We make money, and here’s why that’s ok.

This is part 3 of a 3-part series where we clearly lay out what we do at imin and why we do it. We believe that if we change the way we collaborate and share data in the physical activity sector, we can get more people more active. To achieve this, we first created a common way to share data and a vehicle to drive adoption; second, we started to educate the sector about what’s possible and created a transparent marketplace of options; and third, we created a technology platform to help facilitate this data exchange between organisations. In this way, we can create a sustainable ecosystem of organisations that will collaborate to get more people active.

I heard this phrase recently, and it has stuck with me: “If you don’t tell your story, others will tell it for you. Control your narrative”. Because of the number of moving parts, and the complexity of the work we do at imin, it isn’t always clear where we fit in, especially with respect to our commercial approach.

So let’s clear it up.

We are a for-profit, tech-for-good company. We only get paid when we create genuine value for organisations.

We have helped create an open market, and work hard to keep that market easy to navigate. We do this because we believe this is the best way to move the whole sector forward and get people active.

We then deliver software (the imin platform) into that open market that organisations can choose to use and pay for. If our software is a poor fit or doesn’t meet their needs, then they don’t have to use it, and can work with others in the marketplace.

We’re in the business of making physical activities more accessible, searchable and bookable by anyone on the web.

The imin platform aggregates open opportunity data (available squash courts, spaces in yoga classes etc) from across the sector in order to provide a simple access point for organisations to use that aggregated data in whatever way they choose.

Organisations choose to use the imin platform because:

• We make open data usable — most organisations want as many relevant activities as possible for their user base. We integrate newly published open opportunity data into the imin platform as soon as possible so it is available to our platform users. When APIs change or break, we are immediately on hand to help get them sorted or deal with any arising issues. Organisations can add and maintain new integrations with each new dataset themselves, or make one connection to the imin platform so they can always be accessing the broadest and most current open opportunity data available, automatically. This is valuable for organisations without in-house technical resource, where adding and maintaining new integrations can be time-consuming and costly.
• We make open data useful — as well as volume of data, maintaining data quality is crucial for a good user experience and getting people more active. Within the imin platform, we do several things to maximise the impact of the data, including: ensuring activities are properly geotagged (so they can appear on a map); removing low quality data so it doesn’t appear in front of users (e.g. when they are not physical activity related — “Coffee morning with Tina” — and when they are inappropriate — “Closed for cleaning”); and soon, we’ll be normalising the data to activity naming standards where possible to make it more searchable. These features are valuable for organisation that don’t have the resource or capability to directly improve or constantly evaluate the quality of the data themselves.
• We make open data bookable — we’ve partnered with several providers in the sector to enable the imin platform to power seamless booking and payment for activities. This is hugely valuable for organisations wishing to deliver a modern purchasing experience for their users: where activity search, booking and payment can all happen within the same website or application within a few clicks. This has taken a huge amount of work and should not be underestimated as anything less than revolutionary for the physical activity sector.
• We come with a network of partners — through our work with active//choice and OpenActive, we already have numerous third party applications who use the imin platform, such as activity finders, widgets and chatbots. Organisations can make use of these off the shelf products to rapidly test and create new user experiences. The providers we are partnering with on booking are doing so because of the wide range of organisations we bring to the table.

Every week we invest in the imin platform so that we can make more open data usable, useful and bookable.

It’s important to note that, because the data is open, organisations can choose to do the work themselves to build and improve software, maintain the technical and operational integrations, and establish key relationships, all of which are needed to utilise open data to its maximum potential. Or, they can choose to pay use the imin platform in the usual software-as-a-service way. If the imin platform does not create enough value, organisations can choose not to use it. We only succeed when our software delivers real value — it’s that simple. This is a situation we have imposed on ourselves by investing to keep the market open and transparent. If our software is the best in the market, that will be evident, and we will win more customers. This is a challenge we relish.

A rising tide floats all boats.

Why have we invested (and continue to invest) a great deal of our limited startup resource into growing this open market for everyone?

Because we believe it is necessary for both public and private companies to come together to make our vision a reality, and that everyone will benefit because of the change. But we also invest because it helps us to influence change, using our unique vantage point of a software company within the marketplace. We find ourselves in trusted positions because organisations know that we will provide neutral, unbiased advice when helping them to use technology to get more people active. In particular, local authorities and public bodies often invite us to advise them on their digital strategies. We give them the best advice we can to help them get more people active — and that’s it. If it turns out that the best route doesn’t include the imin platform, then so be it. We know our software is not all things to all people.

Because of this sector-first approach, we have pride of place as one of the leading organisations in OpenActive. We benefit from the network that position creates, but the trust is ours to earn because of the investment we make in helping others first. Other organisations can also achieve similar positions by investing in the growth of the ecosystem as we have demonstrated, and we encourage them to do so. A rising tide floats all boats.

We recently lost a customer. It sucked, but we celebrated the fact it could happen.

In the world we seek to create and operate in, organisations can easily move to whichever technology makes sense for them at the time. Because we’ve fought hard to keep the market open and transparent, other companies can start to develop their own products and create value. The marketplace we’ve created has one rule: the best product for the customer wins. To be competitive, all the organisations in that marketplace have to keep innovating and working hard. The companies can’t be complacent due to data licences or exclusive deals — those innovation-limiters don’t exist in the open data powered sector we’ve created.

This is propelling the sector forward, and at the same time futureproofing it so it can adapt to changes in technology and consumer behaviour. For imin, we’d rather operate in a sector where customers have the power of choice, rather than being locked in to certain vendors. We’ll work hard and continue to innovate to earn the right to continue to be the best choice.