Face-to-face: Antlos CEO Michelangelo Ravagnan
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Where did you get the idea for Antlos?
From 18 years of age I have worked in the Maritime, yachting and hospitality industries. I was a yacht captain, broker, as well as a Property Manager in Venice, Italy, for apartments, B&Bs and the like. From my experience I gained many skills in working in the travel industry and worked with different booking systems. With the concept of the ‘Sharing Economy’ growing over the last years with companies such as Uber and Airbnb I felt like something was missing. Then I thought, this could be the perfect business model to introduce to the yachting industry, finally giving travellers the ability to book an experience at sea with a local Skipper at an affordable price!
What kind of demand is there for this concept?
As a sharing economy, Antlos targets two different audiences. Firstly, it is for travellers and sea lovers to experience authentic boat holidays at an affordable price. Our platform gives them the leeway to enjoy something that is usually perceived as a luxury and book it easily and safely online thanks to our guarantees and secure payment systems. At the same time, the platform is also built for Skippers/Captains (boat owners) who would like to convert their passion for sailing into business. With Antlos, they can provide their services and receive a new source of revenue to help cover their boat’s maintenance costs. With the travel and tourism industry growing every year and with the sharing economy trend growing, I do see a demand for this concept.
How will it open up new source markets?
As I mentioned, Antlos is a free marketplace for boat owners. Many skippers who offer boat trips as a living and don’t have the right resources to sell their holidays, others leave their boats parked in the harbour and cannot sell the boat and need to earn some extra money for the boat maintenance. We enable boat owners to obtain a new source of revenue by giving them an easy online system to receive bookings and promote their business.
What we are trying to do is to increase the term of the boating seasons, enabling guests to book an accommodation and experience combined. This puts also puts us in direct competition with hotels and b&bs, however we offer better value.
How are you promoting Antlos to raise awareness?
End of last year we launched our #BetterOnBoard Video Series, a collection of videos filmed in each of our top locations. Each video depicts a different type of ‘#BetterOnBoard’ experience catered to the audiences in which we are targeting: families, groups of friends, couples and solo travellers; proving that yachting has now become more accessible.
This versatile hashtag has helped us to not only increase brand awareness but has introduced travellers and first-timers to the sailing world.
What are your expansion plans?
2016 is essentially the first season of operations of Antlos. This season is helping us to gather metrics and prove our business model in the Mediterranean, including Italy, Croatia and Greece. Now that it’s closely coming to an end, we are now opening the Skippers’ offerings in the Virgin Islands and the Grenadines in the Caribbean for the winter season; meaning that we will have a full-year of operations.
With all the metrics that we’ve gathered, we will begin to start fundraising for our Series A round of investment during the winter, which will be necessary to help grow the team, continue to improve and develop the platform, increase the number of offerings and destinations, and build our brand awareness globally.
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