LetMeGo is a new online lodging agency that was recently selected as the best Latin American startup of 2009 (Spanish) (Portuguese). We are seeking individual entrepreneurs or teams, with or without experience, to launch Spanish and Portuguese versions of its service. These versions will target the markets of Latin America (including Brazil), Spain, and Portugal. Working from anywhere in the world, the entrepreneurs selected will become CEOs of their own companies, given long-term contracts, earn a yearly salary of USD48,000, receive bonuses equivalent to 20% of the dividends, and a 20% ownership stake in the business.
LetMego will hire six entrepreneurs (three for the Spanish markets and three for the Portuguese markets) for a seven month contest period. At the end of this competition, only one Spanish-language and one Portuguese-language entrepreneur will be declared the winner, become CEO of his own version of the LetMeGo service, and eventually become a partner in the parent company. If you are one of the six selected entrepreneurs, you will work from home while earning a small salary of USD1,500 per month for the first seven months. During this period, you will launch your own version of LetMeGo in Spanish or Portuguese by translating the software (the Merrcury Engine), performing research, marketing your new site, offering customer service, and, if wanted or required, building a team to perform said tasks. Each entrepreneur’s site will have a unique domain name. At the end of this period, the site with the most potential in each language will absorb the other two companies competing in the same language. The two winning entrepreneurs will each receive a five year contract; be named as CEOs; earn a base salary of USD48,000 per year ($4,000 per month); plus 20% of the dividends of LetMeGo in Spanish and Portuguese, respectively; plus stock grants for 20% at the end of the contract. We are calling this selection process “The LetMeGo I18N Challenge” (I18N stands for “internationalization”.)
Why Are We Doing This?
- The online lodging industry is relatively new or nonexistent in most of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets. This means that there are few candidates who will possess a significant amount of experience in the sector. Instead, we are seeking those who have great potential, a drive to succeed, and an array of other skills that will help them create great versions of the LetMeGo service.
- Whenever possible, we prefer to find potential partners, not just employees.
- It has been our longstanding policy to hire people via contest–we feel that this has allowed us to build a team consisting only of the best of the best.
The Selection Process
Here is the schedule and the list of tasks involved in The LetMeGo I18N Challenge:
- Applications will be received until Feb 20th, 2010, at 1:59 PM (13:59) US Easter Standard Time. More details below.
- On Feb 21st, we will publicly announce the candidates who have been selected to participate in the preliminary evaluation tests. Candidates who wish to remain anonymous may do so.
- Starting on the morning of Feb 22nd (Monday) and continuing until Feb 28th (Sunday) seven tests will be administered, one per day. Each test will be designed to measure a different skill set. The tests will be brief, and should not impact candidates’ normal lives.
- Before March 15th, the six selected entrepreneurs will be announced.
- On April 5th, the six entrepreneurs will each begin work on the task of launching their own version of LetMeGo in their own language. These projects will include, but will not be limited to the following activities:
- Seeking out and selecting a brand and domain name.
- Translating and localizing the software into Spanish or Portuguese.
- Setting up the customer service infrastructure, including selection of the telephony and chat systems (to be paid by LetMeGo, of course).
- Launching the service.
- Finding and inviting lodgings to use the site.
- Convincing travelers to try use the service via social and viral marketing.
- Offering customer service.
- Helping us improve the Merrcury Engine so that our Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking customers have a more seamless and enjoyable experience.
- Building a team to perform all of these tasks, if required.
- Blogging about it all.
- From April 5th, 2010 through Nov 4th 2010, each entrepreneur will receive a small compensation of USD 1,500 per month.
- On May 17th, six weeks after starting translation and localization, the six entrepreneurs will launch their sites.
- Each entrepreneur will have a budget of USD 1,000 for marketing for the seven months. Yes, it is small, but we believe that viral marketing and affiliate marketing is the best way for us to grow (the same way that Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Kayak grew).
- On November 5th, 2010, the owners of Torrenegra Labs (LetMeGo’s parent company) will determine the winner in each language. The selection will be based on total revenue generated, total profit generated, revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and the opinions of the judges. The winning site in each language will absorb the other two that were competing in the same language. The entrepreneurs who have built the winning sites will be declared the winners of The LetMeGo I18N Challenge and will each receive:
- A five year contract as CEOs of their LetMeGo sites for USD 48,000 per year, plus 20% of the dividends of LetMeGo in Spanish and LetMeGo in Portuguese, respectively.
- Stock grants for 20% of LetMeGo in Spanish and Portuguese, respectively, after the five year contract ends.
Important Information to Keep in Mind
- This competition is not limited to individuals. If you would prefer to enter as part of a team, the team’s leader should submit the application. Should a team win the competition, the leader will be named CEO of the new company.
- LetMeGo is a global marketplace: All of the sites will share the same database of users and lodgings, which will also be shared with LetMeGo.com and its network of sites. We can, of course, track the bookings originating from each site.
- The entrepreneurs won’t have to worry about hosting or software stability. The development team of LetMeGo, working alongside ServerQuo, will take care of that.
- The cost of the phone system, chat system, credit card processing, banking fees, and personnel you hire will be paid by LetMeGo and it will be deducted from the net profits of each site.
- Each entrepreneur will be able to hire additional people for his/her team as long as their site is already making money and the cost of the new personnel doesn’t surpass the income of the site.
- Each entrepreneur and his/her team will sign a legally binding contract with LetMeGo, LLC, a US-based company.
- In the event that no candidate’s site meets our expectations, we reserve the right to award the prize to no one. We also reserve the right to alter the contest in any way that we see fit, including shortening or lengthening it at our discretion.
Desired Skills
If you are interested, please keep in mind we will be looking for the following skills:
- Online marketing
- Social marketing
- Customer service
- Copy writing in Spanish or Portuguese
- Localization (translation) from English to Portuguese or English to Spanish
- Management
- A talent for communication
- Strong analytical skills
Requirements
No previous experience as entrepreneur is required, however:
- You should be able to understand spoken and written English, and be able to speak and write fluently, as well.
- You should be fully fluent in either Spanish or Portuguese.
- You must be ready to work on this project full-time.
- You must provide your own laptop and high-speed, low-latency Internet connection. You can work from home or from anywhere in the world.
- Experience in the lodging industry is a plus, but it is not required.
The Benefits
- The opportunity of becoming a major partner of LetMeGo
- The chance to work with the team that won the prize for Most Promising Latin American Startup of 2009: LetMeGo
- Plenty of exposure for you and your project, given that LetMeGo and The LetMeGo I18N Challenge will being widely covered by the media
- The opportunity to work from anywhere in the world
- The chance to take part in changing the way the lodging industry works in Latin America (including Brazil) and parts of Europe.
How To Apply
Update: The deadline to apply already expired on Feb 20th, at 1:59 PM (13:59) US Easter Standard Time.
About LetMeGo
We’re supposed to tell you we’re a “Web 2.0″ company that’s building “synergies” and “paradigm shifts” and “leveraging core competencies”, and that sort of stuff. Yawn. Here’s the scoop: LetMeGo is the most advanced lodging service on the web, built by world-traveling, ninja-grade coders who love great deals and hate hassles. It’s where you’ll find the perfect lodging at the perfect price. You can learn more about us and our team visiting http://letmego.com/aboutus – You can learn more about the making of LetMeGo by reading “Alexander’s Chat – The Making of LetMeGo“. LetMeGo has offices in New York City and Bogota, Colombia.
LetMeGo is a venture of Torrenegra Labs. Torrenegra Labs creates and invests in driven, enthusiastic, people-oriented companies that develop ground-breaking online technologies and leading-edge business models. Learn more at http://torrenegralabs.com.
Questions?
Feel free to post them here. Leonardo Suarez (LetMeGo’s Business Development Manager) and I will try to do our best answering.
Alexander is LetMeGo's co-founder and jefe. Here is his LetMeGo 
I think you should target the Brazilian market too. They are portuguese speaking and a bigger market than Portugal.
Of course! Brazil is part of Latin America ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America ) but, just in case, I have updated the post. Thank you for the heads up!
Hello hmart
Thank you for comment. Additionally to Alex’s comment, when we mean Portuguese it includes Brazil and Portugal.
We are posting this AD in several job marketplaces and specialized groups in Brazil. Such as CATHO and Monster, among others. Regards,
Leonardo Suárez
Torrenegra Labs
Business Development and Venture Manager
Twitter: @leonardosuarez
Hi hmart, your idea about Brazilien market is correct.
But if you see the Brazilien language is very diferent from Portuguese.
Depends if “Alexander” whant´s the real Portuguese language or other.
Regards for all from Portugal
Do you need software developing skills in order to participate in the challenge? You don’t put this on the list but I just want to make sure.
Hello Carolina
TY for your interest in #letmegochallenge, no software development skills required. Basic HTML knowledge is enough.
These are the links to the media that have covered the #LetMeGochallenge so far:
In Spanish
http://blogvecindad.com/letmego-ganador-de-ps10-lanza-su-beta-publico-y-abre-challenge-para-emprendedores/2010/01/21
http://pulsosocial.com/2010/01/21/letmego-lanza-su-beta-publico-donde-los-viajeros-reciben-ofertas-de-alojamiento/
http://palermovalley.com/blog/letmego-lanza-beta-publica-y-competencia-de-emprendedores/
http://ar.news.yahoo.com/s/20012010/32/letmego-presentan-nuevo-servicio-web-viajeros.html
http://www.diariocritico.com/mexico/2010/Enero/noticias/191100/letmego-servicio-web-para-los-viajeros-que-buscan-alojamiento.html
In Portuguese
http://startupi.com.br/2010/letmego-melhor-startup-latina-pelo-ps10-abre-desafio-para-parceria-brasileira/#more-3538
It’s not everyday we get to see such an amazing opportunity! Looking forward to applying soon!
Hi Alex, Leonardo!
Someone else published some interesting questions in the PulsoSocial entry on this job opportunity:
http://j.mp/cwZxjm
I believe you are receiving or are going to receive a lot of questions, so perhaps a follow-up with some sort of mini-FAQ might be a good idea.
Hi Leonardo Suarez,
I’m considering applying to this excellent challenge, but i have some questions about your project, and how the software / portal interact.
how can i get more information? because, from the user’s point of view it’s simple concept, but from the “ownwer’s” point of view there are lot’s of things to consider…
best regards
Pedro Almeida
Hi Pedro. With “owner” are you referring to the lodging staff members? If so, these two pages have video tours that explain how the process works for them:
http://letmego.com/welcome
http://letmego.com/learn
Hi Leonardo,
i’ve worked in some companies here in Portugal, that developed software / web sites / portals for the real estate agencies that interact together.
what i mean by “owners”, is us, people who are selling this idea.
what i want to know is the business model of the letmego project, the main income will be from advertisers, the software, or the lodging’s in the Portal? will the lodging’s have their own software? how will the bookings interact with their own software? and their own’s web site? can they associate their web site, or will they have to have a a “mini-site” like it’s on the portal?
i have a few more questions
best regards
Pedro Almeida
Hi again Pedro. This is Alex. Leo is busy right now.
These are the answers to your questions:
> We make a 10% commission out of every booking. The commission is paid by the lodgings via credit card, PayPal, bank transfer, Pegasus Commission Payments, etc, after they have been paid by the traveler. This is how most travel agencies work.
> The lodging staffs manually submit bids through our website. They don’t have to install software.
> Whenever a booking is received, the lodging staff must manually enter it in their property management software and then provide LetMeGo a confirmation number. We then send this number to the traveler.
> Every lodging has a page with all of its details. For example: http://letmego.com/to/hooverdam
By the way, all this information was in the links I sent you in my last reply – We’re happy to answer your questions, though.
Hi Alex,
thanks for the links.
You wore right, some answers wore there, (i should have read them first!
)
i have been analysing your project from the Portuguese point of view only.
1 – the biggest lodgings places here (hotels, motels, resorts, etc) already have web sites, and most of then usually wants to promote then instead of links like “http://letmego.com/to/hooverdam” is there a way to have a external links?
2 – is there an API to integrate several lodgings? for instance, let’s say a chain of hotels in portugal want to come aboard, but they don’t want to manually insert all the information (yes, portuguese are lazy).
3 – are you considering having paid ads?
4 – http://letmego.com/to/hooverdam – all of the information is placed by the lodging? like the Nearby Areas and Points of Interest / Amenities / Reviews in wiki, etc
5 – the “form” of the booking can be personalized?
PS thanks for having the patience to answer all my questions.
Best Regards
Great questions. These are the answers:
1. Those pages are meant, primarily, for travelers to learn more details about the lodging they are about to book. Lodging staffs can also use those pages to promote their property, but I don’t think they will prefer using them over their own sites.
2. No APIs for now. There are two main reasons for this: a) LetMeGo is about custom offers: most of the itineraries specify why the traveler is traveling. We expect lodgings to use this info to submit attractive offers. No automated system would be able to do this well. b) LetMeGo is planned to work, primarily, for small and independent lodgings, which account for more than 80% of the market in most European, Asian, and Latin American markets. Most of these lodgings don’t automated systems that can generate rates on-demand.
3. No. I hate ads. We want to be simple, like Google.com, and not clumsy, like Yahoo.com or MSN.com.
4. Nearby areas, map location, and the Google Street View are automatically determined by the system. Everything else is provided by the lodging. Go ahead and create a listing yourself. Our system rocks. Lodging staffs love it
5. Yes. Each lodging determines the payment methods it accepts, as well as the cancellation and booking policies. This information is used to customized the booking form.
Ty Alexander
2 more things
1 – i hope you don’t consider as an abuse, but i already invited you to my linkedin network
2 – because i already have a team (i have some ideas that i’m trying to launch) this compensation (USD 1,500 per month) will be divided by all members?
1. Cool!
2. The compensation is for the leader of the team. You are free to do with that money whatever you want, of course. As your site starts making money, you can hire and/or pay for more people with said profits. Your employees/team members would each sign an agreement with LetMeGo and LetMeGo would pay them directly. If you already have a company set up, we may reach an agreement so that your company gets paid and it then pays the salaries of your team.
Crowdsourcing at its best
Im looking forward for this opportunity Alexander and Leo!!
Thanks again!!
Hello Alexander,
A few questions:
1) How many providers of lodging services are already using your service? What is the growth rate you have achieved over the last 12 months in number of providers? How is the geografical spread of these providers?
2) You say that “the winner will absorb the other two webs”. What type of compensation do you plan to offer, according to sales and profits achieved by the two “loosers”?
3) Would you consider selling franchise rights for Spanish and Portuguese?
Thanks in advance for your reply,
René de Jong
Hi René! I like your questions. Here are the answers:
1. More than 4,000 right now, most of which register before the open beta was released 10 days ago. Since then, approx 80 new lodgings are subscribing every day. We already have lodgings in 70+ countries. Most of the lodgings are in the US. We have had a strong reception in Italy, India, as well.
2. The only compensation for the losers is the USD 1500/month they get during the six-month competition (totaling USD 9000). We acknowledge that this will be a significant bet for some people and teams, and that is why the rewards for the winners are so generous.
3. Yes. And for any other language, too. If we come across a person/company with enough experience and infrastructure, we are willing to work a licensing and profit-sharing agreement. In fact, we are already working on this agreement of this type, although we are not going to make it public for now.
Dear Alexander,
Mantaining the same numbers:
1) Surely a critical succes factor will be the amount of lodging providers participating. Do you already have some strategic partners (relevant portals) to boost the rithm of new providers participating? Is there a budget available, to boost participation?
2) All fine, but such makes it very “un-rewarding” if there were to be several “candidates” investing 25.000€ or more (for example)
3) You have my e-mail address. I will look forward to specifics.
Have a great weekend,
René de Jong
1. Indeed René. We have both built and secured access to databases of managers of lodgings that we are progressively inviting. We will try to get to 30,000 lodgings by the end of the first year. If everything goes as planned, by the end of 2012 we should have as many lodgings as Expedia or Booking.com currently have. One of the responsibilities of the CEOs of each site is to attract new lodgings from the areas they target. We have an semi-intelligent email campaign management system that allows them to focus on obtaining databases of email address of lodgings. The system will automatically invite those potential lodging staff members and follow up with them. We have several safeguards in place to make sure we don’t end up sending spam.
2. If a company is willing to invest a significant amount of money, and we see more potential with that company than with any of the candidates/teams that apply for the LetMeGo I18N Challenge, we would definitely consider a licensing and profit sharing agreement with said company.
3. Sure René. I’ll ask Leonardo Suarez to contact you
Have a great weekend too! I’ll be working most of the time, though
Ok. I look forward to being contacted on this.
Hello Alex and all readers!
I’m Agustina Gatius.
I want to congratulate the whole team of LetMeGo for this bright idea and the evident great effort behind it.
As I totally agree with the concept of luck expressed in the blog, I’ve decided to make the attempt and assume the challenge
I just wanted to check the applications deadline: in the selection process’ schedule, it goes until 20th feb, but few days ago was published in one of the responses the date 10th of feb.
Thank you very much, and have a good day.
Tini
Hi Tini. I’m sorry for the confusion. The original deadline was Feb 10th. Our public relations team, however, asked us to change it to Feb 20th so that they can get printed business magazines to cover the story in their February issues. As such, the current deadline is Feb 20th.
Thank you for assuming the challenge!
Hello Alexander, congratulations on Letmego. Really nice idea!
We are a web 2.0 shop from Brazil. We have a orkut social app for travelers to share their trips called frombrazil.org and we get very interested in this opportunity.
The main way to invite new lodgings will be by email?
Thank you
@andrefonseca
Thank you André.
Yes, via email. That is the most effective way, among other reasons, because the participating lodgings must already feel comfortable processing inquiries and bookings from travelers via email.
I like the idea beacuse seems to be a great oportunity.
But i have some questions regarding this challenge:
1st: The 1000 USD for advertising is separate for the monthly 1500 USD right?
2. Is there gona be a signed contract for the ones accepted to the challenge?
3. How is the salary (USD 1500) and the advertising budget gona be paid?
4. Do we keep copywright or some rights for the translation?
5. If we become selected as Entrepreneurs what are gona be our duties and obligations? Are we gona be requiered travelling? Are we gona be requiered any specific duties or will we have the chance to decide and work as we consider the best way?
6. In the case that you consider the contest null at mid contest what will happen with the Entrepreneurs who were already contesting?
7. Will we be able to contract outsorcing for customer service infrastructure?
Thank you for the time taken on these questions.
HI Rogelio. Thanks for your interest. Here are the answers:
1. Yes, they are separate.
2. Yes. Legally speaking, it will be an independent contractor agreement between LetMeGo, LLC, a New Jersey company, and each participant of the challenge.
3. The salary will be paid via bank wire. The advertising expenses will be paid by the finance team of LetMeGo LLC to whomever you request us to pay it.
4. The answer here is no. There are two reasons for that:
4.a. It is likely that only the translation of the winning candidate/team will be used, while the other two are going to be discarded after the six-months have passed.
4.b. Given that your translation would be a derivative work of our original copyrighted texts in English, even if you were to own the copyrights of the translation, you would still need our permission to use it outside of LetMeGo. Not only it wouldn’t make sense for LetMeGo to do that, but also some of the texts are used for internal procedures that are consider trade secrets.
5. If and when you become the selected CEO, your duties would continue to be the same as before. You would continue reporting to me directly and continue having the same flexibility that you experience during the first six months of the challenge. You wouldn’t be required to travel, but you would be enticed to do it. After all, LetMeGo is all about traveling!
6. We would give them a 30-day notice before the challenge ends.
7. Yes. Whoever you hire should be comfortable using the ticketing system we use: OTRS. We have customized it and integrate it to seamlessly work with the Merrcury Engine (the software behind LetMeGo).
Great questions, BTW.
Hi Alexander,
I have built an internationally distributed team to participate in the challenge.
Can you tell us more about the evaluation tests? Which subjects will they cover? Will the questions be answered by email?
As each member in my team has a different expertise/background, we would like to select the most suitable one to take the tests.
Regards,
Flavio
Thank you Flavio!
The evaluation tests are going to be a secret until they are posted. They can be answered online. The subjects cover all the areas where we would expect you and your team to be skilled at: translation, copy writing, social marketing, search engine marketing, customer service, communications, analysis, and management.
Given that each test is a surprise, you entire team would have to be ready every day there is a new test.
By the way, the test count increased from six to seven.
Hi Alex
I just want to know if I could apply as a team with a partner we have been working together as a marketing consultant for small and medium enterprices in Colombia. Could we??
Thanks
Thank you Claudia. Yes. As mentioned in the details above, please keep in mind: “This competition is not limited to individuals. If you would prefer to enter as part of a team, the team’s leader should submit the application. Should a team win the competition, the leader will be named CEO of the new company.” and ” If you are representing a team you lead, please include the links to the LinkedIn profiles and online presences of all members of your team.”
Thanks for this opportunity again! Before Feb 20 we send our app!
thanks again!
Hi. Very pleasant data on MLM Leads. I saw your pleasant blog while exploring yahoo. For the last few days I’ve been trying to learn more. Specially anything to do with the actual lead generation or companies making them. I’ve heard it all and my neighbor proceeds pushing her recent lead system fad on me. So I am grateful I encountered you. Take care!
Hi alexander i have a question. Can we programme our app in any language we want? or we have to do it in php??
Thanks!
HI Gaston. We provide the software (the Merrcury Engine – http://letmego.com/pages/technology ). Your job, among other things, would be to translate it. You don’t need to do any programming for that. In fact, you don’t have to have programming skills at all. Basic HTML knowledge is sufficient.
Hello! I have a question Alexander! I am new at this so here is the thing, I would like to know about the app information:1. when we have to do our ‘resume’, what should I put there?
Thank you
I am not sure I understand your question, Zo. Just in case, résumé is a French word used in English to refer to curriculum vitae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum_vitae
Ive just realize that application was to send the emai and wait until Feb 20. I thought we have to programme our app!! Sorry about that!! I have the same question of Zo in “resume”, what should i put there?
Thank You!
The same info you would put in your LinkedIn profile, I guess
Hi Alex, what’s up with my aplication, did you get it? I never got a recieved email confirmation, soo..? I also want to let you know that my team is gathering up and looking foward into this…..
Hello Mike
TY for your follow up and interest in the #letmegochallenge. We are receiving several of applications per day, and we are processing them manually so that we can have a close look at each person or team. If you sent your application during the previous five days, you will receive a message from us soon
Indeed. Thank you Leo!
Hi Alex
It looks being a big challenge-
I do not have any experience in this business, but I think is suitable to start working in this, since you do not require previous experience, and required skills are generall for peole willing to succeed and leadership.
I´ve been reading carefully above questions to get rid of my doubts, and there is some left to clarify:
1- Is this a matter of just translating your core sw to spanish/portugues for the first six moths of contest , or is something else expected from the candidates?
2- For doing that are you going to give us a tool to do that translation compatible with that sw?
3- Is it expected from the candidate to gather new lodging targets from his location during this period?
Thanks for your answers
Hi Juan. Answers to your questions follow:
1. There are many more responsibilities. Please see the section “The Selection Process”, numeral 5.
2. There is a full set of instructions in terms of how to do the translations properly. You are free to use any translation tool or software you want.
3. Yes (as described in the section “The Selection Process”, numeral 5.)
Love it, love it, love it!!
Congratulations, you are doing an excellent job; highly proffesional and neat.
I am amazed at all the ground you are covering each day; specially considering that you are also going through hundreds of resumés.
As an internet lover and a determined gogetter I believe I might belong to your species. You´ll receive my application to the Challenge soon.
But I just wanted to say that you underestimated your PR abilities; you have proven to be very diplomatic and patient in all your answers to the comments above and have answered everyone with perfect detail.
Which just goes to show that excellent customer service is key to succesful business.
Good job!
Thank you Claudia! We look forward for you application.
Hi,
It looks an interesting challenge. However, I still have the following doubts.
1. domain/web page
“… no software development skills required. Basic HTML knowledge is enough.”
Although I understand the code will be hosted in your sever, it is not
clear regarding the new web page layout structure.
Is it going to be an hard structure and the competitors will only be
able translate to native language?
Or is there any flexibility to change and improve minor details (code,
design layout,…) in the new translated page?
“All of the sites will share the same database of users and lodgings,
which will also be shared with LetMeGo.com”
How is it possible to know the number of new lodgings submitted by each site?
2. translation words
How many words are in the official LetMeGo platform to translate to
Spanish/Portuguese?
Would be required to write extra content to have the new site working?
3. credit card merchant
Is it possible for the competitor to choose the merchant company?
Are the competitors in charge of charging the clients and paying to
the apartment owners? Or will it be a task for LetMeGo?
4. customer service
Will the customer service be based on communications with possible
customers or also with apartment owners?
How will be the communication flowchart regarding this issue?
Thanks for your attention
Great questions Pedro. Answers follow:
1a. By default the web page structure will the same (even the colors). You will be able to suggest and influence changes (affecting all sites) that our software development team would implement. You will also be able to customize certain aspects of the landing pages of your site. You will also be able to use Google Website Optimizer if you wish.
1b. Our database keeps track of where each registered user came from. We will be able to provide you with statistics whenever you want them. We also have Google Analytics in place with segmentation configured. This will allow you to track the traffic of visitors to your site and compare it to the other sites.
2. I was waiting for somebody to ask this question
– Approx 40,000 words. No extra content needed.
3. Just in case, I’d like to clarify that LetMeGo doesn’t charge the traveler. The lodging charges the traveler directly and then the lodging pays a commission to LetMeGo. The process of asking the lodgings to pay us is automated, as well as processing the payment. The Operations Team of LetMeGo, lead by Gisella Borja, takes care of the logistics. Question and issues that travelers and lodgings may have would be addressed by you and, eventually, your team.
4. Both: lodgings and travelers. If you need assistance answering questions from lodgings or travelers, the Operations Team and myself will be there to assist you (although we won’t be able to get in touch directly with lodgings or travelers given the language barriers).
Dear Alexander,
Thank you for your reply!
1 and 2. Ok! Clarified.
3. After reading your answer I figured my question does not make any sense.
This point in lodgings section http://letmego.com/welcome was reason of my doubt:
“5. You charge prepayments to the credit cards, if required.”
If the traveler submits the credit card to LetMeGo, I wrongly thought it was charged by your company and forwarded to the lodging.
Apologize for my mistake!
4. Last question regarding this point.
Working abroad, the email or chat assistance will not be a problem to handle, OTRS system can be used anywhere through internet.
However, would like to know how can competitors may manage the voice assistance. Do you have any Voip Pbx central working which can provide extensions, attach DID numbers, … in order to be used by competitors customer service members? Will competitors have to setup and run their own Pbx system?
Regards,
Pedro Daniel
Hi Pedro. In reference to your question 5: We use Ring Central for our phone system and all the candidates will be using it too. Ring Central is a very powerful system that allows for queues, scheduling, and different languages. Each candidate should hire the phone companies that will forward calls from local phone numbers in the countries they target to the United States Ring Central number assigned to their team. The cost will be paid by LetMeGo, of course. Please let me know if this explanation is clear, as I fear I may be confusing you.
Hi Alexander!
I’m comfortable with PBX centrals customization (asterisk, trixbox,…) and as long as Ring Central is able to attach DID numbers for incoming calls, have voices in Spanish/Portuguese in the platform and forward calls to SIP/external numbers it will be easy to work with.
Do not know this Ring Central company but after a brief visit to their site just figured you must beware for traffic over 5000 minutes, after that minute become very expensive.
Just wanted to have an idea of what you pretend to do regarding this issue, further details will be discussed if you select my application.
Regards,
Pedro Daniel
Around 96% of the tickets we are currently handling for the English version of LetMeGo are email and online chat. Less than 4% are phone calls. It is not likely that we will go over 5,000 minutes per month per user ever. The highest cost, though, is not likely to be Ring Central, but the call forwarding cost from each country to our US phone numbers (we are not using DID). The good news is that the rates keep going down every year and are relatively competitive right now.
Alexander, thanks for your attention!
It makes sense, not having a 800 number in US the numbers tend to be higher with chat and email. Not criticizing because I always defended internet services should have a fast email ticket service to satisfy the customer and a good online chat to capture new clients. Phone service would be mainly to customers not comfortable with internet. My two cents…
If you do not have DID numbers, I may imagine the costs are high if you are using virtual office services or other kind of platforms to forward the calls to your US numbers.
Regards,
Pedro Daniel
Kind of: http://www.mydivert.com/
Just checked the company.
It looks like DID numbers forwarded to SIP and PSTN numbers depending of your configuration. Now I understand why your phone numbers do not look like premium ones, it seems they do not allow you to choose numbers.
Before giving any opinion I would need to know several things like how much they charge for channels, the codec they use, location of the forwarding numbers, ability to receive SIP calls, monthly minutes… Only with some information it would be possible to know if there is a chance to cut your costs.
If you feel your company is spending too much regarding this matter, just drop me an email and I may help you if you want.
Regards,
Pedro Daniel
Portugal is not Brazil, and Brazil is not Portugal. Different culture and costums, different wheather, different continents, so many special things abouth each one that mixing them together as one… just ruins anything.
Not respecting one’s social and cultural basis is not the best of marketing campaigns. Portugal is also appointed many times as a Spanish province, why don’t you put Portugal under the Spanish project as well? There might be more similarities between spanish and portuguese than with brasilians.
I wantED to apply…
Miguel: prejudging, nationalism, and sarcasm don’t mix well either, as you just did. Although I don’t appreciate the tone of your comment, I will take the time to explain in detail how we address localization (L10N), as others may be interested.
For all languages for which we localize the Merrcury Engine (the software behind LetMeGo) we will have one common customer service team and one core translation. Each language will be able to have many flavors for different countries under different domains and subdomains. Each flavor can have its own tweaked translations (to account for local jargon and grammar), landing pages, marketing efforts (including search engine optimization), etc.
For example: for the Portuguese language we will have one core translation and one customer service team. This team will be able to address questions from users in Portugal, Brazil, Angola,, etc (accent is not a significant issue, given than 99% of our interactions with customers are via email and chat). Each country can have its own domain (for example, brand.com.br, brand.pt, etc). The translations for each site can be tweaked so Brazilian readers read, for example, “óptimo”, while Portuguese readers (from Portugal) read “ótimo”. The same customization can be applied to all marketing efforts.
In fact, we already have done this in the English version of LetMeGo: we have letmego.com and letmego.ca – LetMeGo.ca uses metric units (kilometers, etc) and contains a few different words than LetMeGo.com. LetMeGo.com uses imperial units (miles, etc) and uses the core translation. Dates are also shown differently on each site given that the standards of each country differ. BTW, we will be releasing the British and Australian version of LetMeGo pretty soon.
Hi, In the application proccess where it says “how to apply” there is one step Im not quite sure what do you mean, it says:
” A link to your LinkedIn profile. If you are representing a team you lead, please include the links to the LinkedIn profiles of all members of your team.”
What is LinkedIn profile?
Thanks you very much and regards!
David: http://www.linkedin.com/
Dear LetMeGo friends,
One issue is puzzling me, you say that “Each entrepreneur’s site will have a unique domain name. At the end of this period, the site with the most income in each language will absorb the other two companies competing in the same language.”.
Do you forecast any possible problems at this stage where one site will absorb the other two? Business relationships most of the times come down to people and even personal relationships, there´s a certain risk from my point of view with this merger.
Another question that follows this one: will the customers be aware of this possible merger during the process?
Thank you.
Cheers!
Hi Paulo.
In reference to your first question: There are several possibilities for the absorption: a) we could keep the different brands or b) announce the users of the two losing brands that our services have been renamed. It is too early to tell how the process will be done then, but we will try to do it in such a way that it adds value to our efforts.
In reference to your second question: They could (by reading this blog and, maybe, the blogs of the candidates) but they don’t have to. There is nothing set in LetMeGo that would automatically tell them.
Hi Alexander,
I hope this message finds you well.
I run a resort in Portugal wich joined letmego.com beta version and we exchagend a couple of e-mails.
Just a few quick questions that might interest everyone:
1. Does the lodgings we must gather for our site have to be only from our country?
2. You say that the winner will be the one with the better revenue. Having Portugal, Brazil, Angola,..diferent population and consequently diferent markets, is it fair we all have the same measurement?
3. You also say “As your site starts making money, you can hire and/or pay for more people with said profits.” Will we have access to the money paid by the lodgings during the contest?
BTW congratulations on your initiative.
Best regards,
Fernando Moura
Hi Fernando. Answers follow:
1. From anywhere in the world, but we would expect most of them to be in your markets. In your case, Portugal and Brazil, primarily.
2. It is up to you to decide which countries to target and the order. You should start with the country(ies) that you think will bring the most revenue to your site. Please note that we are looking for Language Managers, not Country Managers.
3. Yes. You will have access to the net profits generated by your site to buy and hire new resources.
Thank you Fernando!
Hi Alexander,
What do you have scoped as acceptable affiliate marketing? SEO, SEM, and Email only?
Is banner advertising acceptable? I assume it is with the exception of sites which Google, Yahoo, and Bing qualify through their third party search testing contractors as ‘partial spam’, ’spam’, ‘malicious’ and ‘pornography’.
If permitted, while seeking out direct affiliates with banner advertising would I be able compensate these sites directly based only on a successful transaction? Or would they be paid by letmego.com? I assume here that any such compensation would be taken directly from the income of the site. In this scenario there is no issue since a user completed a transaction to be able to pay the affiliate.
Also, is the site capable of tracking and reporting HTTP referrers along with information to see if a user completed a transaction? Is the activity and tracking on the site a third party app?
Can the site report whether a user completed a transaction from an affiliate based on say a unique transaction ID that could be stored in a log file which could then be parsed? If not, does the site log files capture enough data so I can parse this information with either a readily available parser on the internet or one I create myself?
Thanks,
-Ricky
Ricardo,
Thank you for your comments.
The LetMeGo Team is working very hard to launch a referral program that includes all of the functionalities that you are asking for and much more.
Our referral program will allow participating members to share links, banners, to start their own customized marketing campaigns, and, of course, get paid. We will track all transactions in our system to properly reward our affiliates.
LetMeGo will encourage all its users to actively participate in the referral program once it goes live during the second quarter of this year.
Stay tuned!
Alberto Dominguez
Referral Program Manager
Hello Alexandar,
what if I don’t have a LinkedIn profile? Is it a MUST to create one for the application process?
Thanks in advance,
Ivan
I don’t believe it’s mandatory, though I believe it is a matter of common sense: if you expect to grow an online business, you should have presence in the main social networks out there, shouldn’t you?
Jaime, are you part of the LetMeGo team or a candidate as well? -Thank you anyway
Hi Ivan. Jaime is correct. Thank you.
Hi. I have a simple question: The resume must be in English, or can I attach my Spanish one? Thanks
I would encourage you to have your resume in both languages and submit both.
Also, take into account that you have to include “A paragraph in English explaining what makes you the best candidate for the position” anyway.
Dear Alexander,
First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer all the questions about this challenge.
I have been reading the information exchanged between the candidates and you and I found almost all answers concerning the few doubts I had about this challenge, I’m amazed with the organization of this project, congratulations!
However, I would like your opinion about this:you have said that you expect the challenger to market lodgings mainly in his own area, dont you think we should find lodgings around the world according to the needs of my market? according to the most requested destinations of my potential users? let’s say we have statistics of Brazilian travel market and we know one of the favorite destination is Italy, shouldn’t we target more the lodgings in this specific country?
I definitely believe that our customers should be found in my own area, among portuguese speaking communities, but im not sure about the lodgings
these potential customers, or users, depending on their profile, social situation, etc..are going to be travelling abroad, so do you still believe that the lodgings have to be found in our own area?
Of course internal or national tourism is to be taken into consideration, but what do you think about this issue? how did you do it for the english version?
Thanks in advance.
Best Regards,
Milena
Thank you Milena.
Indeed, you should focus on attracting lodgings in the most popular destinations of the travelers. Chances are, though, that the most popular destinations will be the local markets. Notwithstanding, when attracting lodgings from other markets, we will be able to attract them to the Portuguese or English version of LetMeGo, depending on the language they speak.
The English version is attracting lodgings worldwide. Around 50% of the databases of email addresses we have secured are from the US and Canada. Here you can the global distribution of lodgings that are already using LetMeGo: http://letmego.com/submit/united_states?TargetMarket=1,2,3,4&LodgingType=1,10,11,12,13,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9&G_type=BOUNDING_BOX&C_0_lt=61.27023279000063&C_0_lg=153.984375&C_1_lt=-58.44773280389082&C_1_lg=-166.640625
Hi! By reading the questions above, I could´n find the exactly answer for the doubt I have in mind …
How can I assure that the reservation has been effective made? Because the lodging may omit the confirmation and consequently omit my commission…..
And another thing; I´m not sure about the time you give us to launch the site …Is it on March 15th? Or is on May 3rd?
Thanks a lot!
Hi Victoria. Answers follow:
If the lodging omits the confirmation during the first 24 hours after its creation, the booking is automatically cancelled and the traveler is informed. A ticket is also is created so that you or a member of your team investigates the issue.
March 15 you start working. You will have 47 days to translate the site and have it ready by May 3rd, when all of them are launched.
Alexander,
Just heard about I18N, I know I´m already late for this one but I would like to participate in further alike challenges, bet you already have something in mind, don’t you?
Regards,
Guillermo
Thank you Guillermo. Not for now, really. Sorry.
Hello Alexander
Being a native portuguese speaking, let me ask you if I still can apply for this challenge ???
Thanks
BR
Hi Seve. We have moved on to the testing stage of the challenge (we are already in our third day of tests). I’m sorry for that.
Looks like a really exciting and interesting opportunity. In case you open new contests, are they going to be announced directly in your website? Because I learned about this one via bumeran.com
Regards and congrats for the project!!
Yes Francisco. They would be announced here or at http://letmego.com/pages/careers
Hi Alexander,
So bad I just saw this opportunity now, wish I had gotten this information before it expired. I would be one of the entrepreneurs selected for South America. I’m sure. Let me know if you plan to open more chances soon. Great idea!
Thanks, Sueli
Hi Sueli. We definitely will.
Hi to you all,
After reading the blog, and all the links refered, i stil have some questions about the way the sites will integrade with each other. My questions are:
1. The Portuguese version and the Spanish version, will offer the LetMeGo lodgings for a travel destination? And the other way around?
1.1 In that case to what site will the 10% profit goes to?
1.2 If not. Can we work as a global lodgings site, but in Portuguese language?
2. Can the Portuguese version and the Spanish version be multi-lingual? The question ask to reasons:
a) The content for Portugal and Brasil are little bit different (ie: user PT:utilizador BZ:usuário).
b) A lodging owner in Portugal has interested in having is office in Portugues, English, French, German
3. Is expected in the near future a translation tool, to help lodgings on the traslate of the content of theirs ads?
4.I can imagine the hard-work you guys are having. Reviewing the contestants work, but a real date for the winners announcement should be made public…
LetMeGo : Keep up the good work.
Contestants : Congratulations to all, we deserve it for the effort driven and the commitment to get it donne…
Best of luck to all from Portugal to the World!
Hello Pedro!
Here are the answers:
1. Yes
1.1. It will be split 50/50 between the site being used by the lodging and the site being used by the traveler
2. Yes.
2.a. Each language will be able to have many flavors for different countries under different domains and subdomains. Each flavor can have its own tweaked translations (to account for local jargon and grammar), landing pages, marketing efforts (including search engine optimization), etc. For example: for the Portuguese language we will have one core translation, but each country can have its own domain (for example, brand.com.br, brand.pt, etc). The translations for each site can be tweaked so Brazilian readers read, for example, “óptimo”, while Portuguese readers (from Portugal) read “ótimo”. The same customization can be applied to all marketing efforts. In fact, we already have done this in the English version of LetMeGo: we have letmego.com and letmego.ca – LetMeGo.ca uses metric units (kilometers, etc) and contains a few different words than LetMeGo.com. LetMeGo.com uses imperial units (miles, etc) and uses the core translation. Dates are also shown differently on each site given that the standards of each country differ. BTW, we will be releasing the British and Australian version of LetMeGo pretty soon.
2.b. Yes, lodgings will be able to provide information in all of the languages in which we have sites, if they want to.
3. We will point them to Language123.com, so that they can hire a professional translator if they want to.
4. Sunday, before midnight, US ET
Great questions!
Alex,
Thanks for the quick and direct answers.
About the translation, i understand the intention for direct the person to language123.com, but the main lodgers would be ok with the standard translation like “google translater”, and as a alternative professional language123.com
One of many ideas …. but the Kiss principle is very important in this phase of the project…
Can´t wait for sunday 8th…
The automatic Google translation will be done for them without even asking
– Language123.com will be suggested if they want to provide a pro translation.
That would be Fantastic!
Is there any place online to post ideas and suggestions for LetMeGo?
On the near future, with the new 6 sites, how will be the deployment made? On all sites at the same time? Will we have several stages to test the new features in our language?
Will we know in advance new features, that need translation?
Hi Alexander!
I still have a few doubts …
First of all, where are you from? Colombia? And which is the physical place where your offices are? NYC or Colombia?I mean from which place are you working? …
Other thing; The 10% you said that Let me go earns with every booking, is also going to be for the new site?(the site that each entrepreneur will launch on the first stage)? Or the entrepreneur will earn only the USD 1500 salary from Let me go?
And the last one; The 1500 dollars each entrepreneur will receive, is going to be paid before or after translation? because if it is after, how I can ensure that payment?
Thanks a lot Alexander and best regards!
Victoria.
Hi Victoria!
We are from many different countries. I was born in Colombia. I live in New jersey. My offices are in Manhattan. Other members of the team work from our offices in Manhattan, Bogota, or from home.
The 10% is for the site, not the candidates. The candidates will only get the USD 1,500 per month. The selected CEO will get salary + stocks + share of dividends as described above.
The USD 1,500 will be paid monthly, at the end of each month. We will sign a US-based contract before you start to work, of course.
Hi Victoria:
The profit of the new sites (10%). It was explain in a previous post. Will be available online to see by by the CEO candidate, and can be re-invested for contracting new personal for the site or services. All contracts will be established with LetMeGo and not local.
With Alex answers and this one, i guess it closes all the questions posted…
Ok. Pedro. Thanks for your answer too…But are you part of Let Me go´s team? Or just a simple contestant? Thanks again.
Victoria: Pedro is one of the candidates.
Actually i just have a doubt about this information.
When you say at the end of each month exactly what do you mean.
As i understood the 6 candidates will start on march 15th right. Then when you say the end of each month you mean the last days of march or 30 days after beggining?
Just to have it completely clear.
Best Regards.
The end of each month (March, for example), and not the end of each 30-day period. Of course, the payment will be prorated to take into account for partial months.
Unfortunatelly I didn’t see this opportunity in time to take partof the process.
Just in case, I would like to know if there is any way to apply even after the dadline expiration.
Thanks in advance.
Cassio.
PS: Any way, congratulations. Great idea, A+ on innovation and LEAN practice.
Thank you Cassio. Unfortunately it is already too late. We are already interviewing the candidates that submitted the best tests.
Hi,
Alexander, it´s possible that you don´t get the 3 people to Portuguese contest ?, if so your company open the contest again ?
Given that we have a significant number of good candidates, it is not likely that we will have to run the contest again.
Hi, I understand and Unfortunatelly I didn’t see this opportunity in time, It´s life.
In meanwhile, I have some good ideas to your world project that could help your grow, so if you think one conversation by email or skype could have interest to you say something.
Best regards,
hi alex,
i have a question, we did not receive the email before friday midnight and we want to know our status!
thank you again!
gaston
Hello Gastón,
If you didn’t receive an email telling that you are no longer participating in the process, your tests have been in some way accepted to continue.
So, you are still in the process. Details will be provided via email.
Thank you for your patience.
hi alex,
we have just recieved an email,
thanks!!
Hola, yo estoy disponible, estoy en Italia..!
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Sure it is: http://getsatisfaction.com/letmego
We have a development and staging environment for each site where you will be able to see the new features working and do the proper translation.
We will teach you in detail how our deployment methodology works if you are one of the six selected candidates.