rendeevoo
Be spontaneous and have a rendeevoo with someone new at an exceptional bar around London.
- Location
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London,
United Kingdom
Categories: Content & Information Mixed Digital/Non-Digital B2C
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Investment
sought: - £1,810
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Equity
offered: - 0.18%
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Investment
amount: - £1,810
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Valuation
(pre-money): - £1,006,733
Idea
Introduction
rendeevoo is an iOS dating app that brings Londoners together in real life, and with just a few taps.
You must be a 18+ Londoner with an active social profile to get in. We make sure about that with our very own Facebook ‘investigation’ algorithm. If you are social enough, your profile is automatically created using your top five pictures and some basic info.
The app is free to get and use, but to book a rendeevoo you need to pre-order your first cocktail which will wait for you at the bar. It costs £7 and we make our money by charging commission on every booking.
Our bars are all well-known for their exceptional quality, speak-easy atmosphere, and of course their tasty cocktails. We operate in tight capacities in order to maintain high levels of quality, which means we can serve limited number of rendeevoos every week.
Intended impact
Our vision is to bridge the gap between online and real-life flirting.
We want our customers to go out and flirt face to face. We aim to be a brand that people can trust, and we intend to deliver results instead of just providing access to a community or a marketplace.
We think that flirt is an experience best enjoyed with all five senses on alert, and we will advocate that belief while criticizing the effectiveness of online dating.
Substantial accomplishments to date
• Our official beta is now available in the Appstore, after almost 10 months of heavy testing in the Alpha prototype.
• Our audience has doubled in size in both our social spheres, but also in the app itself. We now have 1,000+ users and similar numbers of followers online.
• We have added one more member in our team on a full-time basis. Stan is our CTO as of late February.
• We have made good contacts in the press, and already have been mentioned as one of London’s top-50 startups by foundersgrid.com.
• We’ve partnered up with petalandcycle.co.uk to complement our service by delivering flowers to our users who have booked a rendeevoo
• We want to hire 1-3 apprentices by the end of March, through techcitystars.london with whom we have a great relationship with.
Monetisation strategy
We charge a commission to our participating bars every time a Rendeevoo is booked in their premises. This is a fixed rate not related with referral volumes.
This is our only revenue stream for now, with the plan to add taxi rides as soon as our minimal viable product (MVP) fits the market.
There is also the intent to generate revenue through sponsors operating in neighbouring industries such as alcoholic brands, condoms, and fashion retailers.
Of course, we have also planned our geographical expansion to major European cities as well as New York.
Use of proceeds
**We have secured a follow-up Angel investment of £90,890, this campaign allows you (existing investors) to exercise your pre-emption rights**
With our go-to-market costs already covered, this seed capital will be used to grow the initial business in London and make us ready for further investment.
Our plan is to penetrate London from the roots. We don’t advertise through paid mediums, and we don’t sell any of our users’ data to third parties.
We have laid the foundations for expanding in four European cities as soon as our MVP is in perfect shape.
Our medium-term goal is to raise £400K angel investment by the end of 2015, and expand aggressively on a global scale including New York.
Market
Target market
We target socially active Londoners, aged between 18 and 55, working and/or living within zones 1-3, owners of iOS phones, and with an active Facebook account.
Characteristics of target market
Upper class citizens with £50k income or more, up to date with consumer technologies, and with well-developed social skills.
Most of these individuals are skeptic towards online dating, mostly because they can’t find the value in it. They are used to connect with new people through traditional channels in real life.
Since they view online dating as a last resort, they rarely consider it because their need to connect is often satisfied.
In spite of that, knowing that a safe, private, and convenient tool is out there, they would most likely get it and have it as a good alternative.
Marketing strategy
We feel we are a superior brand with a provocative and witty character, and this is how we will enter the market. We will take advantage of our network of bars to attract our initial users, and kick-off our grassroots strategy.
Guided by a no-ad policy, we aim to be generating quality content, distribute it to a network of influential accounts, and gain exposure through them. Such accounts vary from fashion bloggers to bar associations and they will be fed with relevant content for them (or even sometimes directly tailored content).
We also plan to publish flirt-responsibly.com as our blog in the beginning of March. The content structure has already been defined, and it’s just the creation/curation that has been left.
In the real world we are targeting expat communities and postgrad students through event organisers. We also targeting beauty salons, hairdressers & barbers, and retail shops in an attempt to use their personnel as our brand ambassadors.
Our intention is to maintain a low-profile and avoid ‘loud’ messages. The ecosystem we belong to is socially vibrant and can make a brand like ours known to the mass market.
Competition strategy
Currently we know that our direct competitors have a subscription-based model and they compete on who has the best network-effects. The biggest player is Tinder, but there is also badoo and match. com with high mobile usage levels.
We are aware about a handful of promising apps that are less than 1 year old and show good results already. Pure and Carrot dating are the two most successful.
In London, lovestruck.com enjoys a good presence and has similar users with our target audience. Tablecrowd.com is the most promising new entrant. Both have different models than us.
We anticipate the emergence of competition in our business from new apps, with the same business model as ours. We will defend our position by securing the best bars in town and of course through our solid marketing efforts.