PHL Inno's weekly "Startup Spotlight" feature highlights founders and new businesses cropping up in the region.
The startup: ONTrac is a content platform that helps users reach their goals through a step-by-step guide.
Founded: 2020
Home base: Middletown, Delaware
Founders: CEO Xan Hong, Chief Marketing Officer Angela Smith and Chief Technology Officer James Connor.
Hong previously had a startup social club that sought to connect young professionals in more casual settings such as golf simulators. After the company failed, Hong wanted to set goals for himself and looked for a way to achieve them at a “higher level,” he said.
“That's kind of where the entrepreneur kicked in and said, ‘Hey, well, I'm not finding this, and I think there might be other people that are looking for it,’” Hong said.
ONTrac then brought on Connor after the duo connected in the Philly Startup Leaders Slack channel when Hong posted about looking for a technology partner.
The product: Users can download ONTrac’s “smart tracks,” which offers step-by-step action plans to achieve a specific goal.
ONTrac is focusing on audiences that are looking for passive income streams. That approach can have a “halo effect” where ONTrac users who learn those skills can teach them to new users, Hong said. ONTrac will also look at building smart tracks for people who are seeking to become content creators.
For example, ONTrac built a smart track to help users pursue dropshipping, a form of e-commerce that sells products from a third-party supplier rather than directly from the seller. The smart track includes information on steps like how to build a website and schedules specific goals on a user’s calendar to track progress. Users can also bring in “accountability partners,” like a coach or friends, to help keep them on track.
One of the biggest culprits for people not achieving their goals is that they don’t use “chunking,” a process of breaking a larger goal down into smaller ones, Hong said. Mastering a skill takes practice and time — it usually takes six months or more to develop a skill, according to the Harvard Business Review.
“They don't create and follow a specific action plan to achieve that goal,” Hong said. “They don't track their progress regularly so they get that positive feedback loop, and they don't involve accountability partners.”
Funding: ONTrac has received about $80,000 through grants from the state of Delaware, Philly Startup Leaders and law firm Cozen O’Connor, Hong said. The startup wants to reach at least $2,000 in monthly recurring revenue before pursuing a fundraising round, he said.
The goal: ONTrac is focusing on populating the platform with more content and smart tracks to attract users. Hong wants to add bloggers, YouTubers and online course creators to its carousel of content creators to build more smart tracks for their audiences, Hong said.
The startup is looking to employ a two-pronged approach for revenue: a software-as-a-service subscription model that content creators can use to access ONTrac’s publishing tools, as well as a public marketplace where content creators can sell their smart tracks to other users with ONTrac taking a transaction fee.
