Savvy Navvy · navigation app for boats
Give boating instructors the app free and build the teaching tools they ask for
Instructors send students to it first; founder says no numbers
Workedpartnershipsword-of-mouthfeature-development
What they did
Not an affiliate program and no kickbacks (instructors don't want to look like sales reps). Instructors get the app free and their students get a discount. The team works closely with them: webinars, collecting feedback, instructors as beta users who get every new feature first. Built instructor-requested features, e.g. an in-app three-point fix for when GPS fails, which no competing app has. Signed American Sailing for the US. Similar programs with chandleries/boat shops, using in-store presence and QR codes.
What happened
Instructors who walk students through the available apps go to Savvy Navvy first; seen as the most trusted form of word of mouth.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Why He Crowdfunded Millions Instead of Raising VC — Jelte Liebrand, Savvy Navvy“And so, yeah, they get Savvy Navvy for free, and then their students get a discount, sure, but the real working mechanics here is that we work closely with them. We do webinars. We take a lot of their feedback. They're beta users for us.”
“To be clear, for a lot of them, they don't want the kickback, and they don't because they don't want to be seen as a sales rep.”
“We do that within the app none of the other apps do that because we work closely with the instructor.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Savvy Navvy: Raise money from your own users through equity crowdfunding instead of VCFirst round 3x oversubscribed in 6 days; ~£1M rounds since; 2,500 investors
- Savvy Navvy: Tell crowd investors the good, the bad and the ugly in every updateWon Seedrs Entrepreneur of the Year, voted by investors; enabled repeat rounds
- Savvy Navvy: 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
- Savvy Navvy: Put your app in one standout boat maker's dashboard, then announce itMany more manufacturers came asking than expected; now a B2B business
- Savvy Navvy: Include 12 months of the app with new boats, paid for by the boat makerFounder says it feeds a consumer-to-manufacturer flywheel; no numbers
- Savvy Navvy: 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
- Savvy Navvy: Skip sign-up entirely and create a hidden anonymous account insteadLooked great in the test, fell apart at full rollout; support grief erased gains
- Savvy Navvy: Offer a free tier in the US but charge from day one elsewhere
- Savvy Navvy: Stop all email marketing