbiesEducationFood & DrinkHealth & WellnessHistory & CultureNightlifeOutdoorsShoppingSports & FitnessTechnology
Paris, FRANCE
Pan-go experiences
SEARCH
The coffee au lait that changed my lifewith Julien Beaudoin
$15.00Paris/FRANCE
Taste the top 5 French foods you can eat with your handswith Sophie Carrier
$35.00Paris/FRANCE
Paris/FRANCE Food & Drink
Make crepes in father’s family restaurantwith Marie LaCroix
$28.00Paris/FRANCE
Once the customer enters in the city/category they are
looking for, they are taken to experiences that fit with
their search options.
Each offering is shown through a photo, the name of the
experience and the provider, the city and country names
and the price.
For further details, the customer will click on the
experience photo or name. Users can also click on the
provider’s name to see the profile of that person.
WEBSITE
EXPERIENCE PAGE
A person must be registered on the website before they
can make a booking or become a provider.
When a customer decides to join the Pan-go community,
they can do so through their Facebook account or
through e-mail.
PROFILE PAGE
Providers and customers alike have profiles that are
simple to build and update, with photos, reviews, their
own unique stories, friends and followers.
BUSINESS MODEL
FLOW CHART
Money
Service
Experience
SAFETY ISSUESPan-go will create accountability through easy to build
profile and experience pages and a ratings and rewards
system. Our goal is to have a richly populated website
that will give customers and providers the information
they need to make informed and smart decisions about
whether or not they want to make or accept a booking.
Pan-go will also enable travelers and experience providers
to communicate privately through the company, without
revealing any personal information, before a booking is
made. The credit card information of both parties will be
in the Pan-go system before any transaction takes place,
to confirm their legitimacy.
After a booking is made, both parties will receive each
other’s phone numbers and names to get in touch before
meeting.
Ultimately, the liability will be on the customers about the
issue of security. Pan-go is not responsible for monitoring
the meet-ups.
MONEY SECURITYPan-go has a confirmation system, where the company
holds on to the traveler’s money until the meet-up has
taken place. The travelers will be e-mailed a code before
the meet-up, which they will give to the experience
provider. This code must be entered into the Pan-go
system for the money to be transferred to the provider.
If customers are unsatisfied for any reason, they can call
our customer service and full refunds will be given when
deemed appropriate.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP
TOUCHPOINTS
CONSIDER
• posters
• college events
• website
EVALUATE
• travel blogger network
• special parties
• experience provider profile
PURCHASE
• website
ENJOY, ADVOCATE & BOND
• rating & review system
• website
• follow up recommendations
• email newsletter
DESCRIPTION
An example journey map of a potential customer Sara...
CONSIDER
Sara hears about Pan-go from posters on campus, sees
a booth at a college event at her school. Her friends are
talking about it, and she also sees someone mention it in
their Facebook status. She clicks over to the website to
check it out briefly, and sees some cool experiences. She
fantasizes traveling one day to one of these places and
having one of these experiences.
EVALUATE
Sara is going on a trip to France. She remembers Pan-go
and the idea of an experience sharing website abroad.
She starts to do research on other experience websites
like Airbnb, and Like-a-local, as well as looking at Lonely
Planet, other tour guide books and STA travel. She sees
that Like-a-local does not have many offerings, Airbnb is
just for overnight stays, and STA travel and guide books
look impersonal and too touristy. She talks to one of her
friends who is a travel blogger who’s gone to one of
DESCRIPTION
Pan-go’s special events, the friend talks about his Pan-go
experience.
Now she goes on the website and sees a bunch of
cool experiences in the area she will travel to. She’s a
big foodie and sees that someone is offering a crepe
learning session in her father’s family restaurant. She sees
that there are good reviews for the experience. She then
looks at the profile of the experience provider, Marie, who
has a lot of friends vouching for her. It is right in Sara’s
price range, so she decides to register.
PURCHASE
Sara messages Marie through the website to ask more
about the experience and to figure out a date. Marie
messages back and offers a specific day. This works for
Sara so she books the experience and goes through a
secure payment system. She receives the purchase code
and an explanation through e-mail.
ENJOY, ADVOCATE & BOND
Sara travels to Paris and gets a reminder e-mail for her
upcoming experience. She meets up with Marie and
has an excellent time. She gives the purchase code to
Marie (necessary for Marie to receive her payment from
Pan-go). Pan-go sends her a follow up e-mail to rate
her experience and gives her the opportunity to link to
Marie’s profile. She gives great ratings and writes a nice
review for Marie.
After having great experiences that have made her trip
memorable, she decides to go on the website in order to
keep in touch with her new friends. She builds up her profile
through continued experiences, and maintains links to all
of her providers. She gets follow up recommendations
from Pan-go based on her previous bookings. She goes
back home and gets a newsletter telling her about the
advantages of being a provider. The newsletter lets her
know what travelers are looking for in her home city.
She sees one that she can easily provide and signs up
to offer it. Now she is an active participant in the Pan-go
community and a vocal advocate.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP
BRAND STYLE
BRAND ATTRIBUTES
adventurous authentic
trustworthy vibrant
smart cultural connection
BRAND COLORS
BRAND FONTS
Century Gothic
LOGO
COMPANY GROWTH
PLAN OF ACTIONPan-go has a three-phase plan of action.
Alpha-Phase
In the alpha phase Pan-go will target the top 5 study
abroad countries: US, UK, France, Italy, and Spain.
The 4 founding members will tap into their own personal
international networks in these places to get things
started. Combined they have access to 25 networks in
each of these countries and can reach 28,000 friends
and friends-of-friends.
Beta-Phase
Once 100 providers have posted experiences on the
Pan-go website, the beta-phase will start. In this phase
the company will grow its customer and provider base
simultaneously. At the end of beta-phase, there will be
250 providers that have joined the Pan-go community.
Launch
The Pan-go website will open to the public after the 250
provider number has been met.
FUTURE PROJECTIONSPan-go’s future projections are based on the numbers of
similar business models (i.e. AirBnb).
End of Year One
1,000 providers
25,000 customers
45,000 experiences booked in total
End of Year Two
4,500 providers
MARKETING
PRICING STRATEGYPan-go will take a 15% commission from each money
transaction between our partners, the experience
providers, and our customers, the travelers.
Pan-go aims to offer experiences at an affordable price
for the college-age savvy traveler. There will be a $100
price cap on all experiences posted on the site. For
offerings that last longer than one day, the price cap will
be $100 per day.
The prices will be set by the experience providers along
some guidelines and recommendations.
• The recommended price for non-skill based
experiences such as walking tours, spending time
together will be around 20$.
• The recommended price for experiences involving
food & drink, going to multiple venues will be around
30-35$.
• The recommended price for skill-based experiences
like cooking classes or photography lessons will be
around 40-50$, but would vary according to materials
provided.
• Our partners will be informed that there is an
opportunity to provide a discounted price for groups.
PLACEMENTWEBSITE
The main place our customers interact with the business is
our online platform. We want to have an easy to access
site with enough storage to make it easy for travelers
and experience providers to upload and download
data. With our estimated growth projections, we will
need approximately 1319 gigabytes of storage for one
year that breaks down to 50 megabytes for each profile.
(26,000 customers & providers at the end of year one) For
providing such storage we will use amazon’s EBS service.
We estimate around $2,650 of cost for one-year storage.
We will hire a SEO to make sure our ranking is relevantly
high in searching the following words on the search
engines:
Back Packer – inexpensive travel- local – experience-
learn about city- genuine travelling– non tourist– must
experience in city - best places to see traveling- travel
like a local- eat like a local- local view – cultural
understanding – authentic
PLACEMENTSOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook, Tweeter & Youtube
Pan-go will have presence in each of the social media
sites to generate traffic into our website.
Facebook and Twitter will be utilized to push content
out about the promotions, creative ideas, unique
experiences, insider information about cities and other
useful information. People will also be able to use their
Facebook accounts to join Pan-go with one click.
A YouTube channel will be created for our providers and
customers to post videos for the ongoing promotional
competition. This will be a great touch point to learn
about Pan-go from its own community.
BLOG
Pan-go will have a tumbler account with focus on
interesting stories generated by hosts or travelers. This is
the primary place to promote the marketing campaign
“GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR CULTURE” The blog will have
links to Pan-go’s YouTube channel. The blog is in service of
recording unique or remarkable experiences. It focuses
on travel and the richness the world has to offer.
PHONE PRESENCE
We will have a strong phone-based customer support.
Our representatives will be available to answer questions
and address complaints.
PARTNERSHIPS
Pan-go sees opportunity in partnering with NGOs and
local communities. This specifically gathers providers that
have already shown their enthusiasm in their area.
Pan-go will also be partnering with youth hostels. Since
youth hostels are the most economic places to go for
the college age travelers, we will tie our information on
hostel.com, offering economical authentic experiences.
MARKETING
PROMOTION“GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR CULTURE”
Pan-go will be launching a campaign called: “Get
Creative with your Culture”
The idea is that young people are infinitely creative,
they are living embodiments of their own culture and are
always thinking of fun things to do. All they need is the
tools and the motivation to come back with astounding
ideas.
This is a call to action: we want people to post videos or
pictures of creative experiences they are willing to offer
that are unique to their culture (however they choose to
define ‘their culture’). The winner of the competition will
be awarded two free tickets to any pan-go city and any
number of pan-go experiences they can fit into one 24
hour period.
We will get the word out about the “Get Creative with
your Culture” campaign through social media, as well as
in person during our visits to colleges.
MARKETING
ONGOING ENCOURAGEMENT
On our website, we plan to list ideas for free experiences
unique to specific locations.
Pan-go will also keep its users engaged in the community
through a rewards and rating system. People are
encouraged to build their profiles, comment and review
through a system of Pan-go points. Every good review
they receive, every helpful review they write, every
photo they upload earns them pan-go points. Points can
be cashed in for free Pan-go experiences. (150 Pan-go
points for one free Pan-go experience) Basically every
time they contribute, we give them something back.
And for the super users, people who are passionate about
their cities, they can rack up location specific points to
gain status as Pan-go ambassadors. People will compete
to gain status as the Pan-go ambassador to Madrid, for
example.
MARKETING
PROMOTIONTRAVEL BLOGGERS
There are a lot of travel blogs that are already trusted
and have good number of followers. Pan-go will be
reaching out to these bloggers, invite them to offer local
experiences and ask them to write about us on their blog.
SPREAD THE WORD
By writing articles, making short videos and posting on
websites such as crowdsourcing.org, Pan-go will make
an open call to a large undefined group of people
to participate in our competition to become a local-
experience-provider.
REACH OUT FOR STUDENTS
Pan-go will set up booths in college fairs to talk to students
about the experiences they can offer. We will hand
out brochures about our company, promote ourselves
through posters around campus
FINANCIALS
REVENUE PROJECTIONS
At the end of year one, with 1800 experiences booked
per week, Pan-go will generate $561,600 in revenue.
At the end of the second year, with an estimated growth
rate of 450%, the revenue generated is projected to
reach $3 million. With the projected revenue growth the
company’s annual income will increase from $68,000 to
$1.1 million.
Average price for an experience: $40.00
Percentage of the fee that will be paid to partners: $85
Growth rate: 450%
REVENUE
Experience Revenue
Partner Revvenue
Company Revenue
SERVICE COSTS
Hosting Costs
Transaction fees
OVERHEAD COSTS
Salaries & Admin
Marketing
Partner Relations
Support
Total Costs
ANNUAL INCOME
Est. Startup Costs
YEAR ONE
$3,744,000
$3,182,400
$561,600
$2,650
$74,880
$196,560
$84,240
$67,392
$67,392
$493,114
$68,486
$124,675
YEAR TWO
$20,592,000
$17,503,200
$3,088,800
$10,600
$411,840
$617,760
$308,880
$247,104
$370,656
$1,966,840
$1,121,960
ANNUAL BUDGET
FINANCIALS
BUDGET DISTRIBUTION: YEAR ONE BUDGET DISTRIBUTION: YEAR TWO
Salary & Administrative Fees: 35%
Marketing: 15%
Partner Relations: 12%
Support: 12%
Salary & Administrative Fees: 20%
Marketing: 10%
Partner Relations: 8%
Support: 12%