OutTrippin is a travel marketplace targeting the $89 billion adventure tourism sector by solving the trust and information gap in booking unique local experiences. The deck outlines a business model where travel bloggers act as curators and distribution channels, earning a 5% commission on sales while the platform retains 15%. With an initial $55,000 raised from Start-up Chile and internal sources, the company reported $6,105 in sales shortly after its January 2013 launch. The current ask is a modest $100,000 to scale product development and customer acquisition. While the deck succeeds in cl…
Key takeaways
- The company identifies adventure tourism as an $89 billion worldwide market opportunity on slide 2.
- OutTrippin positions itself against 'office-bound' experts in Palo Alto, emphasizing real-world expertise on slide 2.
- The platform aims to solve three core problems: lack of trust in local operators, information overload, and uncertain quality (slide 3).
- The user journey is simplified into a four-click booking process using PayPal for payments, as shown on slide 4.
- Traction includes $6,105 in sales recorded since the launch on January 18th, 2013 (slide 5).
- The business model utilizes a 20% total commission, split between OutTrippin (15%) and the referring travel blogger (5%), per slide 5.
- The company has already secured 194 bloggers with a combined monthly web traffic of 8.5 million (slide 5).
- The founders are seeking $100,000 to focus on product and customer acquisition, following a $40,000 seed round from Start-up Chile (slide 6).
OutTrippin Pitch Deck Analysis
OutTrippin is a niche travel marketplace that attempts to bridge the gap between high-intent adventure travelers and local tour operators. By using travel bloggers as the intermediary for both curation and distribution, the company seeks to build a low-overhead marketplace. The deck is concise, focusing on the mechanics of the platform and early traction metrics rather than long-term vision or deep technical moats.
Slide 1: Cover Page
The cover slide introduces the brand name OutTrippin with the tagline "Boring can BUGGER off." It lists Kunal Kalro as the CEO and provides a direct contact email. The visual theme is consistent with the travel and adventure industry, featuring stylized mountains and a compass-like logo. It sets a casual, adventurous tone for the presentation.
Slide 2: The OutTrippin Run Down
This slide serves as an executive summary, broken into five distinct categories: What, Why, Who, Market, and Team. What: A collection of bookable trips handpicked by experts. Why: A jab at Silicon Valley-based travel companies, stating that real experts are out in the world, not in Palo Alto offices. Who: Time-poor travelers seeking unique experiences. Market: The adventure tourism market is cited at $89 billion worldwide. Team: Described vaguely as three travelers from three different continents. This slide is effective at setting the stage but fails to establish the professional credibility of the founding team.
Slide 3: Opportunity
The problem statement is framed as the difficulty of booking unique trips online. The founders categorize the friction into three buckets: Trust (vetting local operators), Information (filtering through noise or finding missing data), and Quality (verifying the experience). By highlighting these three areas, the company justifies its existence as a curation layer that adds value through verification.
Slide 4: Tech
The "Tech" slide is essentially a user flow diagram. It promises a "4 clicks to Galapagos Islands" experience. The steps are: 1. Choose a trip based on expert recommendation; 2. Choose dates and book; 3. Confirm checkout; 4. Make payment via PayPal. The screenshots show a functional UI with trip prices ranging from $279 for a foodie tour to $1,849 for a multi-country vacation. The reliance on PayPal suggests a standard e-commerce backend rather than a proprietary booking engine.
Slide 5: Milestones
This is the strongest slide in the deck, providing hard numbers on traction and the business model. The company reports 20 trips currently online and $6,105 in sales since launching on January 18th, 2013. The most compelling metric is the 194 bloggers signed up, representing a combined monthly traffic of 8.5 million. The Margin Breakdown is also clearly defined: 80% to the operator, 15% to OutTrippin, and 5% to the blogger. This shows a clear path to revenue and a scalable incentive structure for their distribution partners.
Slide 6: Financials
The financial slide details the capital history and the current requirement. The company previously raised $55,000 ($40k from Start-up Chile and $15k from friends/family). They are now seeking $100,000. The intended use of funds is split between Talent (Developers, Community Management, Customer Acquisition, Customer Service) and Misc (Marketing, Tech, Travel). The ask is relatively small, suggesting a pre-seed or early seed stage intended to reach a specific product milestone rather than a full-scale market blitz.
Slide 7: Thank You
The final slide is a simple "Thank You" featuring a photo of a man (presumably the CEO) in a casual setting. It lacks a call to action or a repeat of the contact information, which is a missed opportunity to reinforce the next steps for an investor.
What Works in This Deck
Clear Business Model: The 80/15/5 split is easy to understand and explains exactly how everyone in the ecosystem gets paid. · Distribution Strategy: Leveraging bloggers to solve the customer acquisition cost (CAC) problem is a smart move for a low-capital startup. Citing the 8.5 million monthly traffic reach gives the investor a sense of the potential top-of-funnel volume. · Specific Traction: Providing an exact launch date (Jan 18, 2013) and an exact sales figure ($6,105) adds authenticity to the pitch.
What Is Missing
Team Pedigree: The deck mentions "3 travelers," but travel experience does not necessarily translate to the ability to build a scalable tech company. Investors need to know if the team has experience in software engineering, marketplace operations, or digital marketing. · Competitive Landscape: While they mention "Palo Alto offices," they do not name specific competitors like Airbnb Experiences (which was emerging around this time), Viator, or GetYourGuide. A slide explaining how they win against these giants is absent. · Growth Projections: There are no financial forecasts. While early-stage projections are often guesses, they signal the founder's ambition and understanding of the market's scale. · Retention and LTV: There is no mention of how they plan to keep travelers coming back to the platform once they have discovered a blogger or a tour operator.
What a Founder Should Copy
The "Run Down" Slide: Slide 2 is an excellent way to summarize the entire business in under 60 seconds. It covers the basics and allows the rest of the deck to dive deeper into the "how." · Visualizing the User Journey: Slide 4 does a great job of making the product feel real. Instead of explaining the code, it shows the result: a simple, four-step booking process. · The Margin Breakdown: Marketplace founders should always include a slide like Slide 5. It removes any ambiguity about the take-rate and the incentives for third-party partners.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the primary problem OutTrippin is trying to solve?
- According to slide 3, OutTrippin addresses the difficulty of booking 'out of the ordinary' trips online. They identify three specific pain points: Trust (difficulty vetting local operators), Information (either too much or too little data), and Quality (no reliable way to verify the standard of the experience before booking).
- How does OutTrippin acquire customers and supply?
- The strategy relies heavily on travel bloggers. Slide 5 notes that 194 bloggers are signed up to create or recommend trips. These bloggers provide a built-in audience of 8.5 million monthly visitors, effectively serving as both the curation layer for the supply and the primary marketing channel for demand.
- What are the unit economics of a trip booking on this platform?
- Slide 5 provides a clear margin breakdown. For every booking, the local tour operator receives 80% of the price. The remaining 20% is the platform's take, which is further split: OutTrippin keeps 15%, and the travel blogger who recommended the trip receives a 5% commission.
- How much capital has the company raised and what is the current ask?
- Slide 6 states the company received a $40,000 seed round from Start-up Chile in late 2011, plus $15,000 from founders, family, and friends. They are currently seeking $100,000 to invest in product development and customer acquisition.
- Who are the founders of OutTrippin?
- The deck is remarkably thin on team details. Slide 2 mentions '3 travelers from 3 different continents,' but provides no names or resumes. The cover slide identifies Kunal Kalro as the CEO, but his specific background or previous successes are not detailed anywhere in the provided slides.
