Spotlas

Idea

Introduction

Spotlas is the social network revolutionising the way people discover, choose & experience spots all over the world.

In the age of consumer profiling and targeted ads the value that people place on authenticity has skyrocketed with 92% of consumers valuing recommendations from friends and family over ads. Instagram has successfully digitalised and monetised these word of mouth recommendations for products, and now Spotlas is doing it for locations.

Spotlas enables users to follow friends, family, bloggers, influencers, celebrities, travellers & locals to discover all their recommendations for spots around the world – from cafes, restaurants, bars and nightclubs to hotels, museums, shops and beaches... Any spot. Any occasion. Anywhere in the world.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Spotlas first launched on iOS in August 2020 immediately highlighting the universal dissatisfaction with the available location discovery solutions and the universal demand for a platform of Spotlas' nature...

Since the platform's soft launch, with £0 spent on marketing, Spotlas has already grown organically to 11,000+ users with 9,000+ recommendations posted for 6,500+ spots in over 100 countries around the world.

Spotlas has been featured by major publications including Forbes, GQ, Web Summit, Sky and the BBC, however none as prestigious as the app being selected by Apple for the App Store's Today Tab...

The overwhelming response to Spotlas' soft launch gave the team full confidence to invest heavily in the development of Spotlas Version 2 which just hit the app store. Version 2 is the result of extensive user feedback, deep behavioural analytics, obsessive design and relentless product development – all geared towards giving Spotlas users the best possible experience finding the spots for them no matter what the occasion or where they are in the world.

Spotlas' pursuit of smart money has been incredibly successful. In addition to founding investor Eric Dier, high profile angels include Dele Alli, Jan Vertonghen, Ben Davies, Joe Gomez, Kyle Walker-Peters, Matt Doherty, Mousa Dembélé and Christian Eriksen. Access to their extensive commercial networks, global reach and collective social following of over 15 million people will be an invaluable asset to Spotlas.

Monetisation strategy

Spotlas is a social network by nature however it is not bound by the traditional social media monetisation models; data and advertising. The problem that Spotlas solves will position us at the heart of the £3.4 trillion hospitality industry with multiple clear and easily activated revenue streams at our disposal which in no way infringe upon our users' experience but rather enhance and extend it.

First and foremost by conquering restaurant and hotel customers' point of discovery and decision – and leveraging this position upstream of the incumbent booking giants – Spotlas aims to ambush the £376 billion online booking industry in 3 stages...

1. Affiliate Programmes | 25-40% Booking Commission

2. Native Bookings | 100% Booking Commission

3. End-to-end Booking Service | £100+ Monthly Subscriptions

Although the booking industry is our primary focus due to its size and accessibility, it is just one of many potential future revenue streams that Spotlas is positioned to capitalise on:

Use of proceeds

Now that the core Spotlas experience has been perfected, it is time to put it into as many hands as possible. This does not mean simply and crudely investing in paid advertising but rather coordinating Spotlas' marketing initiatives with it's product development for a double-edged user growth offensive focused on maximising the naturally occurring network effects of Spotlas.

We plan to activate our marketing initiatives such as our Spotter Programme, Spot Meets and Digital Ads in a highly targeted way both demographically and geographically in order to build dense social networks in the travel and cultural capitals of the world, starting with London.

We have designed our product development roadmap to facilitate the growth of these networks with the launch of our Android and Web Apps, as well as network onboarding features like Share and Deals. Therefore when our marketing initiatives drive users into the platform those users won't be coming alone – they will bring their friends, family and followers with them.