(In the photo, both cofounders of Planandgo)
Pedro Suárez de Lezo is Cofounder & CFO of Planandgo. The startup is a community where people with the same interests are connected to share plans. A place to share passions where you can meet people close to you who you don't know yet, but you should. If you want to know what the Cofounder and CFO of Planandgo thinks about the startups ecosystem, keep reading!
What does South Summit mean for you? What do you expect from this event?
South Summit means the opportunity to prove the level of ambition and disruption of Plan&go, the enormous potential of this project and the hard work done to date.
We aim to change the way people use social networks to a more offline experience, were people stop spending countless hours watching what others do and begin living their life to the fullest. All of this with a global ambition. We see every day our business in the streets with users that are huge fans, and there is nothing more satisfying than that. South Summit is the perfect scenery to communicate the entrepreneurial and investor ecosystem what we are achieving each day and where we aim to be.
Plan&go is a disruptive business model in the leisure market where we bet for innovation and for trust. At South Summit we seek for the trust and support of the entrepreneurial and investor ecosystem to revolutionize the way people connect to share unique experiences.
Why did you decide to participate in the competition?
Plan&go solves real problems to its users, among others, one that affects an enormous majority of the world population, the need to belong in a community. Moreover, we enter a huge market that is completely fragmentated and there is no key player, the leisure market.
With all this, we didn´t hesitate a second to participate in the competition as we know Plan&go can be among the favorites.
Why did you decide to start your business and how did you come up with the idea?
I was working in Miami and even though I had many friends, they didn’t share my hobbies, so I spent months navigating through many websites and forums, it took me a lot of time until I found a guy that like me, also liked fishing. This was a huge pain since I wasn’t able to do what I like! But what’s the best part… he took me in his boat, we shared the cost of gas and we became good friends. Moreover, my friend and co-founder Ignacio Suárez- Zuloaga was working in London, he was tired of having always the same kind of leisure at a such I high cost. This was a pain for both of us.
So, we talked and said: we must create a platform that responds to all the problems when searching or planning leisure at one unique platform.
Plan&go was born with the idea of giving everyone the possibility to make any plan they want and share it with people that has same interests or passions. With a mobile phone and the desire to do what they like in live, anyone can create and share a plan or request to assist the ones that are already proposed by the Plan&go Community.
Since we were kids, Ignacio and I always wanted to create value through a company. We tried different thing that didn’t work out because we were living in different cities. When we saw this opportunity and the market we could reach, we left everything and started working full time on the project.
Why your company is useful for the user?
There is a main problem that has a global and growing trend, people spend a lot of time living the lives of others on Instagram, Facebook or Netflix and not living their own to the fullest. There are many people who feel lonely in some occasions (specifically over 48% of the population) and Plan&go solves that problem.
In addition, we identified that the leisure market is completely fragmented and there is no app or platform that responds to all the problems when planning it:
• Limited supply: all platforms are limited by the supply of companies.
• Loneliness: 48% of population feel lonely. 1 out of 5 relations are made online.
• Mainstream: leisure is designed to be mass sold, personalization is expensive.
• Connections: numerous times your friends don´t share the same hobbies as you.
• Organizational cost: there is no easy and safe tool to organize plans and share costs.
Plan&go responds to all these problems in a single platform.
How did you feel when you knew you were finalist?
In this business and especially when you create something disruptive you have very positive days where you see great success and others that are not so positive, constantly we are trying things that have not been done before and sometimes do not have the result you expected, but you must keep looking forward and continue working. The day we received the news that we were chosen as finalist was a huge satisfaction, we saw the project and part of our work recognized by people who have evaluated many other startups with great potential.
What do you think it will happen in the future of startups?
I believe it is a sector that evolves positively, mainly due to the constant work done by entrepreneurs, despite the difficulties of governments and sometimes investors with low ambition. They are able to overcome these barriers with resilience and a clear vision of what they want to accomplish.
There is still a long journey in the world of technology and innovation with many sectors to exploit and huge margins to be more efficient.
In addition, in my short track record in this sector, I have been able to see how those who have managed to succeed, help those who are about to do so, which creates a sustainable effect.
Increasingly, people assume the cost of starting something new which is usually high, driven by the achievements of greate projects and the help of events such as the South Summit, that encourage innovation, or even some accelerators that helps by adding knowledge. There is a lot of talent and I have no doubt that the future of startups will surprise with very disruptive projects.
What advice would you give to those who want to participate in South Summit?
I still haven´t earned the right to give advice to anyone, but I can say what has helped us to achieve the foundations of a project that is among the finalists.
Undoubtedly there are two key aspects:
• Resilience: despite many difficulties we have overcome all the problems in order to achieve the goals of such an ambitious project. We have always followed the initial idea of the project.
• The team: a team with huge ambition and very motivated.
What does being an entrepreneur mean for you?
For me it´s a way of life based on a decision I made some time ago. When I decided to leave everything to carry out Plan&go, I knew that I would have to leave many things aside, including a salary or doing other things that I enjoy. However, when you have a project that pushes you, you simply execute and do whatever it takes for it to become a reality.
What´s your dream in life?
I have many goals in life outside the labor challenges that I want to accomplish, many high personal goals that I am determined to reach. And I know that the only way to achieve those goals is through previous and constant hard work.
One of those many goals is to leave something behind that creates real value to people and that is what I am doing every morning I go to Plan&go´s headquarters.
