MBA畢業生創建禮品券交易市場

Entrepreneurs set themselves apart from the rest of us by seeing the opportunity rather than just the problem, as Israel-based IDC Herzliya graduate Itay Eral proved when he created Zeek, an online gift voucher marketplace.

創業家與其他人的區別在於，他們在看到問題的同時，還能看出機遇。以色列赫茲利亞跨學科研究中心(IDC Herzliya)畢業生Itay Eral創建在線禮品券交易市場Zeek的經歷，就證明了這一點。

Unwanted present

多餘的禮物

Mr Eral admits to causing “quite an issue”, shortly after his wedding in 2013, when he misplaced an unwanted gift voucher he had received as a present. But after explaining his mistake to his wife, Mr Eral guessed that many others could have suffered similarly and wondered whether he could find a solution.

Eral承認，2013年結婚後不久，他把作爲禮物收到的一張不想要的禮品券放錯了地方，那件事引起了“相當大的一個問題”。但在向妻子解釋了錯誤之後，Eral猜想很多人可能會遭遇類似經歷，並揣測能否找到一個解決方案。

After a bit of research, Mr Eral discovered that his hunch was right. About 30 per cent of vouchers worldwide are never cashed in, and not just because the owners lose them.

經過一番研究，Eral發現他的直覺是正確的。全球約有30%的禮品券從未被兌現，而原因不只是所有者把它們弄丟了。

“That amounts to about £65bn, which ends up in the bin,” he notes. “I decided to find a solution, and created a marketplace for gift vouchers.”

“這相當於約£650億英鎊最終被丟入了垃圾箱，”他指出。“我決定尋找一個解決方案，於是創建了一個禮券交易市場。”

Team building

團隊建設

Mr Eral discussed his idea with Daniel Zelkind, whom he met on the MBA course at IDC Herzliya. They then wrote a business plan for Zeek, where customers can sell unwanted vouchers and buy them at a discount, and pitched it to Uri Levine, an Israeli entrepreneur who had sold his tech start-up Waze to Google for $1.3bn. He agreed to back the venture with some of his own money and became their chairman.

Eral與Daniel Zelkind探討了自己的創意，兩人在IDC Herzliya的MBA課上結識。之後，他倆爲Zeek寫一份商業計劃，在該網站上，顧客可以出售自己不想要的禮品券，並以折扣價購買所需的禮品券。他們將這份商業計劃介紹給以色列創業家尤里•萊文(Uri Levine)，後者曾以13億美元將自己的科技初創企業Waze賣給了谷歌(Google)。萊文同意拿出一部分資金支持這個項目，並出任董事長。

“Zeek was a perfect match for me,” Mr Levine says, adding that it has similarities with businesses he has previously been involved with. “It deals with a big problem [and] it is doing good for consumers. It is part of the innovative sharing economy that I love and it is simply making the world a better place.”

萊文說：“Zeek對我是一個完美的契合，”他補充說，它與他之前參與過的商業項目有相似之處。“它解決的是一個大問題，（而且）它爲消費者帶來好處。它是我熱愛的創新型共享經濟的一部分，它簡簡單單地讓世界變得更美好。”

Three months after Mr Levine came on board, following an intensive period of software development, the team had an app and Zeek started trading.

萊文加盟三個月後，經過一段時間的密集軟件開發，該團隊擁有了一款應用，Zeek開始交易。

Skills and values

技能和價值觀

Business schools played a key role in the company’s creation, Mr Eral claims. If he had not studied at IDC Herzliya for his MBA, he would never have met Mr Zelkind, now Zeek’s chief executive.

Eral稱，商學院對於該公司的創建發揮了關鍵作用。如果他沒有在IDC Herzliya攻讀MBA，他就不可能遇到Zelkind，後者如今擔任Zeek的首席執行官。

“If we hadn’t met each other I’m not sure whether Zeek would have been born,” he says, adding that the course also taught them a lot.

“如果我們沒有相遇，我不確定Zeek還會不會誕生，”他說。MBA課程也教會了他們很多，他補充道。

“The MBA was a formative experience as we needed to build the right team and it allowed us to tap into like-minded, aspirational people who were willing to volunteer their ideas, support and resources to make Zeek a success.”

“MBA是一段確立基本觀念的重要經歷，因爲我們需要建立合適的團隊，它讓我們找到志趣相投、有抱負的人們，大家願意貢獻自己的想法、支持和資源，集思廣益，讓Zeek獲得成功。”

Growth potential

增長潛力

Zeek, initially set up in Israel, launched its business in the UK in 2014 where it seeks to tap into a gift card and voucher industry that is worth a potential £5bn. About 47 per cent of adults receive more than one gift card a year and more than half of those are never redeemed.

2014年，最初成立於以色列的Zeek在英國推出了自己的業務，試圖開發這裏潛在價值達50億英鎊的禮品卡和禮品券產業。大約47%的成年人每年收到超過一張禮品卡，而超過一半的禮品卡從未被兌現。

Retailers benefit from Zeek’s service just as much as those with the vouchers, according to Mr Eral, who claims that people tend to spend about 40 per cent more than the face value of their gift cards when they redeem them in store.

Eral認爲，零售商與持有禮品券的人一樣，也能獲益於Zeek的服務。他宣稱，當人們在商店兌現這些禮品券時，他們的消費往往會超過禮品卡面值約40%。

Zeek’s app has more than 80,000 users, a number that has been doubling every month, says Mr Eral. The business aims to increase this as well as the transaction size for each user.

Eral介紹說，Zeek的應用擁有超過8萬用戶，這一數字正在以每月翻一倍的速度增長。該企業目標不僅是增加用戶數量，還要擴大每名用戶的交易規模。

“We have thousands of transactions a month and the average transaction is approximately £30,” Mr Eral explains.

“我們每個月有上萬筆交易，平均每筆交易約爲30英鎊，”Eral解釋說。

He says that the company is on track to be profitable by the beginning of 2016. “We want to become a big player in the UK market and we plan to open four additional offices over the course of 2015 in European countries which are comparable to the UK and likewise highly digitised.”

他說，該公司有望在2016年初實現盈利。“我們要成爲英國市場的主要競爭者，而且我們計劃在2015年期間在與英國相仿、而且同樣高度數字化的歐洲國家新增四家辦事處。”