This post is also available in: Danish
The founding team can look back on a hectic few weeks when the travel portal Snowii launched. Countless interviews have been given to create as much awareness of the new portal for skiing enthusiasts in Denmark as possible. But when TechSavvy caught up with co-founder and CEO Emil Jess Jensen, there was no sign of them sitting back.
“Our launch has gone well and we’ve received a lot of positive feedback. We really appreciate that so many people can see the idea behind Snowii. We’ve worked hard to optimize the last things on the platform, but we’ve created a good foundation,” says Emil Jess Jensen.
Snowii brings together ski trips from Danish providers so consumers can find the best trips to suit their needs. Emil Jess Jensen joined the project just over 9 months ago, and the journey from then to launch has been challenging, but also fun and educational.
“It’s been a great process. We have some really talented people on the team, and we each have a good grasp of our area. It’s not that far from thought to action when you’re a small team. One of the great advantages of being small is that we can make quick decisions and try things out,” Emil Jess Jensen tells TechSavvy.
Pitch, pitch and pitch
Two months ago, Snowii closed investments totaling DKK 2.3 million from angel investors and the Danish Export and Investment Fund (EIFO) to realize the platform. It has required a thorough pitch process. But it’s not unfamiliar to the founders, who in addition to Emil Jess Jensen also include Hans Kristoffer and Søren Fuhr Forsingdal – all experienced serial entrepreneurs with startups, exits and investor experience on their CVs.
“We’ve pitched a lot and participated in a lot of events to get here. It’s a difficult market where investors are holding back. But we managed to get the investments, even though the money is not easy to come by. We’ve leveraged our network and we’ve all built businesses and made exits before, so that helped us too. We’ve done it before, so we were well prepared when we had to pitch. It’s been a huge advantage for us to have something in our backgrounds in a market where people are very deliberate when investing,” says Emil Jess Jensen.
Bringing investors into Snowii was part of the plan from the very beginning. The strategy with the launch two weeks ago is to grow as quickly as possible from the start, so that the platform gains significant market share from the start.
“We could have done it without outside money, but our mindset is that we want to be the player that enters the ski travel market right away. That’s why we spend the money on marketing so we can gain momentum. We’re not waiting for a snowball effect, but we believe that we need to make some noise from the start to create momentum,” says Emil Jess Jensen.
Creating value for ski enthusiasts
Snowii is free for users, who will be able to find the best ski vacations that match both price and needs based on a wide range of search criteria, from all travel providers in Denmark. Although there are not yet agreements in place with all providers that ensure Snowii gets a piece of the pie when the consumer buys a trip, the prices for all travel companies will be on the platform.
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“We are independent and have no affiliation with any travel providers. We have built the platform for the users, as we ourselves have been missing a platform like ours,” says Emil Jess Jensen and continues:
“We want to establish ourselves as the platform for ski vacations.”
The ambitions are high at Snowii, which eventually wants to expand abroad. But for now, the focus is on a successful season in the Danish market.
“We have a very short-term focus now that the platform has just been released. We’ve looked into expanding to other countries, so that’s an ambition that has also been made clear to investors. But for now, we’re fully focused on the Danish market, which we still have to make a lot of noise for,” says Emil Jess Jensen.
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