Ever travelled to a place so frequently that you wish you had a set of clothes and stuff there and you didn’t have to lug along wherever you go? Well, if you are one of those frequent travellers, a new start-up in Singapore aims to ease your woes by providing a storage service for you for your trips to the city. Packnada was started by two friends, Johnbosco and Jonathan, and wants to be the “cloud storage” for your belongings.
The two founders – leave your stuff with us, say Johnbosco and Jonathan
Here’s their story.
Q: Describe the business, core products and services in one paragraph
Packnada helps frequent travellers to Singapore skip packing and check-in queues by storing their clothes and essentials here. Each time they are in town, travellers will find their essentials waiting at their hotel concierge
ready to be picked up upon check-in. At the end of their trip, they fly home luggage-free. Their essentials are cleaned, stored and ready for their next trip here.
Q: Who are your key customers?
Frequent travellers to Singapore, usually business travellers and medical tourists.
Q: What business are you most likely to be compared to?
We’re cloud storage for your belongings. Some hotels will store clothes on request for their VIPs. There are luggage-shipping services that take your luggage from home to hotel. In comparison, we’re a more comprehensive, affordable service.
Q: What problem are you trying to solve for your customers?
Frequent travel can be tedious and exhausting. According to YouGov Business Travel Research, 59% of travelers are unhappy with business travel. One in five say they would turn down the next job if it requires them to travel often. AirPlus’ International Travel Management Study 2014 reveals that the number one concern for travel managers this year is the health and well-being of their travelers.
By eliminating the process of packing completely, Packnada’s goal is to simplify traveling and to free up time for travelers to focus on the important matters at hand.
Q: What financial support did you have to launch the business?
Packnada is funded by SPRING Singapore’s ACE Startup grant.
Q: Who validated the idea first – investors or customers?
Customers! We did quantitative and qualitative surveys before we even approached SPRING. We’ve spoken to thousands of travelers offline and online. We’ve ambushed many a traveler at airports. Seasoned travelers are accustomed to the inconveniences of travel, but most saw the value in being able to travel with just a passport. When asked, 62% were willing to try the service.
Q: What is the revenue model and strategy for profitability?
Packnada users pay a flat fee of USD$99 per trip that covers laundry, dry cleaning of up to 20 clothes, storage of up to 3 months, and all deliveries.
Q: What is the market opportunity? How scalable is this business?
Singapore’s a great hub which has 5 million business travelers flying in anually, with 61% being repeat travelers. Logistically, we work with established laundry and storage partners to ensure scalability won’t be an issue.
Q: Competitive analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
Competition can come easily as it’s not a hard space to come into. We’re fully utilising first movers advantage to secure strategic partnerships with hotels, airlines, hospitals, and airports. The Packnada platform also ensures users can plan their trips seamlessly, with new features added every day.
Q: Who are the team members and advisors?
Johnbosco and Jonathan are the co-founders. As a team, they’ve successfully cleared all milestones for government funding and took Packnada from idea to MVP product to paying user in under 1 year.
Johnbosco brings 5+ years of business development and marketing experience. He has championed and developed one of the largest global insight study covering an intersection of brand, media and consumer touch points.
Jonathan does technical development with 5 years of experience in web development. He has also managed million dollar budgets and award-winning campaigns for clients such as Unilever, LG, and Pan Pacific Hotels. He’s worked with local and regional markets, across both offline and digital media.
The team is advised by Hitesh Timbadia, investor at BANSEA, and Chairman of Asian Carats, a Supply Chain Management Service provider with more than 20 years of logistics experience.
Q: Why do you think you are the best people to make this vision happen?
There isn’t a team on earth who will put in more blood and sweat to make Packnada a success. We’re working towards a near future where air travel is as simple as hopping onto a plane. We have a clear vision, and we see many, many opportunities to evolve and polish the idea of luggage-free travel.
Q: What’s the motivation behind doing this?
We think travel is more tedious and inconvenient than it has to be. If we can simplify how people travel so it’s as easy as taking a bus, and make being away from home suck a little less, then we’d have achieved our goal.
