EP Business in Hospitality Issue 48 - January 2014

BUSINESS
WHERE DO YOU GO FOR RECOMMENDATIONS ON ACTIVITIES OR EXPERIENCES IN YOUR CITY
OR WHEN YOU TRAVEL ABROAD? MANY OF US RELY ON FRIENDS, BUT A RISE IN REVIEW AND
RECOMMENDATION WEBSITES HAVE FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED HOW WE ANSWER THESE
QUESTIONS. THE “THINGS TO DO” SECTOR IS ESTIMATED TO BE WORTH €230BN
WORLDWIDE. LIME&TONIC ARE AIMING TO BECOME THE LEADING ONLINE PLATFORM FOR
MARKETING PREMIUM EXPERIENCES. WITH AMBITIOUS PLANS TO BE IN 50 CITIES BY THE
END OF 2016, NICOLE THOMPSON MET CO-FOUNDER STEFAN CORDINER TO LEARN MORE
The company started out
in 2011 offering special
activities in Prague and
has quickly expanded to
a range of more than 1,000
experiences across seven cities around
the world. These can include themed
afternoon teas, private group dinner
parties at unusual venues and a series
of different masterclasses. Lime&Tonic
launched in London in summer 2012
and this year saw the launch of their
digital concierge app.
“I was first approached with the idea in
2010 by my co-founder David O’Sullivan.
By this time I had already completed my
third start-up and was looking for my
next opportunity. Through my previous
ventures I had learned a lot about the
management of start-ups and had
developed a list of things I would never
repeat when forming a business. While
Lime&Tonic didn’t meet all the criteria at
first, the core concept was very appealing
and it was the first idea that I was willing
to make work.”
Stefan speaks with an air of quiet
confidence. The experiences leading
up to founding Lime&Tonic have shaped
the way the company is managed.
After obtaining a degree in management
specialising in hospitality operations,
he worked for a number of years in
hotels and restaurants in Sydney and
the London area, before moving to
Prague for love. It was here that Stefan
found his second love – he’s a committed
entrepreneur. In the space of 10 years
he has set up four ventures and been
involved in numerous other projects,
including one of the first online
company formation businesses,
a specialised accountancy consultancy
and an online residential real-estate
portal for investors in Central and
Eastern Europe. Alongside his different
ventures, Stefan also established the
Czech Angel Investor Network (which
was part of the European business angels
network) and developed contacts that
have become fundamental to the
Lime&Tonic business today.
“After successfully launching in Prague,
the next city we chose was Sydney, where
I’m from. It was important for us to
expand into cities where we already
had contacts. Looking back,” Stefan says,
laughing, “Sydney was probably not the
best choice as the second city. The time
difference meant Dave and I weren’t
sleeping for the first few months!
“Each city we have picked afterwards
has been with the help of our contacts.
Not only did the business angels become
part of our user base, they would also
help source contracts for our following
locations and usually help out as well.
“The guiding mantra, our ‘why’, at
Lime&Tonic, is to enrich people’s lives
through unforgettable experiences.
This is the first company that I have
been involved in where everybody
really, really stands by the company’s
values. Not only do our team members
believe in our concept, but the
merchants are happy, we have a lot
of engagement from the customers
purchasing the experiences and a very
supportive group of investors. We share
the feedback that we receive from our
customers during company meetings.
One of our experiences in Dubai has
become very popular for engagements
– it has witnessed four successful
proposals already.
“Over three years we have delivered
over 85,000 paid consumers to the
restaurants of our 250-plus premium/
five-star merchants, delivering
€2.4 million in sales. We have more
than 1,100 experiences across our
seven cities.”
So how does London compare to
other cities?
“London has been a tricky city, but
we’ve learned from experience that this is
due to the size of the market available in
large cities. The consumer base tends to
be more fickle because they have more
options or already established
competition. Metrics in London, such as
average spend per head, are lower than
smaller cities, yet cost of acquisition per
consumer is much higher. We still
consider it to be an important base and
have managed to create well-respected
partnerships so far – we just expect our
growth period to be less steep here than
smaller cities where we have managed
to dominate the market.”
After hearing Stefan speak so
passionately about Lime&Tonic, I ask the
inevitable question: what is the exit plan?
“When going through our first round
of funding we were asked to put a plan
together by our investors. Our marketing
platform gets more powerful as our user
database grows and, as we expand into
different countries, we become more
relevant to consumer-facing businesses,
like credit-card companies, who may be
searching for a concierge solution for their
gold and platinum cardholders. Ideally we
would be taken over by a company that
matches our desire to keep on enriching
the lives of our user base through the
provision of unique experiences.”
Vienna and Istanbul are set to launch
as official cities in 2014. They will also be
focusing on the US market and looking at
“secondary cities” such as Las Vegas,
Austin and Seattle, where their
competitors, Sosh and YPlan, aren’t
present. Lime&Tonic will also be starting
their next round of fundraising in America
after finding the London market quite
sluggish while looking for funds.
With hopes of establishing a database
of 10,000 experiences in 50 cities by 2016,
it will be interesting to track Lime&Tonic
as they expand. •
EP | January 14 | 45