Continuing from my post of yesterday….
Tech~Surf~Blog: Tell us about how you participated in the Carlson School MBA class. I assume you did a complete presentation about Flyspy for the students early-on to establish a starting point?
Metcalf: I presented the class with a very detailed look at Flyspy, from high–level concepts to detailed aspects of the business model and technology costs. Remember, the class was going to produce a business plan with an emphasis on IT management. The major points that I hit on were:
• What is Flyspy, what is the problem, and what is the solution.
• Market size and business (revenue) model.
• Understanding the airline industry using a supply-chain metaphor.
• Flyspy’s value to the consumer and value to the airline.
• Future product plans.
• Technology overview and the cost of managing technology.
Tech~Surf~Blog: What was your opinion of the quality of the papers produced by the 10 teams, as well as their PowerPoint presentations in the final class session? Were you impressed by their engagement in the whole process?
Metcalf: Each presentation (business plan) had to be delivered by midnight prior to the final class. I frankly didn’t know what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised when I received 10 business plans via email. Each business plan was roughly 25 pages in length, had a clear executive summary, a detailed course of action, various recommendations, a summary, and references.
After reading the first business plan I thought, “This one is a clear winner.” After reading each business plan, I had the same thought. Every plan was outstanding because each one addressed a different market segment. Half the class had a B2B solution and the other half addressed the B2C segment.
The class presentations were limited to 12 minutes each. Each team came prepared with a PowerPoint presentation making their case as to why their solution was the best one. And all of the teams used an information and technology strategy to frame the problems and solutions. They clearly knew how to start with a strategic vision and drill down into tactical, operational, and financials details.
Was I impressed? Yes! I was overwhelmed by the thoroughness of their business plans and the clarity of their presentations. I would add any one of the students to my team in a heartbeat.
Tech~Surf~Blog: What ideas presented by the teams really jumped out at you? Are you likely to adopt some of them?
Metcalf: Truthfully, most of the ideas they presented had never occurred to me. Very few of the students had an IT background, so their ideas came from areas they were familiar with. A few ideas were truly novel – combining what Flyspy does with another product or service to yield a solution that’s more powerful than either one….i.e., 1 + 1 = 3.
There are three ideas that we’ll adopt right away. The first idea is a UI (user interface) improvement that increases repeat traffic. The second idea addresses “buyer’s remorse.” It’s a solution that provides a different visualization of the flight and fare data that gives the end-user a comfort level that they have seen all of their options. The third idea involves frequent flyer information.
Tech~Surf~Blog: Tell us about the Flyspy partnership deals you announced at the final class session.
Metcalf: I announced a partnership with a data provider and a few advertising firms. Locking in a data provider is extremely important. If you look at a single Flyspy chart, you’ll see 30 data points for each of the 7 trip lengths. It takes 210 data points to make a complete Flyspy chart. Each data point represents a unique departure and return date combination. If you were to collect this data manually, using Expedia, Orbitz, or Travelocity, you would have to do 210 searches. You can see that it takes a lot of data to support the Flyspy user interface. Our data provider thinks that Flyspy is the future of searching for flights and fares.
Tech~Surf~Blog: What was the decision process you and the instructor used in selecting the winning team in this competition?
Metcalf: Nelson Granados and I selected a team whose idea was relevant, well researched, and fit into the existing Flyspy IT framework without a lot of additional software development. We picked three finalists that we felt met our criteria. In the end, we picked a team that presented a solid business case in a paper that was extremely well researched and filled with details. They didn’t miss a beat. It was one of the finest industry-related papers I’ve seen. I can’t say enough about the team, how well they must have worked together, and the quality of the final product.
As mentioned previously, Nelson is now teaching at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. This fall, I will be presenting Flyspy as a case study to another round of MBA students. Hopefully, they will have a different perspective on the industry and some more innovative ideas will emerge.
Tech~Surf~Blog: Once you receive your greatly anticipated seed-stage funding, what are some of the first things you’ll do? How will the funds be used?
Metcalf: There are two big areas that we’ll address: 1) turning the site from a “proof of concept” into a world-class search engine, and 2) hiring business development people. We need to get the base technology completed as soon as we can. And we also need to build relationships that will bring revenue in the door as well.
Tech~Surf~Blog: Anything else you want to leave with us regarding Flyspy, Robert – your plans, your vision, any thoughts about the process of getting funded and launched, hopefully here in Minnesota?
Metcalf: I never in a hundred years would have thought that changing an industry – if you can call it that – would be this difficult. My initial question of “why is this so difficult?” has, in one sense, changed my life. I know that I’ve made the airfare search process immeasurably easier for tens-of-thousands of travelers already, and that gives me a great deal of satisfaction.
The short-term plans are to launch the site, build a public relations campaign, and see millions of consumers use the site. The long-term will take care of itself if we pay attention to the customer and the details of running the business. My vision is balancing the process of keeping the site easy-to-use while we add more features.
Thanks for the questions, Graeme. I’ve truly enjoyed answering them.
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Well, that’s it, folks. I’ll be continuing to follow this developing story closely. In fact, I know more news will be coming very soon. So, stay tuned to your handy-dandy Tech~Surf~Blog channel for all the updates…. (Or, if you haven’t yet, you can subscribe via the RSS or email feed icons near the upper right.)
cheers,
gt
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