Table Colombia Challenge

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How the world would be like, if every single person could be happy? Well, in Padma House we believe that travels and coffee are a powerful way to share happiness. That's where our value proposition is born and the reason we are unique, because we are a HOSTEL and CAFE, that's why we offer cultural exchange experiences for people who love travels, international cuisine and good coffee.

We are a HOSTEL, created by travelers for travelers, where they can discover the magic of our city with a global perspective. As CAFÉ we are a space where a good coffee, more than a drink is a powerful way of connection and exchange.

From the colonial heart of Cali, the San Antonio neighborhood, we have a proposal that includes:  As HOSTEL, two types of accommodation (private and shared rooms) and varied common spaces available to different profiles of travelers. As CAFÉ, we offer a wide international gastronomic menu that allows both, travelers and locals, to travel through flavors.

Particularly we focus especially on digital nomads and citizens of the world. This targeted group is a market opportunity itself, because it has been increase the number of people who are working remotely and who also travels worldwide.

We are a HOSTEL, created by travelers for travelers, where they can discover the magic of our city with global perspective. As CAFÉ we are a space where a good coffee, more than a drink is a powerful way of connection and exchange.

We think one of our advantages is that we are also travelers, so we understand and know the needs of travelers. This is one of our advantages compare to our local competidors, who most of the times are locals who started at the hospitality industry by renting rooms at their houses. And also, being travelers is an advantage for the cafe, because our menu has a high quality international gastronomy offer which includes sourdough bread, sandwich, pasta, burgers, veggie food, desserts and much more! All of them are homemade!

Our main global competitor is Selina, a brand of hostels and co-working spaces in Central and South America. We think this is our main global competidor because they are a big enterprise that have a strong marketing and business structure. But they're not the same type of business that we meant to be, because they are big hostels (150 beds minimum) and we want to be a world-wide independant network of hostel-cafe of medium scale that offers experiences of wellness and happiness for people who love travels, good food and coffee.

Padma House is a dream that came true since 2017. This means it has been almost two years that we have been validating our services, but also growing and improving everyday. We are currently reviewed 9.1 /10 in booking.com and  9/10 in Hostelworld the two main OTA at the moment. In Google, we are currently reviewed as  4,8/5

Our business is a mixed universe between a hostel and a café. It has created an unique atmosphere were travels and coffee are a powerful ways to share happiness.

Our future plan is that by 2021, we will be a company of medium-sized hostel-café with a presence in at least two countries, offering experiences of wellness and happiness for people who love travels, good food and good coffee. By 2030, we will be an independent worldwide company of medium-sized hostels-cafes around the world, offering experiences of wellness and happiness for people who love travels, good food and good coffee.

As a short-term strategy, we are planning to improve our marketing by using digital marketing strategies, we plan to work together with a marketing agency that we are currently seeking it to establish a partnership with it. At the moment we are also working to build our website, to start woking on SEO and SMO strategies.

Currently we have partnerships with different local businesses such as: dancing schools, travel agency, guides tours business, disco, bars, taxi drivers, coffee companies, universities and organic farmers of the region, and others. All of this, is because we want to grow and improve by also helping the local economy. We have a global perspective but we act locally.

Founders: We are two young people who dared to realize theirs dreams since 2017 and formed an interdisciplinary team from industrial engineering and political science, creating this universe called PADMA HOUSE.

CAROLINA GOMEZ (Co-founder): Political scientist, but a passionate world traveler and an avaid coffee lover. She currently works in Padma House as CEO, barista and commercial and financial officer.

JORGE ARIAS: Industrial engineer, but a passionate world traveler and a lover of food and traditional bakery. He currently works in Padma House as a COO, chef and baker.

HERMINIA LASSO GOMEZ: Mother of Sara and Esteban. She was born in Pasto, but she moved to Cali because her family suffer a displacement caused by the colombian armed conflict. She currently works in Padma House as a chef helper (kitchen) and cleaning. In October she'll be promote to Head Chef Helper.

FERNANDO SINISTERRA: A young accounting profesional in charge of the accounting in Padma House. At the moment, he is working part time.

MARIA ADIELA GUAPACHA: Mother of Dulce Maria and Paulina. She will start working with us in October as a chef helper (kitchen) and cleaning.

For the next 3 years we want to keep growing as a company. The first or main financial goal, it's to achieve a revenue that covers all expenses and also leaves us a monthly average profit. This goal is a goal for this year.

For the next to years, we want to have a financial solid structure that allow us to make real our business goal for 2021:

"By 2021, we will be a company of medium-sized hostel-café with presence in at least two countries, by offering experiences of wellness and happiness for people who loves travels, good food and good coffee."

Of course! We totally believe that our business has an impact in our community in several ways.

First, we would like to talk about the impact in our employees and their families, we specially works with women (60% of our currently staff is women), because we also believe that empowering women have a big impact in local communities and their families. We have create fair and inspiring jobs, called fair, because by working with Padma House, employees can have a salary in accordance with all legal security, and we called inspiring job, because we encourage all the team to learn and improve everyday. Another powerful impact in our employees lifes, is that they could also be expose to an intercultural environment, that they could learn and see different perspectives from people all over the globe.

Our costumers, both locals and travelers, more than having a good service of housing and food, they get inspired by all the cultural exchanges that take place in Padma House.

As we said before, we work with local business and entrepreneurs because we believe that's a way to improve local economy.

We also believe that a BIG impact what we are doing is inspiring other by showing and telling them that dreams can be true!