Q: Describe the business, core products and services in one paragraph
Penroads is a social travel platform that connects travelers by destination and travel dates. People can communicate with anyone using our direct user-to-user chat in real-time to find travel partners to travel together, plan activities or share tips.
Q: Who are your key customers?
Most travellers between the ages of 18-34, with a focus on backpackers.
Q: Who are your key partners?
Travel bloggers, travel forums and hostels.
Q: What business are you most likely to be compared to?
Couchsurfing.
Q: What problem are you trying to solve for your customers?
The primary means for travellers to connect with each other now are via Facebook groups and travel forums (most notably, Thorn Tree Forums by Lonely Planet). They put up posts that state who they are, where they’re going and when they’ll be there.
These posts receive little traction, they are unorganised, and it’s very improbable that they get positive responses that actually turn into travel plans. In other words, a waste of time. But people still persist at it.
Why is that? Because it’s the medium that is immediately accessible.
Penroads was built as an answer to this problem. We put travelers into direct user-to-user connection, and allow them to chat with each other. They can even join a country chat board to mingle with everyone going the same destination.
Q: What problem are you trying to solve for your partners?
It can be difficult and expensive in marketing to travelers. What Penroads provides is a network effect of users who have demonstrated an intent to travel, or at the very least, a high propensity to engage in travel media and content.
Q: What financial support did you have to launch the business?
We’ve raised SGD$75,000. We’re raising our seed round now.
Q: Who validated the idea first – investors or customers?
Customers. Roughly 200+. I spoke to all of them in person!
Q: What is the revenue model and strategy for profitability?
Advertising & Hostel booking.
Q: What is the market opportunity? How scalable is this business?
Penroads is looking to grow hyper-regionally. That is, the traveler’s end point destination should be in Southeast Asia. That puts us at around 98MM annually every year on average.
Q: Competitive analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
We are most likely to be compared to with Couchsurfing whereby we are both platforms designed to help travelers connect with each other and share experiences. However, Penroads is unique in that it is not an accommodation-centered service, it is a platform designed for organic interaction between travelers. Couchsurfing’s success is due to its user base’s immense dedication to hospitality and cultural exchanges as is Penroads. However, Couchsurfing’s success is dwindling as users abandon a site that has grown too wieldy and impersonal. Penroads has the opportunity to capitalize on this outflow of users who seek a forum to share their travel and cultural experiences.
Q: Who are the team members and advisors?
The team is 9 strong right now – comprising of developers and marketers.
Q: Why do you think you are the best people to make this vision happen?
We’re all passionate about travel. But perhaps more importantly, we’re committed to building a service that can potentially change the way travellers communicate. It’s super exciting!
Q: What’s the motivation behind doing this?
It was Harry’s first solo backpacking experience that got him thinking about a way to facilitate meeting fellow travellers and sharing experiences. During a trip to Thailand, Harry (pictured right) initially felt a little out of it all as others around him found it easier to form groups and on his return to Singapore sought to develop build a platform for people to share their experiences.
