LetMeGo Is Open (beta) For Business!
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
Public Relations and the LetMeGo Launch
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
Listening the Minds of the Beta Testers
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
The Dev Team of LetMeGo Gets Super-Sized
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.
P.S. The Kubrrick Scope Was Ready On Monday
The Kubrrick Scope was the last scope of the Merrcury Engine (the software behind LetMeGo) to be completed for the private beta. I’m writing about it now, instead of prior to the beta launch, because we released the private beta the moment Kubrrick became ready. The Kubrrick Scope includes many of the system’s most traveler-facing features: submitting an itinerary, inviting lodgings to submit bids, and comparing those bids once they are received.
I won’t provide many details here, as beta testers can experience this system for themselves right now. If you would like to become a beta tester, you can apply here.
One of the features of Kubrick is the Heuristic Algorithm for Lodgings (HAL for short) that will match itineraries with lodgings.
Graphic design on the Kubrrick Scope started last year and was created, as with all other scopes, by Javier “Maestro” Mesa. Coding started in November of 2008. Most of the coding and unit testing was done by Henry “Tufla” Canastero. Omar Duque, German “Gonzo” Gonzalez, Nicolas “Nickman” Bohorquez, and Luis Betancourt also contributed to the coding. Automated Selenium testing are being done by Gisella “Gigi” Borja and Sergio Perilla. In other words: almost everybody had a hand in making Kubrrick a reality. Thank you team!
Alexander Torrenegra
P.S. Kubrrick was not named after a musician (as it is the case for all other scopes of the Merrcury Engine). It was named after one of our favorite movie directors, Stanley Kubrick.
The LetMeGo Private Beta Has Begun! Help Wanted.
After almost two years of development, more than 40,000 hours of hard-work, a 90-day immersion, and an investment that would allow a family of 4 to live in Tahiti for more than two decades, we have completed the beta version of LetMeGo, and it has gone live. Initially, the beta will only be accessible to a select group of beta testers. In a few weeks, we will complete this private beta period, and then we will open the doors to everybody.
While we are certain that our superhuman team of coders have created a totally flawless service that will work perfectly from day one, we think we should probably test out everything, just to be on the safe side. This is where you come in. The private beta will mark the first time that anyone outside of our team will get to see what we have created, and we’re very excited for you to test it out.
You may have participated in a private beta before–if not, here’s a quick explanation of the sorts of things you can help us with:
In essence, we want you to use our site as if you were a traveler who wants to journey to various places (in the U.S. and Canada only, at the moment). You will create itineraries, and then invite certain participating lodgings to bid on your itinerary. If you find that something about the experience doesn’t work, is wonky, or is simply confusing, you inform our customer service agents (LetMeGo aMeGoes), and we address the problem.
If you think you can help us, please click here to register for the private beta.
Alexander Torrenegra
P.S. I happen to be traveling in the Chilean and Argentinean Andes today. While I certainly didn’t plan to be traveling during the release of the LetMeGo Private Beta, my travels have left me even more convinced of the site’s potential. As I talk with small owner/operators of individual lodgings, who are eager to offer customized lodgings to each customer and who don’t work with the big online travel agencies, I see endless opportunities for these owners, for travelers, and for LetMeGo.
View of the Lanin Volcano from the the Argentinean-Chilean border over the Andes.
The Brrown Scope’s Got A Brand New Bag
The Brrown Scope is one of the many scopes that we use to organize the systems of the Merrcury Engine (the software behind LetMeGo). Brrown encompasses the features that allow lodgings to submit bids and create offers, which travelers can then compare, choose, and book. It’s development and testing is now complete. It will soon go live as part of the private beta release of LetMeGo.
The Brrown Scope is, arguably, the most experimental feature of LetMeGo. While reverse auctions have been used successfully in a number of industries (and we, at Torrenegra Labs, have created several sites based on this business model), LetMeGo is the first marketplace that applies this model to the lodging industry on a major scale. This means we had to address several challenges with this scope:
- The interfaces couldn’t be modeled after prior work, since we had never attempted anything this complex.
- The bidding process had to be simple enough that first-time users would simply “get” it, without the need for any additional training.
- The system had to be flexible enough to meet the needs of many different types of lodgings, all around the world. Each lodging must be able to properly submit a bid that is in line with its business rules and limitations.
While I documented all of the original requirements, I found myself dissatisfied with the features resulting from that documentation (though the team had executed according to my original requests). Because this scope, and these features, were so crucial to the overall success of LetMeGo, I ended up requesting significant overhauls for several features of Brrown even after they had already been coded and tested extensively. Naturally, this led to unfortunate delays in the development process. However, I am pleased to note that the usability of the revised interfaces is dramatically improved over the previous versions, and I now feel comfortable with the idea of lodging staffs all over the world interacting successfully with these systems.
The Brrown Scope was graphically designed by Javier “Maestro” Mesa, and then coded and fully tested by Nicolas, “Nickman”, Bohorquez. The language was edited by Brett McCallon. Coding began during the LetMeGo Immersion, in April of this year. I want to thank these two gentlemen, especially, for their patience.
Alexander Torrenegra
P.S. The Brrown Scope was name after my favorite musician, James Brrown.
P.P.S. Here is the current status of all the subsystems and scopes required for the release of our private beta:
| Progress of the Merrcury Engine | |
| Scope | Status |
| Web Subsystem | Ready for the private beta!  |
| Morrison Subsystem | Ready for the private beta! |
| Cockerr Subsystem | Ready for the private beta! |
| Hendrrix Scope (account management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Sinatrra Scope (lodging listing management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Arrmstrong Scope (destination management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Rrose Scope (this one is a secret) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Charrly Scope (email campaign management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Mozarrt Scope (conversation management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Mastrropiero Scope (search management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Kubrrick Scope (itinerary management) | 99% of QA for the private beta |
| Brrown Scope (offer management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Marrley Scope (booking management) | Ready for the private beta! |
The Mozarrt Scope Is Ready to Play A Little Night Music
The Mozarrt Scope, another of the scopes that comprise the Merrcury Engine (the software behind LetMeGo), is ready for prime time. The Mozarrt Scope ensures that users of LetMeGo, both travelers and lodging staff members, can easily communicate with each other via email. It is named, of course, after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Mozarrt, in short, is an advanced, Facebook-style, messaging system. Through it, travelers will be able to inquire about lodgings, invite lodgings to submit bids to their itineraries, ask questions about bids, etc. Lodging staff members will be able to use it to send custom offers, ask questions about itineraries, and more. Mozarrt is also fully localized, thus helping users of LetMeGo to communicate even if they are using LetMeGo in different languages.
The coding for this scope started in 2008. An alpha version was coded and tested so that other scopes could make use of its functionality. This year, we started working on the beta version of Mozarrt. Getting the scope to the beta stage required significant refactoring of the code, and extensive tests. Very soon, it will go live as part of the private beta.
Most of the coding and unit testing of Mozarrt was done by Henry “Tufla” Canastero. Graphic design was done by Javier “Maestro” Mesa. The language was edited by Brett McCallon. Additional coding was done by Luis Betancourt. Automated Selenium tests for the alpha version were also created by Henry, while the Selenium tests for beta were refactored and expanded by Gisella “Gigi” Borja. Thank you team!
Alexander Torrenegra
P.S. Here is the current status of all the subsystems and scopes required for the release of our private beta:
| Progress of the Merrcury Engine | |
| Scope | Status |
| Web Subsystem | Ready for the private beta! |
| Morrison Subsystem | Ready for the private beta! |
| Cockerr Subsystem | Ready for the private beta! |
| Hendrrix Scope (account management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Sinatrra Scope (lodging listing management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Arrmstrong Scope (destination management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Rrose Scope (this one is a secret) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Charrly Scope (email campaign management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Mozarrt Scope (conversation management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Mastrropiero Scope (search management) | Ready for the private beta! |
| Kubrrick Scope (itinerary management) | 98% of QA for private beta |
| Brrown Scope (offer management) | 99% of QA for private beta |
| Marrley Scope (booking management) | Ready for the private beta! |
Dozens of New Amenities and Activities to Select From
As we finalize development on LetMeGo, we have added several new options that lodging staffs can select to better showcase the features of their lodgings:
- Steam shower
- Owner/Host lives in the lodging facilities
- Full-time cooking staff
- Weekly housekeeping (at no extra cost)
- Steam bath
- Massage area
- Boat tours
- Hot air ballooning
- Snowshoe hiking
- Dog mushing
- Bicycles free of charge
- Pool table
- Table football
- Table tennis
If you are a lodging staff member and your lodgings have any of these features, please add them to your lodging by following these steps:
- Go to the My Lodgings area
- Click on the Update Listing Details link
- Scroll down to the Amenities and Activities and Recreation sections, click on each one of the categories, and update them.
If you have questions, please contact us.
Alexander Torrenegra
Anyone Can Submit Bids and Process Bookings
In preparation to our launch, we now allow lodging staff members to easily enable other members (including front-desk personnel) to quickly submit bids and process bookings. If you are a lodging staff member, simply add them to the list of staff members of your lodging.
We have also created a two-minute video that explains how the bidding and booking process will work in LetMeGo: http://letmego.com/learn
Stay tuned. We will open our doors for travelers pretty soon.
Alexander Torrenegra
P.S. This feature was written, designed, developed, and tested by Brett McCallon, Javier “Maestro” Mesa, Nicolas “Nickman” Bohorquez, and Gisella “Gigi” Borja respectively. Thank you team!
