STARTUP STAGE: SkipQ is an app for airport retail and restaurant services

What is your 30-second pitch to investors?

SkipQ is a deep tech, travel retail, mobile app where airport vendors and services around the world are merged on a single platform. We are a global, travel retail marketplace.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

At SkipQ, technology is vital to our company’s success. With AI, online human behavior prediction, knowing when, why and for what price, we work hard to determine when a customer/passenger is willing to hit the “Buy” or “Purchase” button. Such data provides our suppliers tremendous knowledge of knowing the details of when, what frequency and what quantity of services and merchandise can be sold.

SkipQ positions itself as a direct link between airport travel retail shops/services and the consumers/passengers. On one side, we help our business partners gain exposure of their products regardless of where the person is flying from and traveling to.

At the same time, we offer our customers the ability to avoid frustration at airports, with options for advance  purchases of desired products through SkipQ. We are also proud that our app will offer communication in the native language of users.

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

Starting with threats, we see it in the extent of the mission. From our research, we have not found anyone that has ever tried to do something like SkipQ. This can be seen as a threat because there are so many unknowns; be it from technology, to partnerships, to simply running such a business.

However, on the flip side, this presents a tremendous opportunity. To be the first to drive such a project successfully is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Each year tens and thousands of millions travel by plane. We are not looking to get all these travelers onboard; we are shooting for 1%. That’s enough for us. Being humble and understanding that not everything belongs to us, together with our experienced and international core team is a tremendous strength. And just like before, the other side of this statement is our weakness; we are experienced but not experienced enough. Going global means we are dealing with different cultures, people and habits. This learning curve is our weakness, but we feel it's easily corrected by our dedication and determination to listen, learn and be inclusive.

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

Studies have shown that people are often faced with the following challenges when trying to shop at airports: not enough time, long queues, things are too expensive, can’t find the store/products, unhelpful staff and poor signage. Having a mobile app with discounted prices tackles these topics right off the bat. You can pre-order in advance, avoid long queues and simply pick up and go.

Discounted prices offer people more chances to spend their money because it makes items more affordable. UX/UI addresses the challenges of poor signage, locating products and unhelpful staff. The industry experiences challenges of window shoppers, people rushing/passing by, merchandise staying on shelves and challenging in-person situations. SkipQ offers the industry, airport vendors and stores another venue, another channel of visibility, to attract and sell their products to people worldwide. SkipQ provides them with a platform for advertising and an ability to know in advance how much merchandise is being sold, even before someone steps into the airport.

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

Customer acquisition at SkipQ is happening through travel entities such as OTAs, bricks and mortar travel companies, big consolidators, wholesalers and other travel corporate entities.

Tell us what process you’ve gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

The idea came when as a frequent traveler, passing through airports of all sizes, I often experienced long queues and/or lack of time to browse and shop around. I had an idea for a solution - a single platform. This idea was soon supported by reading official studies, particularly those conducted yearly at more than 300 international airports around the world.

Diving deeper in the airport setup, I often discovered similarities regardless of the continent. Furthermore, when I travel internationally, like so many other travelers, I very often have at least one stop.  At a minimum, this means I have to download three different airport apps (departure, stopover and arrival airport). I felt this didn’t make any sense. I knew there had to be a better solution and SkipQ was formed.

As mentioned, the market share we want to capture is 1%. In the U.S. only 20% of passengers who travel by air decide to spend money at airports. The average amount they spent is around $140. In 2019, there was almost 1 billion passengers in the U.S. This means that 80% of people do not spend any money at all. Today, we take 1% of those 80%, multiply by $140 (for the U.S. only) and we are happy. Tomorrow, we tackle the rest of the world.

How and when will you make money?

We have a commission-based model where for each sold item through our app, SkipQ receives a percentage. We’ll start making money when we sell our first product.

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

The founding members have been part of previous successful startups, had business exits, were part of a core team bringing a company on to NASDAQ and hold high-level positions in global companies.

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion with your business?

Absolutely. Diversity is a given with all co-founders. Our team includes a female and male from India, a male from the U.K. living in Canada, and a Slovenian male living in the U.S.

Within the first full year of being live, SkipQ’s plans are to incorporate into its platform “add-ons” for people with disabilities. We will partner (where available) with businesses, which will bring merchandise to people while they are waiting at airports.

And in the future as we grow, hiring and bringing onboard smart and committed individuals who represent people from all ethnic, social, economic, age and gender identifying backgrounds is expected. This is inherent in SkipQ’s leadership, and we believe it is the best way to create a positive and impactful difference at work, within the industry and in our global neighbourhood.

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

I believe there are two challenging components when starting a company. First was talking with potential business partners, which we needed for operational reasons. For example, dealing with global merchant processors and secondly, potential business partners for our inventory.

Recently, I read an article about how a major duty-free chain lost more than $38 billion of potential sales due to the very challenges SkipQ is addressing. However, they see SkipQ as a potential threat and are very reluctant about a business collaboration. The understanding and comprehension that no single player in travel retail is able to capture the entire market is missing. I wish there was more space for collaboration and an understanding that SkipQ can act as an important additional revenue source.

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

We are not the classic travel startup. Our niche is travel retail on a global scale. We are offering to connect the parts of this enormous puzzle!

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

We believe that SkipQ will be experiencing mammoth expansion.

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

The vision is to remain a key stakeholder in the industry as a global trendsetter. As people adopted the word “Google” as part of their daily vocabulary, perhaps while traveling people will one day simply say “I just SkipQed”.