Savvy Navvy · navigation app for boats
Include 12 months of the app with new boats, paid for by the boat maker
Founder says it feeds a consumer-to-manufacturer flywheel; no numbers
What they did
What happened
In their words
Why He Crowdfunded Millions Instead of Raising VC — Jelte Liebrand, Savvy Navvy
David BarnardI do want to have you talk a little bit more about the flywheel aspect of it. So with the CarPlay in these new pontoon boats, the announcement that just came out yesterday, when the podcast airs, is there a bundle situation, or do they promote Savvy Navy as like the ultimate way to get navigation? What does that actually look like and how does that flywheel work?
Jelte LiebrandYeah. It's a bundle, and it slightly depends on the models. And we're obviously talking to other people as well. So it's a wide range of opportunities here, so either it is a case of, well, you're picking the high end of this pontoon boat, it comes with 12 months of Savvy Navvy. And so, ultimately, the manufacturer pays us for QR code or whatever it might be which touches on other routes to market, I'll get back to in a second as well, and so it's bundled effectively with the boat. In other cases, it might be a case where an extended trial is bundled with the boat. In the US, we have a freemium model. Outside of the US, we don't, which is actually slightly unique. We have two different business models across geographical areas which is fascinating for so many reasons. But in the US, we do, and so therefore, there is a free product that you can just get anyway that can be more tailored.
Jelte LiebrandThere are then flavors of the app whereby it is actually, it's not white label, but maybe gray labeled for that manufacturer, and so therefore, think about our particular information of the boat that could be surfaced within the app as well within the CarPlay. So there's a variety of different options and mechanisms to get in front of the user. And yeah, a large part of it is the boat manufacturer promoting us, and this is really where that …
Jelte Liebrand… way around, you only lose a pinky. And it's better to lose a pinky than it is to lose a thumb, which is a little bit of a morbid talk. The man who's teaching me this is missing a thumb. He literally lost his thumb doing this, and he's telling me this is why you don't do it. I'm going to trust anything that guy says. If he's done this and to the point of losing a thumb, I, from now, will never ever, ever going to put my thumb near that thing.
Jelte LiebrandAnd so, word of mouth is a great thing for any business, but not every mouth has the same value. And so, if that instructor is telling me that this is the thing that you need to get, that carries a lot more weight, and the same goes for the Savvy Integrated partners. If this is a boat manufacturer who's been around for decades building boats and they're putting Savvy Navvy on there, as a consumer, I'm going to trust that more. And likewise, if more consumers like our product because it is easy to use and it's clean and clutter-free interface, more of them are going to demand that from the manufacturer, "I want this to work with the boat that I'm buying." And so, that's the flywheel. It's like the consumer wants it. Therefore, the manufacturer wants to provide it. The manufacturer provides it. The consumer sees that and now has more validation that this is the right thing to get, and that's how that flywheel works for us.
David BarnardTell me more about the instructor program. Do you treat them as like affiliates? Do they have a code? Do they get kickbacks? Do they just get free Savvy Navvy? How does that work?
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More from this episode
- Raise money from your own users through equity crowdfunding instead of VCFirst round 3x oversubscribed in 6 days; ~£1M rounds since; 2,500 investors
- Tell crowd investors the good, the bad and the ugly in every updateWon Seedrs Entrepreneur of the Year, voted by investors; enabled repeat rounds
- Walk the docks with a clipboard and ask every boater what bugs themShowed the problem went far beyond ocean racers; founder says it convinced him
- Put your app in one standout boat maker's dashboard, then announce itMany more manufacturers came asking than expected; now a B2B business
- Give boating instructors the app free and build the teaching tools they ask forInstructors send students to it first; founder says no numbers
- Sell a two-year plan at about 30% off to get cash up frontBiggest win of the year; ad spend now paid back as soon as it's spent
- Skip sign-up entirely and create a hidden anonymous account insteadLooked great in the test, fell apart at full rollout; support grief erased gains
- Offer a free tier in the US but charge from day one elsewhere
- Stop all email marketing
Tags: carplay, bundle, oem, extended-trial, gray-label, flywheel