STARTUP STAGE: Connect-EZ provides in-app calling for travelers

What is your 30-second pitch to investors?

Connect-EZ enables travelers to connect directly to airlines’ call centers without the need to leave the app or use expensive phone minutes. Everything is done seamlessly with the click of a button from within the airline’s app, while keeping costs low for both the customer and airline.

 Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

Connect-EZ is a telephony service that allows users to make and receive voice calls by registering with their choice of email address, without necessitating the use of a SIM card or number. The traveler can make free voice calls to an airline’s call center from within the airline’s mobile app from any data connection globally.

This creates a far superior customer experience to manually dialing numbers from the keypad using expensive phone minutes, especially while traveling abroad. The other aspect is cost optimization by getting rid of toll-free numbers completely. The technology is designed to be user-friendly and to easily integrate with existing systems, with a focus on reliability and security. Average deployment and testing takes less than a week. 

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.

Strengths: Our platform is seamless, user-friendly, reliable and secure, and we offer competitive packages for businesses of all sizes. Our extensive tech industry experience fuels creative solutions and outstanding customer support. 

Weaknesses: As a startup, we don’t have the same level of brand recognition or market presence as larger competitors. 

Opportunities: The travel industry is constantly evolving, and our company has the potential to grow along with it by offering innovative and in-demand solutions. Ease-of-use and cost optimization are going to be major differentiators in the future, and we are positioned to address that. 

Threats: There may be competition from other telephony providers in the travel industry, and the market could be affected by external factors such as economic downturns or shifts in consumer behavior. 

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and industry perspective?

From the customer perspective, I heard people complain about being stuck abroad and having to call expensive international numbers for assistance. We aim to make it easier and more convenient for travelers to communicate with businesses while on the go. This can include booking and reservation inquiries, customer service issues and other types of communication. 

From the industry perspective, airlines have to provide toll-free numbers (sometimes internationally) and are charged by the minute every time a customer calls. Calling via our platform ends up being almost 70% to 80% cheaper for businesses. In addition, our service improves app engagement and allows the airline to control the look and feel of the interaction. In this way, Connect-EZ helps businesses reduce costs and increase efficiency, leading to improved customer satisfaction and potentially increased sales.

So you’ve got the product, now how will you get lots of customers?

We are considering a few possible strategies to attract customers to our telephony solution:

• Partnering with travel-industry businesses and service providers to offer our solution as an added value for their customers 

• Advertising and marketing our solution through targeted campaigns, as well as online and offline marketing efforts

•  Leveraging word of mouth marketing by providing excellent customer service and encouraging satisfied customers to spread the word about our solution.
  
  

Tell us what process you’ve gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market. 

We have conducted market research and gathered feedback from businesses and consumers in the travel and customer-support industry to identify the need for our telephony solution. This includes surveying businesses about their current communication challenges and collecting feedback from customers about their communication needs while traveling.

Based on this research, we believe there is a significant need for an easy-to-use and cost-effective telephony solution in the travel industry, and we believe our solution addresses this need. We signed an agreement in December with Caribbean Airlines to provide in-app calling services for its customers. 

How and when will you make money?

We currently make money by providing telephony/voice-calling services to airlines. We generate revenue by charging businesses a subscription fee for access to our platform and by offering support and deployment services. 

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team?

The founding team has extensive experience in the internet, telephony and data services sector. We have consulted for startups for almost a decade now. Our involvement spans from high-speed, cross-country internet rollouts, cell phone tech (hardware and software) upgrades, migrations and so forth. 

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?

The founders understand that knowledge work is completely different from the industrial age, and we focus on deliverables instead of working hours. We are a work-from-anywhere company and use standardized tests to screen job candidates. These tests are quite basic but enable a fair assessment of the candidate’s aptitude for getting the work done, and we base our hiring decisions on these tests rather than subjective interviews. 

What’s been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

We are in the people-management business, and the right kind of people for the job are difficult to find. However, I think the recent tech downturn will allow us to quickly hire the right kind of people. 

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact - so why are you going to be one of lucky ones?

All startups face a tough time making an impact. That’s mostly due to the thinking that formal education translates well to the entrepreneurship domain. I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Additionally, there is usually no formal education to become an entrepreneur. One needs good mentors and preparation. 

Also, the markets are also disjointed; what may work in one segment might not work in another. Remembering the adage “Luck favors the prepared mind,” we keep trying, experimenting and exploring. 

A year from now, what state do you think your startup will be in?

We’re focused on increasing the number of customers from the travel industry and expanding to banking, as well as ride-sharing/delivery apps. 

What is your end-game? (Going public, acquisition, growing and staying private, etc).

It’s too soon to say currently. I think the main thing would be to grow for the next few years and then maybe go public.