The return from summer vacations is one of the most critical moments of the year, even though most of us has consciously restarted its own daily activities.
Nevertheless, this week we want to bring you back on holiday just with your eyes and your mind, and maybe be a source of inspiration for your next vacation or for the coming weekends.
For this reason, today we want you to meet Sailsquare, an investment of our M&A advisor and partner Focus Futuro Srl.
By connecting passionate skippers and curious travellers, Sailsquare is by far the #1 platform for all peer-to-peer sailing holidays.
The main strengths and innovative features can be summarised as follows:
number of holidays on the platform
wide variety of destinations and prices
user friendly (easy to look for and book holidays)
skipper/user interaction
heterogeneous origin of skippers and tourists (international mindset)
The aim is to make sailing holidays accessibile to an increasingly wide and heterogeneous audience. It’s exactly the possibility to access unique experiences, once privilege of the few, that makes Sailsquare founders so enthusiast.
On the wave of the sharing economy, a proved method by now, the innovative startup, founded by Simone Marini and Riccardo Boatti, both expert sailors, managed to place itself successfully on the market with the idea of an increasing growth that will enable to serve a larger and international customer base.
2018’s key figures, given below, highlight the reach and the success of the platform:
Simone and Riccardo are a further evidence that work and passion, along with a consistent amount of commitment, can coexist and lead to the creation of unique, long lasting, innovative and successful projects.
Riccardo’s passion emerged at a young age much that he joined the sailing school when he was 6 and not long after he approached his first competitions.
Here comes the desire to communicate a different idea of the sailing holiday, linked to more deep values like respect, eco-sustainability and sociality.
The journey of course was not trivial at all. As Riccardo told us, Sailsquare is the union of “mind and heart”.
The premises were optimal because of the fragmented market, the lack of digital services and the evolution of the marina’s services. Sailing vacations were considered as a niche product, organised by only a few tour operator and accessible to the few, primarily through personal or local contacts.
After a thorough market analysis, the two founder, strong of their capabilities and experience gained in the IT and communication fields, abandoned their working positions, aware they we taking a risk.
Despite the success, Riccardo does not hide all the difficulties, such as looking for capital, a theme that in Italy is still quite delicate and not as developed as in other EU countries. Moreover, the complexity of building the team and manage resources in multiple countries represents another challenge.
However, net of all risks and difficulties, Riccardo does not hesitate to confirm that Sailsquare is the most beautiful project of his entire life.
Hence, Sailsquare’s innovation can be summarised in the ability of the founders to build a model that is founded on the willingness to satisfy the real needs of consumers, based on the principles of the sharing economy and on a practical and accessible technology.
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