IPO Hopeful 13 – Bonus

As this series continues to update, many interested readers have reached out to us, unable to wait any longer. After going through all the videos and written content, they came to us with many valuable questions. As always, we went straight to the source for answers. We compiled everyone’s questions and took them directly to the CEO. Now, let’s see how he responded!

Q: What’s the process for onboarding major brands (e.g., Mercedes, Chanel) to the ad platform? 
A: We have a team out selling in New York, Chicago, L.A. etc. to the major ad agencies.  Now that we are adding 300 five-star hotels and resorts to our install base, we will be incredibly attractive to the luxury brands!

Q: It was mentioned in the video that there are “tens of thousands” of ad requests, but currently, there are fewer than 1,000 tablets installed that can run ads. Could you clarify this discrepancy? 
A: Actually, currently we have 10,000 tablets installed, of which 5,000 are on the ‘Ad’ model. Each tablet requests approximately 350 ads per day (on average), as each time an ad appears on the ‘idle screen’, that is a chargeable impression.  This accounts for the fact that we are right now generating 1.5M paid impressions per day!

Q: Your firm was founded in 2008, but only secured its master service agreement in 2019 and started full rollout in 2024. Could you provide more details on what happened during this period? 
A: Yes indeed, that is a long period of time to have to wait for success, and a testimony to the endurance and perseverance of the founders.  The 14 years can be broken into 3 phases.  The first phase was a non-commercializable “Lab” phase.  There were no tablets available, and putting a screen into a room carried a cost of over $1000, totally non-viable.  I have a saying, ‘if you don’t start too early, when the time is right, it’s too late!’ so planting our roots in Hilton, and perfecting the software was our ‘waiting game’ until the technology caught up with our business idea, which happened in 2015.  The arrival of low-cost tablets ($150 each), launched the first real commercial phase, which we can call our ‘Pilot’ phase, where we installed in the largest Hilton, Marriott and others, but in two cities only, Chicago and San Francisco. After these installations were completed in 2017 we turned our focus on developing the financial engine to fund our ‘free-to-hotel’ strategy, while we worked through the multi-year process of getting approved by Hilton.  In 2019 with all that work completed, and with the agreement with Hilton well in sight, we opened our A “commercialization’ round, hired a sales team and started the work of bringing the solution to the industry.  Then Covid happened at the start of 2020 and derailed all of it for 3 years.  It was only 2023 that the industry started to find its feet again and by the end of 2023 we finally closed a worldwide agreement with Hilton. In 2024, we started this rollout as we used the scale of the Hilton account to attract the superstars of the Ad industry that would complete the build-out of the ad-engine that would allow us to offer the tablet rollout free of charge.  In 2024 we were selling tablets, and successfully sold 5-star Hilton Waldorf, Conrad and Curio hotels (high-end hotels have the budget to pay), but now, since January 2025 the final chapter begins, and we announced the ‘Free to Hotel’ model, to the 1,000,000 room Hilton enterprise.  The rollout has begun!!!

Q：You mentioned 8,000 hotel rooms installed, but only “less than 1,000 tablets” are currently ad-ready. What is the timeline for scaling up?  
A: We are now at 5,000 out of the 8,000 and now will have the rest within 45 days.  We are also closing another 10,000 rooms right now, all to be installed in Q2, and all ad-ready, which will bring us to 18,000 units.

Q: If you plan to transition traffic from tablets to mobile. How exactly will this work—will users be directed to the brand’s website, or is there an app planned? 
A: There is an appless (QR based) product available now, with an app planned as well.  The appless product works by having the guest scan a QR code from the tablet.

Q: The current revenue per room is $50-60. Is this daily or monthly? Is there room for future growth? If so, how much potential is there?  
A: The tablets cost a little over $100 each, or about $3.00 per month to finance.  We are currently breaking the $10.00 per room per month barrier, giving us about a 70% profit, per tablet per month.  We expect by the end of 2025 to at least double that to $20.00 per month per room, and more probably triple that, to $30.00 per month per room, all on a cost of $3.00!

Q: The revenue forecast for 2024 is 1.2M, has the target been met? For 2025,the forecast is 30.5M. Is Q1 on track to meet expectations? What is the basis for the $114M forecast in 2026?  
A: Revenue forecasts for 2024 were not met, due to the advertising technology taking longer to come online. By the end of the year, we still did not have it running.  When you are doing something no-one has ever done before, it really is impossible to predict how long it will take!  Due to this longer ramp-in we have made our projections more conservative for 2025, at about $12M for the year, which we are confident we will hit, or exceed, and we have not adjusted our 2026 numbers, we believe we will meet or exceed that projection, which is based purely on hotel adoption of the ‘free’ model, and ad revenues.  2025 is based on Hilton only, in 2026 we are anticipating all the other brands will jump on as well.

Q: How satisfied are hotels with the revenue-sharing model? Will they demand an increase in the monthly share?  
A: The hotels are super-excited, just about getting the tablets for free, even if there were no rev-share.  They look at the rev-share as a bonus, and we are not anticipating having to increase the formula.

Q:  What is the conversion rate for advertisers? Are there specific case studies (e.g., a brand that increased sales through tablet ads)?  
A: We are selling “DOOH” advertising, which stands for ‘Digital Out Of Home’.  Out Of Home ads are billboards on freeways, etc., so strictly a one-way broadcast.  More like TV ads, and less like ads on your phone, no conversion is expected.  The next category which we will be selling will be “Tablet in Hand” ads, which will deliver conversions and which will carry a higher dollar value to us.  For example, we are giving free magazines and news for the guest to read.  While you read, there are ads on the side.  Those are clickable and we will measure the conversion.  Those ads will carry 2 to 4 times the price of the ‘Idle Screen’ (billboard type) ads.

Q: Are there plans for international expansion? What challenges might arise during international expansion (e.g., localization, compliance)?  
A: We have already started international expansion with a VP in the UK now.  However, we are expecting the acquisition of the best of our competitors to be completed in April, at which point we will be established in 24 countries around the world.