Researchers from Polytechnic Institute of Santarem visited us in Brno
Together, we discussed possibilities of our cooperation, including internships of our students in Portugal.
MUNI SPORT students win competition with their sports travel agency
For the third time, the MUNI Technology Transfer Office announced the Start Your Business competition for student business ideas, in which projects sought not only mentoring help from experts and expanding contacts but also financial support. This year, eight projects received this support, of which the highest amount was awarded to two projects, one of which was Sportbud, a sports travel agency the application of Matúš Longauer, a student of the Faculty of Informatics, and Sportbud, a sports travel agency founded by our students Lukáš Vránek and Matúš Longauer.
Where did the idea to create a sports travel agency come from?
Lukáš: When I started studying for my Master's degree, I was thinking about my thesis topic and I decided to focus on market analysis in sports tourism because I wanted to do something that would be useful for the future. About a year ago, Matthew and I started talking about teaming up, and the plan for a sports travel agency was born. We've both traveled to a lot of countries where we regularly attend sporting events. While doing so, we noticed certain shortcomings and gaps with existing sports travel agencies and their organized tours. With our project, we intend to fill these gaps.
Matúš: These gaps and the potential of our project were confirmed by detailed market analyses, and we started to put together the entire Sportbud brand. Then things really got moving after Lukáš returned from his study stay in Chile in January, when we found out about the Start Your Business competition and started preparing for it.
What makes Sportbud different from other travel agencies?
Matúš: At its core, it's a travel agency that focuses on trips to sporting events, mainly football, tennis, and F1 racing. What we want to differentiate us from the competition is service of a higher standard and the emphasis on quality time throughout the tour for our clients. We ourselves will travel with customers as delegates, and we will also prepare other programmes outside the matches themselves. We want this to be an experience and our goal is to build a large community of sports enthusiasts.
Lukáš: Now it's common that you pay for a trip to see a sports match, you go there for three or four days and you have a lot of free time, where you have to make up your own program. That's exactly what we would like to change and offer our clients, for example, stadium tours, visits to local businesses, cultural programmes or perhaps some team-building activities.
Why did you enter the competition in the first place?
Lukáš: We didn't even originally think we could win Start Your Business; rather, we entered to get some feedback from experienced people and to see which direction to take next.
How was the application process and then the competition itself?
Lukas: To enter the competition we had to fill out a form where we briefly described what the project was about and some details of the project, we also had to upload a 90-second video introducing our project. Based on that, we were invited to the second round, where we presented our pitch deck in front of a jury of experts. Then the last twelve winners made it to the third round, where we presented what progress we had made since the beginning of the competition.
What did the competition give to you?
Lukáš: It gave us a clear direction. Especially at the beginning, we had the opportunity to consult the project with Libor Hoření from JIC, who supports start-up projects, and he told us what we should focus on. We also consulted with Mrs. Ing. Bc. Alena Šafrová Drášilová, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Economics and Administration of MU, and she helped us a lot with questions about cashflow and marketing. Of course, the deadlines of the competition also helped us, forcing us to finish things that would probably have otherwise dragged on much longer.
Matúš: I think the competition also gave us a lot of confidence and it really forced us to do something. The consultations at JIC with Libor Hoření really helped us a lot, he advised us on various tweaks to the project itself and to the competition, like how to approach the presentation, etc. Thanks to the competition we also gained a number of interesting contacts.
In the final, you won the biggest prize of 100,000 CZK. What will this money go towards?
Lukáš: There are a lot of costs associated with setting up a company, for example, just the expenses for setting up an LLC, notary, application for a trade license, etc., cost us around 10,000 CZK. During the competition, we started working on our website, which is very important for us, because we will be selling tours to clients through it, and part of the winnings will go to the website.
Matúš: Ideally, we would allocate as much of the prize money as possible to marketing, but realistically, this amount doesn't even cover everything we have to invest in the project from the beginning.
What are your plans with Sportbud now?
Matúš: The whole concept of the brand is to connect people and build a community, not only at the tour but also here in the Czech Republic. When we were thinking about how to approach building it, we thought that pub quizzes are popular here in Brno, so we took advantage of that and the first event we organized in early July was a sports pub quiz.
Lukáš: It was a get-to-know-each-other event, but it was also a celebration of our victory in the competition. Apart from the pub quiz itself, we also had some sports networking activities prepared by our faculty mates. Based on the reactions we received to the event, we decided to organize something similar regularly in Brno under the name Sportbud Meeting. We have even managed to establish cooperation with several partners and the participants will be able to win nice prizes in our "league" besides having fun.
What are the first destinations that Sportbud will visit this year?
Matúš: To make sure that our ideas of premiumness and experiential nature are not just empty phrases, we decided that, at least initially, we will only travel to places that we have personally experienced and loved. That's why we're traveling to London at the end of September, followed by a trip to Milan and Turin in Italy in November. In London, we'll watch the Fulham-Chelsea match, with a full accompanying programme. Those interested can extend this trip with us and watch the world darts in nearby Leicester. As part of the Italian trip, we'll combine an Inter match at the legendary San Siro with the best of men's tennis in the form of the ATP Finals in Turin. In addition to the aforementioned trips to England and Italy, we are also planning to combine football with the best European basketball in Spain. We definitely recommend following our social media where those interested can find out much more about these plans.
Sportbud's Instagram: @sportbud_cz
Sportbud's Facebook: Sportbud
