Journey ∙Seed Stage Investment Opportunity
Problem
The current landscape of navigation applications, such as Google Maps and Waze, which launched in 2005 and 2006 respectively, has remained largely static despite evolving user needs. Today, customers seek more than just a tool to navigate from point A to point B. They require a holistic solution that not only simplifies route planning but also aids in time, cost, and effort optimization. This need has become more acute with the rising costs of transportation, escalating urban traffic congestion, and safety concerns—underscored by the fact that 21% of U.S. crashes each year are weather-related.
Despite the advancements in technology, existing navigation apps fall short in addressing these multifaceted challenges, offering little beyond basic routing and traffic updates. This gap highlights a significant opportunity for innovation in developing a navigation app that proactively assists in comprehensive journey planning and management, adapting to the dynamic and multifarious demands of modern transportation.
Solution
Our solution, Journey, is a groundbreaking leap in navigation technology, designed to revolutionize how people plan and experience their journeys. Unlike traditional navigation apps, Journey offers an all-encompassing mobility solution. It's not just about turn-by-turn directions; we integrate real-time weather forecasts, gas prices, parking availability, and local events into our routing algorithm to offer a truly premium experience. This holistic approach ensures that Journey doesn’t just get you to your destination, but enhances the entire journey by optimizing for safety, time, and cost.
What sets Journey apart is our pioneering AI-powered navigation assistant, a first in the market. This assistant goes beyond the capabilities of a standard GPS navigator, offering hands-free, voice-activated assistance for a multitude of tasks. Whether it's rerouting to avoid traffic, checking the weather at your destination, booking parking spaces, or seeking local recommendations, our assistant can handle it all without the need for physical interaction with your device. This innovation in navigation technology not only elevates user convenience and safety but also marks a significant stride towards future mobility solutions. Journey is not just an app; it's a travel companion that understands and adapts to your needs, paving the way for a new era in personalized, intelligent navigation.
Why now?
The advent of advanced artificial intelligence marks a pivotal moment in technology, creating the perfect climate for innovations like Journey. Historically, the complexity of navigation, with its myriad of variables and individual preferences, posed a formidable challenge in crafting a truly personalized and effective navigation experience. However, with AI's rapid evolution, we now have the capability to harness sophisticated models that can learn, adapt, and respond to each user's unique mobility needs.
This adaptability is crucial in our current era, where extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and unpredictable, demanding a navigation solution that can dynamically adjust to these changes. The convergence of AI's maturity and the increasing unpredictability of our environment creates a unique opportunity for a solution like Journey. It addresses the need for a navigation system that's not just reactive but predictive, offering a level of personalization and responsiveness that was previously unattainable. This 'why now' moment is defined by our ability to fill the vacuum left by traditional navigation tools, using cutting-edge technology to navigate not just roads, but also the complexities of our rapidly changing world.
Market potential
Journey targets a significant market within the digital navigation sphere, where platforms like Waze and Google Maps collectively cater to over a billion users. Our focus is on the premium segment, similar to TomTom GO's 10 million active drivers who seek advanced navigation features.
This indicates a strong demand for sophisticated, enhanced navigation solutions. Journey aims to meet this demand by offering a unique, AI-driven experience, targeting tech-savvy, efficiency-oriented individuals. We're not just entering an existing market but creating a new category of intelligent navigation tools, positioning us to capture a substantial market share and adapt to evolving user needs and technological advancements.
Competition
In the navigation app market, Journey stands out with its comprehensive approach, setting it apart from direct competitors like “TomTom GO”, which primarily focuses on driving. Our broader scope encompasses more than just route guidance, offering a fully integrated journey experience.
This broader vision positions us uniquely against indirect competitors as well, such as onX Hunt, a specialized navigation app for hunters generating substantial revenue, showcasing the potential in catering to specific needs. Unlike apps that offer singular features, like “Weather on the way”, Journey provides an all-in-one navigation experience.
Our strategy to dominate this space involves delivering the ultimate premium experience, accessible globally and across all devices. We plan to leverage our advanced technology to showcase Journey's superior capabilities, ensuring it stands out not just for its features, but for its unparalleled user experience. This comprehensive and adaptive approach is our key to winning in a market crowded with niche and single-feature apps.
Business Model
Our business model is designed to ensure sustainability and growth while catering to a wide range of users. At the core, we offer a dual-tier system: a free, ad-supported version and a premium subscription-based model. The free plan provides basic navigation functionality, making our service accessible to a broad audience and ensuring widespread adoption. This plan will be supported by carefully curated advertisements and sponsorships, adding a steady revenue stream without compromising user experience.
The premium version is where our advanced technology truly shines. For a subscription fee, users will gain access to the full suite of Journey's capabilities, including AI-driven personalization, real-time updates on weather, traffic, parking, and more. This subscription model not only ensures a consistent revenue stream but also allows us to continually invest in technological advancements and user experience enhancements. By offering these two tiers, we cater to casual users while providing discerning customers with an unmatched navigation experience, ensuring Journey's position as a leader in the navigation app market.
Progress
- We launched Journey in the iOS and MacOS app stores in August 2023. Since then, we've been focused on building essential navigation features, while gathering feedback from our customers and understanding the opportunity. Our app is built with Flutter, which will allow us to quickly release an Android version.
- On November 12th, we got our first press feature, and since then we've seen explosive growth of active customers. It earned us top #3 free apps in Belgium, #18 in France, and #32 in US. We currently have over 3,000 users.
- In our early subscription tests, we had over 557 customers start a trial for our yearly membership and 68 customers start a trial for our monthly membership (> $12,000 total value).
- We've seen a 20% trial start rate from our subscription paywall, much higher than the 4.6% average download to trial conversion rate.
- We've got a multitude of feedback from our customers extremely interested in the potential of our app. We currently seeing ~500 active users every day.
Vision
In five years, our vision for Journey is to have fundamentally transformed the everyday movement of people. Our goal is to develop a comprehensive suite of features across iOS, Android, and Web platforms, making Journey a universally accessible and indispensable tool for navigation. Central to this vision is the creation of the most advanced navigation AI, a system sophisticated enough to guide users through various modes of transportation, not just by car. This AI will be the heart of a broader mobility platform, one that extends beyond individual use.
We envision Journey evolving into a collaborative ecosystem where businesses can integrate their services, such as listing parking spaces, promoting events, and more. Additionally, we aim to partner with governments to incorporate real-time safety alerts and other public service announcements, enhancing the safety and convenience of travel. This integration will make Journey a truly comprehensive navigation app, one that not only directs users from point A to point B but also enriches their entire journey with a multitude of resources and options.
Ultimately, our vision is to build more than just a navigation app; we aim to create a platform that redefines mobility, making it more connected, efficient, and user-centric. In five years, we see Journey as not just a tool, but an essential part of daily life, seamlessly integrating the digital and physical aspects of navigation and travel.
Securing Our Future: Investment Opportunity
Journey is at a pivotal stage, ready to redefine the navigation experience. To achieve our ambitious goals, we are seeking an investment of US$3 million. This funding will be pivotal in developing our advanced AI-driven navigation platform, expanding our reach across iOS, Android, and Web platforms, and integrating diverse transportation modes into our app.
Our plan includes robust marketing strategies, technological advancements, and expanding our team to support these initiatives. With this investment, Journey will not only enhance its product offerings but also accelerate its growth trajectory, aiming to capture a significant market share in the rapidly evolving navigation app industry.
We understand the dynamics of investment and are open to discussions for a minimum investment of US$500,000. This flexibility allows us to begin immediate work on critical development phases while continuing to seek additional funding to fully realize our vision.
The initial objective is to build a founding team able to build essential features to convert and retain customers, with a release of our Android app at the top of our list.
Your investment in Journey is more than just financial support; it's a partnership in creating a future where navigation is seamlessly integrated into every aspect of transportation, making travel more efficient, safer, and personalized for users worldwide.