The mysterious Sweden/US based startup BuzzPal has revealed us what they are all about. As the founder, Chris Comella, says in the video, BuzzPal is an advanced version of CouchSurfing with a business model and growth strategy and it seems they are going head to head with a US based startup AirBed&Breakfast.
BuzzPal aims to facilitate people to find affordable accommodation on their travels from locals living in the given destination by enabling the locals to post their offer online with a price tag, be it an available couch, bed or even a flat for a few nights. In effect BuzzPal is an online marketplace for peer-to-peer traveling.
Chris didn’t want to say exactly how they aim to monetize the service just yet. Whether they use the same model as AirBed&Breakfast which charges a 5-12% service fee from the guest during the checkout process or use for example an advertising based business model to go with the transactional one.
Even though AirBed&Breakfast is already up and running (unlike BuzzPal) BuzzPal has still a good shot at the market. AirBed&Breakfast had less than $20,000 in seed capital from friends and family when it started and has only just started gathering users: For example, when I checked they only had two places posted in Finland, five places in Denmark, four places in Sweden, none in Norway, Iceland or any of the Baltic countries. Out of these, the places on offer in say Denmark were all more expensive than for example Hotel Cabin City which is a decent choice right downtown Copenhagen.
Seedcamp applications are now closed for 2008. We received all together five notifications from start-ups that are applying after we posted our own offer. The start-ups come from Finland and Sweden, namely These Are My Brands (Finland), Scred (Finland), BiznesPort (Finland), BuzzPal (Sweden/US) and Wonderswap.com (Sweden).
Seedcamp received most of the applications on the last minute (for more see here) just as we received the information on start-ups that applied. On the other hand we did not post our offer that much earlier either. Regardless, the main thing is that many companies got their application in. Congrats and good luck for everybody who submitted their application in time.
Even though the applications are now closed do let us know in comments if we missed you, but you still applied in time. The interview offer is valid even though we did not hear about you before the application window closed.
Edit 11.08.2008: That’s six start-ups now: MahShelf (Finland) applied also in time. Congrats!
Wonderswap aims to create a marketplace and a community that will support the need to re-cycle amongst a new generation of people who are tired of the “buy-and-throw-away-mentality”.
There’s not that much to see on Wonderswap’s website at the moment, but their CEO, Monika Björn, told us that they´re planning to have a Beta out by this autumn/winter. The secrecy is understandable to some extend, since Seedcamp rules suggest that your service should not have launched yet.
For those of our readers who still don’t know what Seedcamp is here’s a short description from Seedcamp website.
Seedcamp is an intensive week long event held in September in London targeted at young entrepreneurs from across EMEA.
We’ve set it up to provide seed funding and world-class connections for startups. September 2007 marked our first Seedcamp Week and group of funded startups. September 2008 will mark our second.
We will be holding an open application available online. Based on this, we will select up to 20 companies to participate in the event.
Seedcamp application deadline is tomorrow(!), so if you’re planning on applying, apply now. If you want to apply, go here.
Good luck to Wonderswap.com(!) and as promised an interview comes as a part of package later on.
BuzzPal, a US/Sweden -based social startup, is applying to Seedcamp. BuzzPal does not tell what their service is about other than that their name and tagline ‘The world is your party’ are good hints and that if you love to party and make new friends BuzzPal is for you. They promise to launch in 2008. Naturally our promise holds that I wrote about earlier on:
When you apply to Seedcamp before the August 10th deadline you will get a guaranteed 2 minute video interview by me or optionally you can submit a 60 second video pitch of your start-up/product/service, which ever you prefer. Naturally these will be posted on ArcticStartup. In addition, when you apply to Seedcamp you will automatically enter a draw in which we at ArcticStartup will randomly choose two start-ups that can have their logo (125×125px) on ArcticStartup front page for the whole month of September. Additionally any start-up that will be chosen to take part in the actual Seedcamp week gets also their logo (125×125px) on the front page for the whole month of September.
Here’s a short and rather cryptic video pitch from BuzzPal to Seecamp video pitch competition.
You can vote BuzzPal’s video pitch at Seedcamps video pitch competition which can earn the start-up a spot at the Seedcamp short-list interview day.
The mysterious Sweden/US based startup BuzzPal has revealed us what they are all about. As the founder, Chris Comella, says in the video, BuzzPal is an advanced version of CouchSurfing with a business model and growth strategy and it seems they are going head to head with a US based startup AirBed&Breakfast.
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