Hello AlyintheATL Land!
Happy to stop by for a short visit. Aly was kind enough to introduce me before hand so no one would freak out when I showed up. It’s weird when you expect the norm and abnormal arrives instead.
As you may know, I’m Shannon Kroll — director of Root City Market, an Atlanta-based pop-up market focused on creating community through shopping local. Our next market is on December 10, 2016 - check here or here or here for more info and to stay informed on our happenings. Please introduce yourself if you come out to the market. Aly would love those bragging rights. {Shannon is correct, I totally would - Aly}
So let’s get to it — The Consumer Show! This was the ninth iteration of the event and it was a hit. The first TechStars cohort stopped by with their fine-tuned pitches and enthusiastic support for each other. It was a great time, as always. TechStars is a once-a-year, three-month program new to Atlanta and it wrapped up on 11/1/16. Michael Tavani and Dave Payne of Switchyards Downtown Club acted as mentors which made The Consumer Show an easy choice.
UCiC presenting at last Thursday's The Consumer Show: TechStars Edition at Switchyards. | PHOTO: Jason Seagle
THE PITCH RECAPS:
uCiC - See Before You Go | uCiC was inspired by co-founder Harleen Kaur’s personal experience. While traveling, there was a fire in her neighborhood back home. She was unable to determine if her home had been harmed despite her neighbors' numerous social media posts. She wanted a way to ask questions directly to individuals and she thought she wasn’t alone. So, as these things go, she co-founded uCiC.
What did they do really well? As a two-person, bootstrapped company, Harleen said that the things they did best was mastering ASO and SEO, allowing an increase in their user base for a relatively inexpensive investment. And, they hustled to attend conferences for promotion.
What can the community help with? Building the team: They are looking to hire! If you’re passionate about this space or their mission, reach out.
— uCiC —
Harleen completed a flawless live demo during her pitch, which was gutsy and wonderful. uCiC allows users to pose questions and receive answers from other users around the world through the app. The user opens the app, searches for a location, and selects a fellow user to question. Once the question is answered, including the option of a video or photo, the first user receives a push notification. At launch, the founders believed that the majority of requests would be local. However, the average request is 1,000 miles away. Right now, there is no way to filter the experiences or users other than location, but categories will be added in the future.
According to Harleen, there will be approximately 2 billion smartphones in the world by 2020, and uCiC is poised to maximize on that market. uCiC currently has 250k users posting 2 million times per month in 182 countries, and are experiencing 32 percent month-over-month growth in 2016. The Weather Channel also has recently been added as a corporate partner; this will allow direct access to live weather events through uCiC’s user base. Partnerships are the revenue stream for the company, and they plan to add partnerships throughout 2017.
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Splitty - Book Different | Hotels are expensive. When searching for options, most prices are pretty much the same. Splitty shows real savings to customers who are looking for multiple-night reservations. Eran Shust, CEO and co-founder, stated that the travel industry is a $450 billion market that Splitty has joined.
When booking a multiple-night hotel stay, greater savings are obtained by splitting a single reservation into multiple reservations. There are 15 different ways to split up a seven-day reservation, and Splitty’s two and a half years of machine learning has allowed the company to know where the greatest savings exist within those reservations. The important piece here is the machines are looking for the greatest savings, not the lowest dollar amount which, according to Eran, allows for increased accuracy regardless of fluctuations in the market.
What did they do really well? They've been excellent at providing serious savings to customers.
What can the community help with? Send traffic to the site and spread the word!
— Splitty —
The customer experience at these hotels is typically excellent, says Eran, as Splitty contacts the hotel online and via phone prior to the user’s check-in to ensure the front desk understands the connection of the multiple reservations. 90% of the time, the customer does not have multiple rooms or reservations, just multiple confirmation numbers.
Splitty is compensated by the hotels and none of the cost is passed on to the customers. The inventory of rooms is provided through partnerships, including Expedia, which means Splitty’s hotel inventory is large. When Eran compared Splitty saving to Expedia, he said Splitty can provide better rates approximately 50% more often than Expedia can.
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RealMeal Delivery | This is the second time RealMeal Delivery has presented at The Consumer Show. So, if you’re saying “I think I’ve already heard of this company!” — that’s why.
“Billions of investment dollars are going into food delivery” according to Pat Pow-anpongkul, co-founder of RealMeal Delivery. There are several differences between RealMeal and others in the food-tech space; the largest is that RealMeal is actually a restaurant that delivers and not a delivery service that uses existing restaurants to deliver meals.
What did they do really well? Being scrappy. They started with a Wix website and phone number for orders. When very few orders came in for two weeks, Pat went to a Kroger parking lot and asked people to try the company.
What can the community help with? RealMeal is actively hiring a marketer — reach out!
— RealMeal Delivery —
While many others are focused on the individual, RealMeal is targeting parents and families in the suburbs. The company functions as “a standalone restaurant that serves many locations,” allowing the company to keep their overhead costs low. All orders are placed early in the day with a scheduled cut-off time. Research and development allowed RealMeal to determine the best foods and cook times for delivery. Just as traditional restaurants know how to serve food so that peak flavor occurs as it reaches the table, RealMeal has discovered how to best cook food so it is at its best when it reaches the customer’s home table. This also means they do not offer foods that do not travel well: i.e., fried foods, only certain fish, etc.
RealMeal began with a classic American menu, has currently expanded to up to 70 items on the menu, and is continuing to grow. Menu diversity allows all members of a family to order what suits their palate, and all from one RealMeal location — steak and potatoes for one, salad for another, mac and cheese for the kids. “Everyone gets what they want” for an average of $9/person with free delivery and zero gratuity.
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Sequr | Sequr is a B2B app company hoping to revolutionize the keycard industry from the inside out. {And if they sound familiar too, it's because their pitch at Atlanta Startup Village awhile back was on this blog as well! - Aly}
Andrew Eddy, co-founder, pointed out that the keycard was invented in the 1970s — along with the floppy disk, the VCR,and the walkman. All of the other technologies have evolved, while keycards have remained the same. But Sequr is fixing that!
What did they do really well? Listening to customers. Sequr started as a different approach and pivoted to this space by hearing customer feedback.
What can the community help with? Spread the word about Sequr.
— Sequr —
Once the app is installed, the user simply taps or twists near the reader. There is two-factor authentication built into the app for increased security, and the app allows secure access even if it isn’t running and if the power is out in the building. However, access is not available if the user’s phone battery is dead.
Sequr’s technology works with existing systems and has partnered with HID and Cox multifamily to continue growth in the industry. Currently, Sequr is working with 2 million users at 10K doors for the price of $4/person per month and a setup fee. There are plans to continue growth in the security and surveillance industry and eventually into residential gated communities, including Atlanta-based Perennial Properties.
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Fitspot: Making wellness accessible to everyone | According to Fitspot co-founder Jonathan Cohn, there is no convenient way to find a physical fitness trainer. Trainers struggle to market themselves and customers find it challenging to connect with trainers and find time to workout. Fitspot is working to change these dynamics by allowing users to connect with trainers to book workouts that are convenient for them, through the Fitspot app. The users choose the activity, date, time and location to meet the trainer, with as little as 90 minutes of advance notice.
What did they do really well? Customer service and hustle.
What can the community help with? Fitspot is actively hiring for marketing positions. If you’re interested, reach out.
— Fitspot —
All trainers are vetted, and of all who apply, only 10% are accepted to the platform as independent contractors. They are required to maintain $1 million in liability insurance and $2 million aggregate. The trainers and the gyms are compensated from the user fees. There are two membership options available: corporate and individual. Corporate clients begin at $199 and individual sessions at $69. Each session is 60 minutes and there is no price variance based on activities or trainers. Individual users can fee split with up to two other users per session. This is handled within the app at the time of the training.
Fitspot currently has 50 corporate clients and is live in three cities: Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Atlanta. There has been 1000 percent growth since January, with $500,000 in revenue. There are plans to launch in 12 additional markets in the next 12 months. Currently Fitspot is only available in iOS, however, the Android app is currently in development.
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Thanks for reading — See you on December 10th!
Love,
Shannon
