TLabs Showcase on travel startups featuring US-based travel agency and payment plan site TripAnomaly.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
My name is Wilkinson Egwu and my partner is Xiao Wen Lin. We’re both the founders of TripAnomaly.com.
Our site aims to help people travel in a way they’ve never travelled before. My experience includes finance and aviation and Lin comes from a business background.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
We both Invested $10K each into the company to help get it up and running.
What problem are you trying to solve?
We’re trying to solve the hassle, tussle and expense of traveling in a down economy. We want people to be able to travel when they want without breaking the bank in a smart and cost effective way.
Describe the business, core products and services?
TripAnomaly aims to give travellers the opportunity to book travel when they want. We give our clients the ability to book flights through us for just $99.
Once the flight is booked, we’ll put each client on a payment plan to pay off the ticket price. We then offer Travel Assistance that helps each client understand what they’re being charged for by the airlines while monitoring their flights.
So, if a flight is delayed, cancelled or the airline is just plain rude, we help our clients get either the refund they deserve or find other alternatives for them quickly and efficiently.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
Our key customers are the price wary travellers, college students and business travellers.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
Yes
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
The business is travel and our strategy for profitability is quite simple. Before we book a flight for a client, we charge an initial $99 fee which the client must pay.
Once the flight is booked we then charge a small 5% fee to the ticket price. The idea is to help the client and create a cost effective way of paying for the ticket by having him/her pay off the ticket on a payment plan.
We then offer Travel Assistance for $49.95 or Corporate Travel Assistance at different tier prices.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
- Strong experience on management team, 24/7 workaholics, clean and easy to use site free of clutter.
Weaknesses:
- Not having enough funds to grow the business fast.
Opportunities:
- The smart and price conscious traveller
Threats:
- Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak, American Airlines and Spirit Airlines.
Who advised you your idea isn’t going to be successful and why didn’t you listen to them?
We had a WHOLE lot of airline industry and travel execs that said, you can’t and won’t succeed. We didn’t listen to them because they’re still stuck in the old ways of doing things.
Our idea is fresh and most of all innovative. Travellers are sick and tired of paying an arm and a leg for tickets only to be hit with bag and carry-on fees at the airport.
You even have to pay for the freaking bag of peanuts once you get on-board. The majority of airline and travel sites are filled with so much clutter and advertising, so it’s hard to navigate.
You get bombarded with so many things, it’s like jeez. Then the customer service is horrible. People just want to go to a great looking site, click, book, save money and smile…. period. That’s what we’re helping them do.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
12 months from now we’re looking to hit the $500,000 mark… Maybe even more!
NB: TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.
