Am I doing something wrong?

1

Hello brilliant minds. I know that I might come under serious stick for asking this type of question but I seriously don’t mind. Recently I stumbled on a website called TechPoint, never heard of it until about two months ago. Apparently it’s a big tech blog in Nigeria that grows startups by featuring them on their website.Since I created a website that wants to ease the stress of students seeking accommodation, called Hostelconnect Nigeria.

I decided to pitch my startup too, maybe I’ll get a feature, although they have articles on real estate based startups like mine too. But it was worth the try, so I filled and submitted the pitch-form. It’s been over a month now and I haven’t gotten any response from them. I even filled the form again to make sure they get it but still the same ever since. Hence the question, Am I doing something wrong?

For those interested in checking what my pitch-form data was, I’ll paste it below with questions so you can vet and correct what you think I did wrong. I’m open to all opinions but don’t use curse words, please. I’m also open to partnership offers cos I’m desperate to make this work. Find the data below, Stay blessed always. Peace

My name:

JIMOH Ibraheem

Email:

info@hostelconnect.com.ng

Product/Startup name:

Hostelconnect Nigeria

Website:

Contact Phone:

08037708206

Pitch your startup in a sentence:

Student Accomodation Made Easy

Full details of startup:

Hostelconnect is an online hostel agency dedicated to helping students, renters, Hostel agents, caretakers, & landlords list and find hostels for FREE.

We are providing an end-to-end solution for real estate agents. From finding an hostel to rent; connecting students and renters to real estate agents from around Nigeria. We’ve got an ever-evolving platform that makes hostel search a lot easier, far smarter and ever rewarding.

HostelConnect Nigeria is the first of its kind to provide a platform for hostel search and selection process, to be hitch free, inclusive and very easy in Nigeria. Created to cover all the institutions in Nigeria, students now have the option to get any type of befitting accommodation that suits their lifestyle at affordable prices. We have listed, self contain rooms, a room, shared facility flats, en-suits rooms and students looking to share their rooms with other students can also list.

HostelConnect creates a convenient and effective way for student to find and view their choice of hostel before meeting face to face with agents/landlords for payment. This service is accessible 24 hours a day to anyone with internet access across all platforms such as a computer, tablet and mobile devices.

Our mission is to eliminate the stress and hassles of finding hostels in Nigeria, and to make the real estate sector more open and transparent.

Competitors?

  1. Hostelfider - http://hostelfinder.com.ng
  2. RentALodge - http://rentalodge.ng
  3. OffCampus - http://offcampus.com.ng / http://offcampus.ng
  4. MyPadi - http://mypadi.ng
  5. OffKRent - http://offkrent.com
  6. Studacom - http://studacom.com.ng
  7. HostelsNG - http://hostels.ng

Competitive Advantages?

  1. Hostelconnect doesn’t charge commission after agent receives payment from renters.

  2. There is no middle man (Renter meets with Agent to secure hostel).

  3. You can compare hostels with a click of a button. i.e Price, amenities and so on.

  4. Hostels doesn’t expire.

  5. We don’t charge agents for listing or renters for checking. It’s 100% FREE.

  6. No hostel platform is more detailed than hostelconnect. You can “Schedule a Tour”, check the “Walkscore i.e find a walkable place to live”, address on map plus you can see how close a school, pharmacy, supermarket, hospital or a library is to your desired hostel, you can also search by amenities i.e Wardrobe, fan, tiled floor and so on, you can check the number of page views of the hostel.

  7. Direct message feature to make communication more easier.

  8. Renters can favorite hostels or save a search and get notified if any hostel matches the saved criteria.

  9. Most institution in Nigeria is present on Hostelconnect.

Lauch Date?

September 26, 2017

How is it funded?

Self funded

Name of Team members?

JIMOH Ibraheem - Founder
OMIKUNLE Mariam - Content Manager
AKINADE Akinyinka - Support Assistant

News Features?

2

I guess you should have been more patient. This is a free service for Start-ups to gain exposure. You can imagine the number of applications they will be dealing with. Such feature articles/pitch cost a lot so appreciate the work they are doing.

2 Likes
3

great idea , courage and the fact that u want to make life easy for others.
Be patient on the techpoint part ,they would most likely eventually reach out .
But i have something to say , its a little off topic.
Reading through your details its impressive but i cant find any bit of information here that shows how you would be making money to run the company/startup. Please put that at the back of your mind , find a solid monetization model that would help u at least sustain the day to day running of the business.
Good luck!

3 Likes
4

They would surely feature you, but it takes time about 2 months because they have a lot of startups submitting to them.

1 Like
5

Thank you so much @Adey… I feel so good reading your feedback. About monetization, I want to depend on enough traffic so I can enable ads later and maybe introduce featured plans. Something similar to olx. Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it.