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Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

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Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#11

Post by a13n »

Hey Blaine! Congrats on your launch.

My co-founder Sarah and I just moved from SF to travel the world while we bootstrap our startup, Canny. I'm also a huge fan of products like Shyp, Instacart, Prime Now, and Gobble that let you trade money for time. I think I could be your target customer.

However, $210 sounds pretty darn expensive for HK. I just went there last Nov. It didn't take much research at all to figure out how to get the 2 of us downtown on the bus for $40-50. The immigration process was smooth.

Maybe I haven't felt the pain point you describe, or maybe I'm not wealthy/spendy enough to be your target customer.

My feedback for you would be to work on crafting a story that sounds like "oh man, that's a life saver" rather than "save a few hours". Or maybe be more obvious that your product is just for the very wealthy and business travelers - like a high end credit card or something?

Just my 2 cents, hope it was useful. Best of luck!

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#12

Post by tintor »

JimDabell wrote: post #7

One of the first things I do when I arrive in a new country is pick up a local SIM card so I can use my phone without roaming charges. Sometimes this is nice and simple where you just walk to a booth in the airport and pick one up, other times it's a real hassle, having to hunt around for a local shop and fill in personal information on sign-up. Have you considered providing local SIM cards as part of your service?

Or just use Google's Project Fi with no roaming charges (if you are from US).

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#13

Post by mdekkers »

refrigerator wrote: post #2

Looks interesting! Out of curiosity, how do you guys actually expedite clients through immigration/customs/security? Do airports really let you do this?

All the quick quotes I have requested so far exclude fast track security and immigration, without an obvious way to add this service (USA, EU) and they run around $300 - which is a lot of money for a "meet and greet", and essentially have someone carry your bags for you, only to still be queuing up.

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#14

Post by roywiggins »

wbeckler wrote: post #5

If it's possible to pay more to avoid the hassle that the other 99% have to deal with, then there is even less incentive for elites to rein in the unnecessary hassle. I'm sure the 1% will love it, but due to the political calculus, your success will make the world a worse place.

The real elites fly on their own planes, are met on the tarmac by immigration/customs, and probably never have to step foot inside a terminal with everyone else.

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#16

Post by a13n »

a13n wrote: post #11

Hey Blaine! Congrats on your launch. My co-founder Sarah and I just moved from SF to travel the world while we bootstrap our startup, Canny. I'm also a huge fan of products like Shyp, Instacart, Prime Now, and Gobble that let you trade money for time. I think I could be your target customer. However, $210 sounds pretty darn expensive for HK. I just went there last Nov. It didn't take much research at all to figure ou…

While I'm here, another concern I'd have is stickiness.

With Gobble I'll happily pay a weekly subscription and make dinner all the time. With Solve, most people only travel a few times a year.

Maybe this reinforces that Solve is more for (frequent) biz travelers, where it would be stickier.

I have a few friends who are management consultants who fly literally every week, their companies might pay $200 for them to save a few hours. It's probably easier to charge a fortune 500 a few hundred bucks per employee than it is individuals. Worth noting that it's US-only travel though.

It's kinda like when people started expensing Ubers from the airport rather than taxis.

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#17

Post by JimDabell »

tintor wrote: post #12
JimDabell wrote: post #7

One of the first things I do when I arrive in a new country is pick up a local SIM card so I can use my phone without roaming charges. Sometimes this is nice and simple where you just walk to a booth in the airport and pick one up, other times it's a real hassle, having to hunt around for a local shop and fill in personal information on sign-up. Have you considered providing local SIM cards as part of your service?

Or just use Google's Project Fi with no roaming charges (if you are from US).

From what I hear, Fi is by no means perfect, it's only available for a few phone models, and I'm not from the USA anyway.

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#18

Post by FLUX-YOU »

What are you using to coordinate with your staff that actually meet customers? Do you have a mobile app or an internal website they use for this?

Same questions for customers: Agents could acknowledge that they are there and waiting (with the customer's desired name/special request). It could also function as a customer support interface as well as providing the support phone number.

This seems like it would be very attractive for business-to-business with traveling employees as well.

Good luck!

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#19

Post by shawnsheikh »

mdekkers wrote: post #13
refrigerator wrote: post #2

Looks interesting! Out of curiosity, how do you guys actually expedite clients through immigration/customs/security? Do airports really let you do this?

All the quick quotes I have requested so far exclude fast track security and immigration, without an obvious way to add this service (USA, EU) and they run around $300 - which is a lot of money for a "meet and greet", and essentially have someone carry your bags for you, only to still be queuing up.

Hey there! We're still working on the wording and how we're crafting the message, but where we say we include Fast Track Immigrations and Customs we have access to a dedicated fast track line or the diplomat line. For airports where it says does not include, we usually have an expedited immigrations/customs. Another agent will go stand in line a head of time and you can cut in with them, or they'll know the immigration officer and simply walk you to the front. It's true for all airports we service except for the US airports.

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#20

Post by shawnsheikh »

ck_one wrote: post #4

Can you eloborate on what "fast track immigration" means? How can you get your customers faster through immigration?

Exactly what tintor is saying. We have access to special lanes including fast track lines, pilot/crew lanes, or the diplomat lines. In other cases, our agents are able to simply walk travels to the front of the immigrations/customs lines.
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