If there ever were a large worldwide community, it’s the family of horse-riders. Beyond borders and generations, whether for leisure or work, the horse-man bond has always been very strong. Yet, horse riders are scattered and it’s not easy to meet. That was before French Tech startup Horsealot came along.
Alexandra Martel started riding at age 8. As a skillful rider, she was a competitor in the professional French championship. Owning and riding a horse requires various skills and extensive knowledge.
Where can I get a great value saddle? Should I worry about my horse losing little patches of hair along the back? That and many other questions leave the rider in a lonely position.
A worldwide community of 200 000 horse riders
Alexandra, who is passionate about horse-riding and entrepreneurship launched Horsealot three and a half years ago. The platform now welcomes 200 000 horseriders and tries to mix the best of all worlds. Social network: members can be found on various continents (35% are in North America) and can communicate easily. Quora-like platform for sharing knowledge. Extensive link database with numerous actors in the vast horseriding industry. Horsealot being a free service, the business model is profitable through these partnerships with the riding industry.
Throughout its online communication, Horsealot has made the choice to display a trendy lifestyle look. The number of women on the platform has outgrown the number of men. Indeed, horseriding is a highly feminized activity and this comes out in the way Horsealot is portrayed on social networks. The look and feel are very classy.
A dedicated platform was missing
It may seem odd that such a massive community didn’t already have a virtual meeting place. In fact, they did. But it was not a worldwide portal like Horsealot. Sure, there were many Facebook groups and forums but very localized and sometimes too specialized. Some were dedicated to second-hand sells, others only to leisure horseriding. Horsealot covers a wide variety of subjects and acts as a knowledge-sharing platform. Topics range from horse health to “how can I combine family life with competitive horse riding?”. Horsealot’s target is confirmed competitors and/or horse owners, which covers quite a few people worldwide.
Plans to open offices in Palo Alto: it is, after all, a social network
The current team is made up of seven individuals, all keen on horsemanship. New blood, in the commercial branch, should join the team next September.
The North American community is quite extensive and the heart of social networks lies in Palo Alto. Therefore there are plans to open offices there in the future although we’re talking about a Paris-based company.
Horsealot 2.0
A huge update became live very recently. It includes a redesigned UX and heavy work on the algorithm to bring out the most relevant posts.
Two new features also make their way into the platform. One is a Moodboard to arouse interest (even of non-riders) and the other is “meetriders”, a suggestion of users to connect to.
New content will also open the scope of Horsealot such as interviews of public figures (whether they are riders or not).
The passionate and driven Horsealot team is hard at work to make their platform the major meeting point of dedicated riders worldwide.
Are you ready to go for a ride?