Juurnee: 11,000 pre-launch user registrations.

Rachel, a mother of three young children, came up with the idea for Juurnee when she needed to take a long-haul flight from Sydney to London without her husband. She realised how challenging it could be to travel with young kids and saw an opportunity to create a solution.

What was the challenge?

Rachel had a clear vision for Juurnee: a platform to match travellers in need of flight companions — like parents, elderly travellers, or anxious flyers — with people who could assist them during their journey. However, like many early-stage founders, she faced several hurdles:

• Identifying her target customer demographic.
• Validating the demand for flight companions.
• Building an MVP quickly to test the concept.
• Handling media attention and rapid growth.

Rachel also decided early on that she didn’t want to raise investor funding, which meant finding a way to generate revenue quickly to sustain and grow the business.

What did we do?

To validate the concept, we began by testing different user demographics through online ads, targeting various audiences to identify who would need a flight companion. We then built a very simple MVP using Fillout.com and manual matching, allowing us to get Juurnee.com up and running within days.

The response was overwhelming. Within two weeks:

• 140 people signed up to request a Juurnee companion.
• Thousands of people signed up to become flight companions.

The concept gained further traction when a prime-time Australian news TV journalist covered Juurnee, interviewing travellers at the airport who were already using the service. The resulting media coverage exploded the platform’s visibility, bringing in over 11,000 signups in just a few days.

To manage the demand, we focused on automating the manual matching process using Google Apps Scripts, Zapier, and other integrations. This enabled us to streamline operations without compromising on quality.

When Rachel decided not to raise external funding, we pivoted the business model from a marketplace to a subscription service. Within just two weeks of launching the new model, Juurnee generated $30k in revenue. This milestone provided enough funding to hire a tech team to build out a full product.

What were the results?

Rachel graduated from DQ with a revenue-generating business that is primed for growth. The MVP and manual steps we did provided key insights that informed the specs of the full platform, ensuring it could be built with a clear understanding of user needs. Juurnee.com is now positioned to scale, with Rachel excited and equipped to take the business to the next stage.

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