PATH TO GROWTH
Everyone is familiar with the feeling of being bored and wanting to enrich one’s life by learning something meaningful. Orkun Gedik, an industrial engineer, and Philipp Tachas, a consultant and corporate strategist, heard several stories of frustration from people within their network who were trying to find suitable classes and instructors. Both of them had experienced the same issues and realised this was a pain point waiting to be addressed.
In 2016, the duo conceptualised the idea of skilldeer.com, an easyto-use platform that allows users to search, find and enroll in any sort of class, course and workshop or leisure activity in their city with minimal hassle.
They received seed funding from an anonymous backer in January 2017; the money helped them launch the website in May that year with 6 employees, including Web developers, content producer, sales executive and customer care manager.
In February 2018, the investor increased funding, bringing the total amount deployed to more than $1 million (Dh3.67 million) , making them a series A startup.
Skilldeer records 300 bookings per month and an average monthly revenue growth of 20 per cent. Website traffic has risen from 10,000 in mid-2017 to 100,000 today.
“Since the launch in 2017, we have enjoyed a very healthy growth rate of 20 per cent per month on average. This initial success led to another funding tranche, which not only puts us in a comfortable financial situation but also allows us to grow our team, expand to other markets and increase our brand awareness,” says Tachas, cofounder and CEO of skilldeer.
Skilldeer plans for regional expansion across the UAE and Saudi Arabia by Q1 2019 and later to Bahrain as well.
“We collaborate with qualified educational providers and instructors, digitise their schedules, optimise their content and list their classes with a price advantage on our website. This significantly eases the process for users to search, find and enroll in most suitable classes or activities based on their specific price, time, location or age requirements,” Tachas explains.
We want to change the way people spend their free time in a day and age where a lot of it is spent on frivolous social media browsing
Orkun Gedik, Co-founder and COO, Skilldeer
Select class or activity
“We spend a significant amount of time searching, comparing and vetting our listed partners to ensure users have access to a high quality, varied portfolio of leading educational providers and learning experiences,” he adds.
Gedik, co-founder and COO, claims that Skilldeer’s offering includes exclusive classes. For instance, a woodworking course where one can learn how to make furniture, a magic class taught by a famous illusionist or even a 5-day perfume making workshop.
“We want to change the way people across the region spend their free time in a day and age where a lot of it is spent on frivolous social media browsing. This is why we have created a digital gateway to a real world of knowledge sharing, connecting and communicating, a world of endless possibilities.” Choose date and time
“We do not have a rival in this space as we are pioneers. However, this does not make us complacent. Our success has inspired us to continue to innovate and enhance our offering. Eventually, we want to go global and launch the platform in new cities across the world like London, Singapore and Berlin,” says Gedik.
“We are planning to launch a dedicated service for corporate clients to make it easier for them to find and organise any sort of corporate event or team-building activity,” he adds.
Skilldeer is planning a new funding round in Q1 2019.
“Our current investor will also take the decision if and when to approach potential new investors. The key purpose of the next funding round is to make Skilldeer ready to launch in new countries/ cities. We have started to take a Pay and enjoy Philipp Tachas,
Co-founder and CEO, Skilldeer
closer look not only at countries in this region but also beyond. We believe our business model and platform have the quality to succeed and prove that startups from this region can compete anywhere,” says Tachas.
“Our key objective is to build a brand which people recognise and trust. To achieve that, we are not only putting a lot of effort and money into different marketing channels — mainly digital ones — but also into providing a unique customer experience. From the first point of contact until the first booking and successful course completion, we accompany our customers along the entire process with the intention to become the one-stop-shopping platform of choice when looking for learning and leisure activities,” Tachas concludes.