STARTUP STAGE: NaviSavi is an app for sharing short-form travel videos

NaviSavi

Founded in June 2019, NaviSavi is an app for individuals and businesses to share videos of 30 seconds or less about a destination or experience.

The app takes commission from bookings and plans to expand into content licensing with businesses, tourism boards and destination marketing organizations.

What is your 30-second pitch to investors? 

NaviSavi is a short-form video app for travel, where users and businesses post and share unedited clips, shot only from a smartphone, to show the most authentic experience. We sort through the clutter of clips to verify all the information is correct and the videos fit our quick, to-the-point format.

Videos are all 30 seconds or less, and we accept only vertical videos, filter free and no selfies. There are no photos, no reviews and no professional content, just honest videos of places to recommend in each city. Those making submissions get paid for posting travel videos - new and old. 

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

NaviSavi is a global community of trust and transparency that brings something completely new to the travel industry for businesses and consumers alike and all done through honest, affordable video content. 

We create a 360-degree travel experience - from trip planning, itinerary building, in-destination searches, and immediate booking directly with the business. Travelers can even share recommendations of their own city’s local hotspots or their latest vacation’s iconic landmarks halfway around the world. 

Since we only allow user-generated content on the platform, even in our advertising, every business and user search query is on an equal playing field for seeing the experience. 

From a technology standpoint, we are automating our video content system with artificial intelligence to expedite the approval process, along with developing an algorithm to rank videos by popularity, watch time and total views and saves. This allows the "must-see" businesses or attractions in a location to be featured organically, without having to pay for the top placement. 

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

• Strengths: short-form video content consumers love; community built on trust and positivity above all else; authentic and verified user-generated content; full-service platform for travel planning; mutually beneficial partnership opportunities between users and businesses; head-turning brand personality and style; young and motivated team working internationally.
• Weaknesses: uploading and storing high-quality video content to serve users at the speed of popular social platforms; lack of content and users on the app since we are currently invite-only; travel landscape in regards to COVID-19 safety regulations and/or limited capacity by location, which is constantly changing; lack of funding. 
• Opportunities: travel boom in anticipation of a global reopening; unique angle combining user-generated video content and all-in-one travel planning; young team with tried and true industry experience; global community where users and businesses stand on equal footing; likelihood to become a competitive disruptor in travel, tourism, technology and entertainment industries; cash rewards opportunities incentivize users to create content that’s quick and easy.
• Threats: established travel companies adding videos to their platforms; social media companies targeting travel; COVID-19 restrictions different by location; potential users staying in comfort zone and choosing online travel agencies/providers already established in the industry.

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

Users make travel decisions based on manipulated photos and reviews that are oftentimes misleading when compared to the actual experience. Friend and family recommendations are often incomplete and scattered when it comes to the information details. We hold authenticity to the highest standard, so travelers know exactly what they’re getting into and make quick decisions with confidence.

Online travel agencies/providers charge a steep commission fee for bookings when acting as the middleman. We offer in-app booking so users can support businesses directly, for a fraction of the cost, helping them as they come off the pandemic. NaviSavi looks to expand into content licensing to help businesses, tourism boards and destination marketing organizations access mass user-generated content quickly and easily for on- and off- platform marketing and advertising needs, in return generating additional revenue for our users and encouraging them to upload the best content.

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

We incentivize users to post content and invite friends by offering cash rewards that can be redeemed directly from the app. Our invite-only position means our users are travelers by nature and creates an exclusive buzz, although we openly encourage anyone to join our community. As a social media/travel planning hybrid, we expect an influx of users itching to get back to travel as we near the end of COVID-19 restrictions. The barrier to entry to participate is minimal, and only requires a phone that shoots video. Users don’t need a following, video or editing experience, or even travel outside their city to get paid or participate.

Additional opportunities including influencers, street teams, partnerships and celebrity friends that will assist in generating a following. NaviSavi already has 100+ influencers on the app.

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 been seeing a huge disconnect between the promotional pictures, videos and reviews in travel versus the real experience. With video content becoming the new norm, and readily accessible to most, this was a no-brainer for where the travel market should be going next. 

We are gearing our marketing efforts toward 18- to 39-year-old consumers, but we see it headed past just content creators, travelers and social media enthusiasts. The travel and tourism industry is a multi-trillion dollar market ripe for disruption and of that we feel our addressable market approaches $1 trillion of impact. Capturing even 1% of that is substantial.

How and when will you make money? 

The app is free for users, so our revenue model depends mostly on subscription models for businesses interested in directly controlling their presence on NaviSavi. We plan to charge a small commission fee between users and businesses when immediate bookings are made through the app, but at a lower rate than our competitors.

The app’s main feed will feature licensed advertising, and all video clip content will be user-generated. Promotional opportunities through sponsored clips and featured cities will also be included on the homepage.

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

Sally Bunnell, founder and CEO, has almost 100 countries stamped on her passport. As a senior vice president at a record lable for over 15 years, Sally has spent her career creating and marketing video content for millennials, Gen X and Z, for influential artists and brands around the world.        

David Pears, CTO, is a former artist manager and veteran of the creative industries, with 15 years of experience in senior management of both the television and music businesses. David retrained as a software developer and has spent the last three years focusing solely on mobile, cross- platform app development.

We are also anxiously awaiting to announce a few other key team members shortly.

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?

Our organization prides itself in staying positive and transparent from the top down, where all ideas are welcome and thoughtfully considered regardless of merit, position or experience. As a young team with a long road ahead of us, we value all the help we can get and believe relationships between people are always bigger than just work.

As an equal opportunity employer and global community, NaviSavi does not make hiring decisions based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, creed and/or color. We are founded by a woman traveler who works to give opportunities to everyone she meets. In addition, we are truly a company of the world and our team reflects that. 

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

COVID-19 delayed our initial launch by a year, although we now see that as a blessing in disguise. As a service that relies on travel and tourism, we’re optimistic about the landscape in the near future and will make the best business decisions in response to how events unfold.

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

We want to build our audience naturally, and while we invite any and all to join us, we know the people who do find us will want to stay for good. Our goal is to provide all travelers with the real experience before they leave for their trips and to facilitate a community that encourages respect, trust and positivity to all parties. People always find comfort in the simple things, and traveling with NaviSavi is easy, affordable and fun.

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

A good one. As long as people travel and consume video content, there is no reason for us to not stick around for the long-haul. 

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

Our goal is to keep this community together as a whole as we grow and with the best interests of our users at heart. We want NaviSavi to be considered a basis of trust and our team plans to grow that through like-minded company values and investment opportunities, even by allowing our users to participate in owning a piece of NaviSavi.