Alexander’s Blog – The Making of LetMeGo

We have great news for lodgings that require travelers to submit booking prepayments via PayPal: LetMeGo now allows them to set “PayPal” as one of the payment methods that they accept. When a traveler decides to book an offer submitted by one of those lodgings, we will ask the lodging staff to contact the traveler directly, in order to provide instructions for processing the PayPal payment.

If you already have a lodging listing in LetMeGo and wish to start accepting bookings with PayPal, please update its payment methods by following these steps:

1. Go to “My Lodgings“
2. Click on “Update Listing Details”
3. Scroll down to the “Payment Methods” section, click on it, and follow the instructions.

If you previously completed a lodging listing in LetMeGo, but deleted it after you found out that LetMeGo previously could not work with PayPal-only lodgings, please contact us and we will restore the listing for you.

If you have questions, click here to contact us via email, online chat, or phone.

Alexander Torrenegra
(Check out my LetMeGo Profile)

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 six 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 six 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:

1. Applications will be received until Feb 20th, 2010, at 1:59 PM (13:59) US Easter Standard Time. More details below.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Before March 15th, the six selected entrepreneurs will be announced.
5. 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.
6. From April 5th, 2010 through Oct 4th 2010, each entrepreneur will receive a small compensation of USD 1,500 per month.
7. On May  17th, six weeks after starting translation and localization, the six entrepreneurs will launch their sites.
8. Each entrepreneur will have a budget of USD 1,000 for marketing for the six 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).
9. On Oct 4th, 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.

The last two years have been Ieading up to this post. I am ecstatic to finally be able to announce that LetMeGo is open for business–our public beta has officially launched. As a traveler, you and everyone you know can now submit your itinerary and let lodgings bid for you stay. Please note that during this initial period, we’re focusing mostly on lodgings in the U.S. and Canada, though we have a number of lodgings located in other areas of the world, as well. To submit your itinerary go to http://letmego.com/submit

We will retain the “beta” tag for now, as we may still have to iron some details out; nevertheless, as of this moment, if you book a lodging through LetMeGo you will be covered by our 120% satisfaction guarantee (more details coming soon).

Dozens of people have helped us get to this point. The list is so long, that I decided to give proper credit to everyone in here: http://letmego.com/pages/credits – To all of you who helped: THANK YOU!!!

It is now up to the public to validate our dreams and ideas or to confirm our worst nightmares . You can still help, of course. First of all, please use us to choose the lodgings for your next vacation, business trip, or any other time you need the best lodgings for the best possible price. Also, cross your fingers and wish really hard for LetMeGo and our team to succeed. And, of course, spread the word!

Thanks for following our development of this massive project, and welcome to LetMeGo.

Alexander Torrenegra

This is me doing what I do best: sitting, isolated, behind a computer screen. Tania took this photo in 2002 as we started building Voice123.

I don’t like doing myself what most people call “public relations” (PR). I personally don’t like to sell stuff, especially face-to-face. That is why, several years ago, I decided to move away from offering and selling professional services. I focused on building online marketplaces where all transactions would take place online, and for the most part, automatically. Our first marketplaces, Voice123 and Language123, are business-to-business ventures serving small niches. For these efforts, there was little need for a comprehensive PR strategy, and indeed, these businesses grew for many years without any proactive PR effort.

LetMeGo is a whole different ball game, though. Given that this is our first business-to-consumer service, and it is an upstart competitor in an industry dominated by large players where PR is virtually mandatory, I knew long ago that we would eventually have to develop a comprehensive strategy. Still, since didn’t have a clear PR effort for LetMeGo until a few months ago. Now, not only we have a plan and a person in charge, but we have brought two experts on board to help us in this front: Brett McCallon, whom I already blogged about, and Caroline Andoscia. Caroline is the founder of Andoscia Communications, a PR firm. Caroline’s background includes being the Director of PR at Condé Nast Traveller.

And that’s not it. LetMeGo recently won the PS10 competition. The prize for the winning company is a PR campaign for the Latin American market. The campaign is to be headed by Andres Barreto (@andresbarreto) with the help of María del Carmen Lara (@mariadelcarmenlara) and Juan David Vargas (@nozuan). This prize comes in very handy, as we will soon announce our plans for the Spanish and Portuguese versions of LetMeGo, for which we didn’t have a PR strategy, either.

Brett, Caroline, Andres, María del Carman, and Juan David are currently working on the PR strategy that we will execute during the next few months as the beta version of LetMeGo is opened to the public and then LetMeGo is officially launched. The results of their efforts, the PR buzz, should be visible to you quite soon.

Alexander Torrenegra

The above title may seem a little odd, but it’s the best phrase I can come up with to express how I’ve felt when watching the user videos that usertesting.com have been delivering to us. Their testers are trained to speak their minds as they go about testing sites.

We purchased several test sessions from them as part of our private beta testing, and split the tests into two sessions. In the first session, the tester submits an itinerary. In the second session, the tester compares the bids he or she receives, and tries to book a lodging.

This video (click to watch) shows one of the picture-perfect tests we got from the first session. As you become immersed in the video, perhaps you will feel as I felt when I watched: as if I was listening directly to his mind.

Alexander Torrenegra

I have written about the ideal size of development teams here and here. In short, I consider that a product developer and manager, like myself, should not try to handle a development team of more than six people. I’m currently managing seven or, better put, one too many.

What to do if I want to increase the size of the dev team, anyway? Build another team, of course! Building a new team is not easy, though. In the case of LetMeGo, the first step is to find the leader for said team: a person with experience in software architecture, software development, quality assurance, product development, project management, customer experience management, and marketing. Luckily, I happen to know a person with said skills: Alberto Dominguez.

Alberto worked for a few months with Torrenegra Labs, the parent company of LetMeGo, doing research. Before that, Alberto was project developer with StudioCom where he was in charge of MyCokeRewards.com, among other projects, for several years.

Alberto won’t be managing people initially. Before I allow him to build a team and delegate tasks, he will have to show me what parts of the product development process he can handle perfectly (yes, I’m a mad perfectionist!). Only then I will allow him to hire people for his team.

Bringing Alberto to the team is quite a bet, both for him and for LetMeGo, as we are not $elf-$ustainable yet. Fortunately, Alberto has an entrepreneurial drive and he is willing to assume the challenge. As for LetMeGo, I believe that luck is just a matter of taking advantage of opportunities when they show up. Hiring Alberto may be one of those moments that define luck for me. Welcome to the team Alberto!

Alexander Torrenegra

You can follow Alberto in Twitter (in a feed containing a potpourri of both English and Spanish) at @simpleprojectz.