19 AUGUST 2019 / 2:00 PM CST/ WWW.MONEYSENSEWITHKYLE.COM
Attendees
Robert Kyle Martin Financial Blogger https://www.moneysensewithkyle.com, Sama Jashnani Co-founder/ CEO DownToDash
Action Items
- Welcome – Robert Kyle Martin Financial Blogger www.moneysensewithkyle.com
- Q&A Interview questions Sama Jashnani Co-founder/CEO DownToDash
Q&A Interview questions DownToDash
Welcome everyone – I’m Kyle Martin Financial Blogger @ www.moneysensewithkyle.com. Today we have Sama Jashnani Co-founder / CEO DownToDash for a Q&A Interview to learn more about this startup company, What they do?, Where are they going?, How they will get there?, Obstacles along the way, and Why to invest in DownToDash.
Kyle – Welcome Sama!
Sama – Thank you so much for having me, I really appreciate it.
Kyle – Sama..tell us about yourself
Sama
I am an entrepreneur, connector, speaker and I also love dancing, trekking, adventure, food and just meeting new interesting people. I co-founded a social enterprise and e-commerce platform and worked at a global marketing agency. I also got a full scholarship to study Marketing and Strategy at Warwick Business School.
Kyle – What does your company do?
Sama
DownToDash is an app to make quality activity buddies. It connects people in the same location based on what they are down to do, whether it is workouts, sports, movies or other activities. Users can post specific plans, for example, play Tennis on Thursday at 5 pm at McCarren Park and other users can join. We will also add closed networks within the app for students and employees. For example an employee can verify his account through a delloitte.com email address and connect with employees only. Our focus will always be on the security of our users and finding a high-quality activity buddy. We will use Artificial intelligence and our algorithm to match people based on their skill level and ensure that they are a good match for the experience.
Kyle – That’s some cool technology. Where will your company be in 5 years?
Sama
We project to be at 3.5 million users and $ 13.83 million in revenue in 5 years, using a conservative approach. We want to be the one-stop shop for meeting people all over the world. You can discover experiences, book the experience and your means of transportation through one app. We will also incentivize users to socialize by adding group discounts for experiences. We believe we have a strong exit potential and strategy (WeWork recently acquired MeetUp for $200 Million).
Kyle – Outstanding. How far along are you? What's your biggest obstacle?
Sama
We have 5286 users, 3913 monthly active users and 60,000+ successful plans created on the app. We created an internship program that was selected to be in the Top 100 Internship programs in the US by CNBC. Make it and want to scale this ambassador base. Also, we were recently featured on Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Season 3. Our biggest obstacle is the inability to scale quickly without sufficient funding.
Kyle – Ok great. Who are your competitors? Who is the biggest threat?
Sama
The most similar existing platform is Meetup but Meetup operates only for groups and has no age filter. Bumble Bff and Vina are friend-focused but are only for female friendships. They are not focused on specific plans (example Tennis on Thursday at 5 pm). Moreover, Bumble is also a dating app. Our focus on activities and specific plans is our unique selling point.
Kyle – We want to know, How will you make money?
Sama
We offer $75, $100 and $200 per month advertising packages for the marketing of events and experiences. We are working on automating this process by incorporating ‘bookings' within the app, for example two people can book a Tennis court through the app and we will charge them a fee. We will also add paid accounts for users with premium features for $3 per month and gather patterns in our data to provide guidance and predictive analysis to companies that deal with specific cohorts.
Kyle – On Wefunder.com DownToDash has raised $19,550 of a $50,000 – $1,070,000 goal with 70 investors. How do you plan to spend the money raised?
Sama
51% towards technology and product development, 35% towards marketing and 14% towards our team and legal expenses. We will immediately invest in revamping the product and adding exciting features such as closed networks. We will also start Instagram ads and influencer campaigns.
Kyle – Fantastic! How are you different from other competitors?
Sama
Our focus is on security of our users and finding a high-quality activity buddy is what makes us different. Users love that our ‘plans’ feature is spontaneous and allows them to do what they love, according to their availability and preferences. Our millennial-friendly branding and positioning also gives us an advantage.
Kyle – I know users love to know security is important and finding a high quality activity buddy set you apart. What’s Next?
Sama
We got into Founder University by Jason Calacanis and are super excited to explore the tech ecosystem in San Francisco and also promote the app there.
Kyle – Why should we invest in DownToDash and how?
Sama
Technology and social media have been criticized to create loneliness, isolation and depression. We are using technology to foster real-life interactions and want to change the way people meet all over the world! This is your one chance to come onboard with this exciting opportunity of investing in an upcoming social media giant! Here is a link to our campaign: https://wefunder.com/downtodash/
You can also contact me at sama@downtodash.com for any questions.
Kyle – Thank you Sama for sharing with us this exciting technology to bring people together. Audience, you now have the inside scoop on DownToDash straight from the Co-founder CEO of DownToDash. It’s a new exciting app that's going to be secure and bring high quality activity buddies together. If your interested in investing in this startup company the current campaign is at this link: https://wefunder.com/downtodash/. Any questions contact Sama at sama@downtodash.com or use the Leave a comment button on my website http://www.moneysensewithkyle.com. That’s all for today. Thank you and we’ll see you in retirement.
