Lola.com Financial Model

Three user personas served by one platform:

• Finance & Operations: control + visibility over travel spend
• Executive Assistants: save time, peace of mind on bookings
• Business Travelers: 24/7 support, fast booking experience

Core product principles: extreme ease of use, speed, gorgeous UI/brand, collaboration. Positioned as "easiest way to book and manage travel."

Key differentiator: product-led growth - near-zero onboarding/account management team required, with customers self-activating and booking rapidly in Q4 2018.

• $1.3 trillion spent on business travel worldwide
• 600,000 US companies with 20–500 employees - the target customer segment
• Primary channel used by these companies today: consumer travel sites (unmanaged travel)
• $6B TAM in US alone, at $10,000 annual revenue per customer

• Dual revenue streams: SaaS subscription + transactional revenue
• Subscription pricing implemented ~mid-2018 (listed as milestone 6 months prior to Q1 2019 deck)
• Target long-term gross margin: 70%+ (described as "SaaS business" economics)
• Go-to-market: inside sales + partner reselling
• Key channel partner: American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) - 5-year mutually exclusive commercial partnership; GBT re-sells Lola.com to its customers and prospects
• GBT context: largest B2B travel agency with $45B in annual travel bookings
• Revenue per customer assumed ~$10,000/year

All specific traction numbers were redacted (shown as "X") in this version of the deck:

• Number of companies closed on subscription: $X
• Subscription ARR: $X
• Total revenue run rate (subscription + transactional): $X
• Dashboard slide (slide 16): showed Customers, Estimated Revenue (Subs + Trans), and # Travel Bookings (Hotels + Flights) charts - all chart bodies blank/redacted
• Product-led success metrics (Q4 2018, all redacted): XX% of customers booked travel; XX% booked within 15 days; XX% within 60 days; XX% booked multiple times/week
• G2Crowd ratings: Lola.com 4.8 stars vs TravelPerk 4.7, TripActions 4.6, Concur 4.0

• Target long-term gross margin: 70%+
• Implied ARPU: ~$10,000/year (derived from TAM math)

Competitive landscape:

• Concur (SAP, enterprise-focused, 4.0 G2 rating - positioned as legacy/complex)
• TripActions (raised $154M at $1B in 2018)
• TravelPerk (raised $44M in 2018)

Moat claims:

• Founder pedigree: CEO built HubSpot (Mike Volpe); CTO built KAYAK (Paul English)
• Product ratings: highest on G2Crowd at 4.8 stars
• AMEX GBT exclusive partnership (5-year, mutually exclusive) - structural distribution advantage and barrier to competitor entry via that channel
• Product-led growth driving adoption with minimal sales/CS overhead

Team:

• Mike Volpe, CEO (former HubSpot)
• Paul English, CTO (founder of KAYAK)
• Krista Pappas, SVP Business Development (Farecast → Microsoft)
• Jeanne Hopkins, CMO (Ipswitch, HubSpot)
• Ryan Ball, VP Sales (CarGurus, HubSpot)

Round: Series C

• Archetype + why: SaaS ARR model with transactional revenue overlay. The business explicitly describes itself as a "SaaS business" with dual streams (subscription + transactional). The core drivers are logo count × ARPU (subscription) plus bookings volume × take rate (transactional). The 70%+ long-term GM target is a SaaS gross margin profile. The AMEX GBT partnership makes channel-sourced ARR a distinct cohort worth modelling separately.

• Forecast horizon & granularity: Monthly for Year 1, quarterly for Years 2–3; 3-year forward from Q1 2019 base. Series C context means investors will want to see path to scale/profitability horizon.

• Key drivers & assumptions:

*Subscription revenue:*

• Starting customer count: unknown - redacted; placeholder of ~100–300 customers given early-stage ARR and Q4 2018 momentum
• Monthly new customer adds - direct sales: ramp from ~10–20/month in Q1 2019, scaling with sales headcount additions
• Monthly new customer adds - GBT channel: separate cohort; ramp lags deal signing (partnership signed late 2018); assume 20–30% of new logos via channel by end of Year 1
• Average contract value (ACV): ~$10,000/year based on TAM math ($6B TAM ÷ 600K companies)
• Logo churn rate: 5–10%/year (early-stage SaaS benchmark; no deck data)
• Net revenue retention: 105–115% (seat expansion as companies grow travel)

*Transactional revenue:*

• Bookings per active customer per month: mix of hotel + flight bookings; customers booking multiple times/week in Q4 implies high frequency for active users
• Average booking value: ~$500–800 per booking (blended hotel/flight)
• Take rate / net revenue on transactional: 3–8% of booking value (typical GDS/agency economics)

*Gross margin:*

• Subscription gross margin: 75–80% (target 70%+ per deck; subscription software COGS = hosting + support)
• Transactional gross margin: 20–35% (GDS fees, supplier costs, 24/7 support ops)
• Blended GM ramps toward 70%+ as subscription mix grows

*Operating expenses:*

• S&M: 50–60% of revenue in early years; declining as GBT channel scales (leverage partner distribution)
• R&D: 25–35% of revenue (product-led strategy requires continuous investment)
• G&A: 10–15% of revenue

• Scenarios (Base / Bull / Bear - which variables flex):
• Base: steady inside sales ramp + GBT channel contributing ~25% of new logos by Year 2; churn ~8%; ACV $10K
• Bull: GBT channel outperforms (40%+ of new logos), ACV expansion through upsell/seat growth, churn <5%
• Bear: GBT ramp slower than expected, direct sales headcount lags, higher churn in early subscription cohorts (product-market fit still maturing)

• Required sheets / outputs:

1. Assumptions dashboard (all drivers in one place, colour-coded)
2. ARR waterfall (direct vs. GBT channel cohorts; new / expansion / churn / net new ARR)
3. Transactional revenue schedule (bookings volume × take rate)
4. P&L (blended revenue, COGS by stream, gross profit, opex, EBITDA, net income)
5. Headcount plan (sales, CS, R&D, G&A - key cost driver)
6. Cash flow & runway (to size Series C proceed requirements)
7. KPI summary (ARR, logo count, NRR, CAC payback, LTV/CAC, burn rate)
8. Scenario toggle (Base / Bull / Bear)