Open Questions & Research Needs

Status: Awaiting validation/research Last updated: October 6, 2025

1. Current Operations (Tan’s Baseline)

Critical for understanding what to automate:

Workflow & Volume

How does Tan process bookings today? (tools, steps, time per booking)
What’s his current monthly package volume? (packages/month over last 3-6 months)
What’s his current monthly revenue? (actual ฿ or $)
What’s his current average package value? (is ฿100K realistic or high/low?)
Where’s the bottleneck? (inquiry response time, course confirmation, payment collection, other?)
How much time does he spend on bookings vs operations vs marketing?

Course Relationships

Which specific courses does Tan work with regularly? (get list of top 20 by volume)
Which of those are manual vs API-accessible? (map existing relationships)
What commission rates does he currently get? (12%, 15%, 20%? varies by course?)
Does he have any exclusive deals or preferred rates? (volume commitments, payment terms?)
What’s his relationship strength with courses? (personal contacts, how long working together?)

Customer Acquisition

Where do Tan’s customers come from? (LINE groups, referrals, Facebook ads, SEO, other?)
What’s his CAC (customer acquisition cost)? (if spending on ads)
What % are repeat customers vs new?
What channels convert best? (which source → highest booking rate)
Does he have any marketing infrastructure? (website, social media, email list?)

Transport & Ancillaries

What % of his current bookings include transport? (baseline attach rate)
Who provides transport currently? (Investor’s network, third-party, or none?)
What’s the margin on transport? (is ~$200/package realistic?)
What other ancillaries does he sell? (insurance, equipment rental, VIP services?)
What % of packages are multi-day vs single-day?

Pain Points

What takes the longest in his current workflow? (manual confirmation, payment collection, customer communication?)
What causes booking failures? (courses full, customer changes mind, payment issues?)
What customer complaints does he get? (slow response, pricing unclear, other?)
What would 10x his capacity? (automation, staff, better course access?)

2. Market & Course Landscape

Critical for inventory strategy:

Course Inventory

Which courses are on Golfsavers aggregator? (get full list)
Which courses are on GolfThai aggregator? (get full list)
What’s the overlap between aggregators? (same courses or different coverage?)
Which top 20 courses (by tourist demand) are NOT on aggregators? (manual-only targets)
Which courses have direct APIs available? (Golfmanager, Lightspeed, custom?)

Course Segmentation

Premium international courses (฿3K-6K green fee): How many? Which ones? API access?
Mid-tier local favorites (฿1.5K-3K): How many? Which ones? API access?
Budget/local courses (฿500-1.5K): How many? Which ones? Manual-only?
Which courses are most popular with golf tourists? (demand mapping)
Which corridors/regions are most booked? (Bangkok-Pattaya, Hua Hin, Phuket, Chiang Mai?)

Commission Structure

What are standard commission rates by course tier? (premium vs mid vs budget)
Do aggregators take a cut on top of course commission? (fee structure)
What volume commitments get better rates? (10 bookings/month = 18%? 50 = 20%?)
Are commissions negotiable or fixed? (relationship-based or standard?)

Competitive Intelligence

What are Golfasian’s actual prices? (mystery shop 5 packages, compare to our target pricing)
What courses does Club Thailand Card cover? (overlap with our target inventory?)
What’s GolfNow’s Thailand penetration? (which courses, booking volume estimate)
Are there other local competitors we’re missing? (regional agents, niche platforms?)

3. Customer Insights

Critical for product-market fit:

Customer Personas

Who are Tan’s current customers? (nationality, age, income, golf skill level)
What % expat residents vs tourists vs corporate groups vs local Thai?
Which persona is highest value? (package value, repeat rate, margin)
Which persona is easiest to acquire? (CAC, conversion rate)
Which persona is most underserved by current market? (opportunity)

Booking Behavior

Average booking lead time? (same-week, 1-2 weeks, 1 month advance?)
What triggers booking? (trip planning, event/tournament, regular play, other?)
What % book single round vs multi-day package? (complexity of typical package)
What time of year peaks? (seasonality: Nov-Feb high season, Apr-Sep low?)
What days of week peak? (weekend warriors vs weekday retirees?)

Price Sensitivity

What package value range converts best? (฿50K budget, ฿100K standard, ฿150K premium?)
How price-sensitive are customers? (discount seekers vs convenience buyers?)
What’s willingness-to-pay for transport add-on? (bundle discount needed or full-price okay?)
What ancillaries do customers actually want? (insurance? equipment rental? VIP fast-track?)

Pain Points & Desires

What frustrates customers most about current booking process? (speed, transparency, communication, other?)
What would make them switch from their current agent? (price, convenience, trust, other?)
What questions do they ask most? (course difficulty, dress code, transport time, weather, other?)
What language barriers exist? (Thai vs English, need multilingual support?)

4. Financial Details

Critical for accurate projections:

Unit Economics Validation

Is ฿100K (~$3,000) average package value realistic? (verify with Tan’s data)
Is 15% commission standard? (verify across course tiers)
Is ~$200 transport margin realistic? (verify with Investor’s network)
What are actual ancillary revenue opportunities? (insurance, equipment, VIP - real numbers)
What variable costs are we missing? (payment processing fees, aggregator cuts, other?)

Cost Structure

What are aggregator fee structures? (flat %, tiered by volume, annual licenses?)
What’s loaded cost per manual booking? (ops manager time, overhead, tools)
What’s tech infrastructure monthly cost? (servers, APIs, tools, licenses)
What’s customer acquisition cost by channel? (LINE ads, Facebook, SEO, referrals)
What working capital needed? (pay courses before customer pays us? or reverse?)

Revenue Projections

Is 20 packages in 90 days realistic? (given Tan’s current volume + automation)
Is 75 packages/month by Month 9 achievable? (what growth rate required? sustainable?)
What’s churn rate? (do customers book once or repeat? seasonality impact?)
What’s realistic transport attach rate? (40% optimistic or conservative?)

5. Partnership Structures

Critical for scaling strategy:

Direct Course Relationships

What does a “direct relationship” actually look like? (contract terms, exclusivity, volume commits)
What rates can we get with volume commitment? (10 bookings/month? 50? 100?)
What payment terms do courses expect? (net 30? prepay? pay-on-play?)
What minimum volume justifies direct integration? (worth negotiating at 5 bookings/month? 20?)
Which courses would add API access for guaranteed volume? (technology incentive)

Aggregator Partnerships

What are Golfsavers’ exact terms? (commission %, contract length, exclusivity clauses)
What are GolfThai’s exact terms? (commission %, contract length, exclusivity clauses)
Can we negotiate better rates with volume? (tiered pricing structure)
What API rate limits exist? (queries/day, bookings/hour)
What support do they provide? (integration help, account management)

Investor’s Transport Network

What’s the exact margin split on transport? (how much goes to driver vs GolfOkay)
What’s capacity? (how many concurrent packages can they handle?)
What regions covered? (Bangkok-Pattaya corridor only? or nationwide?)
What vehicle types available? (private car, van, luxury, budget?)
What payment terms? (monthly invoice, per-trip, prepaid?)

Hotel/Concierge Partnerships (Phase 3)

Which hotels have high golf tourist concentration? (target list)
What do hotel concierges currently charge for golf booking? (commission benchmark)
Would hotels white-label our platform? (or just refer bookings?)
What revenue share makes sense? (50/50? 70/30? 80/20?)

6. Technology & Integration

Critical for build vs buy decisions:

Aggregator API Capabilities

What does Golfsavers API actually provide? (real-time availability, instant confirmation, pricing, course details?)
What does GolfThai API actually provide? (same questions)
How reliable are aggregator APIs? (uptime %, response time, error rates)
What’s API documentation quality? (easy integration or painful?)
Do aggregators provide webhooks? (booking status updates, cancellations)

Direct Course APIs

How many courses use Golfmanager? (in Thailand specifically)
Is Golfmanager API open or requires partnership? (access, cost, terms)
How many courses use Lightspeed? (in Thailand)
What other POS systems do Thai courses use? (survey of course tech)
What’s average integration time per course API? (days/weeks of dev work)

Payment Infrastructure

What’s exact PromptPay fee structure? (0.8% for what transaction size? tiered?)
What PromptPay payment gateway should we use? (2C2P, Omise, Stripe, direct bank integration?)
What international card fees? (Stripe 3.4% + ฿10? Omise comparable?)
Do we need PCI compliance? (if storing card data vs tokenization)
What’s refund process for each payment method? (instant, 3-5 days, manual?)

Tech Stack Decisions

What CRM for customer data? (custom-built, HubSpot, Salesforce, other?)
What messaging platform integration? (LINE Official API, WhatsApp Business API)
What booking flow UX? (LINE mini-app, web app, both?)
What ops board tool? (custom-built, Notion, Airtable, other?)
What analytics/tracking? (Google Analytics, Mixpanel, custom?)

7. Regulatory & Compliance

Critical for avoiding blockers:

TAT License

What exactly does Tan’s TAT license allow? (package types, regions, restrictions)
Any reporting requirements? (monthly volume reports to TAT?)
Any limitations on pricing or commissions? (max markup, disclosure requirements)
Does CTO need to be listed on license? (or just Tan as operator)
Any renewal timeline? (annual renewal, fees)

Payment Regulations

Any Thai regulations on foreign payment collection? (cross-border transactions)
Do we need Bank of Thailand approvals? (for payment gateway integration)
Any anti-money laundering requirements? (KYC for large transactions?)
Tax implications on package sales? (VAT, withholding tax on commissions)

Data & Privacy

PDPA (Thailand’s GDPR) compliance needed? (personal data handling)
What customer data can we store? (passport info, payment details, preferences)
What data sharing allowed with courses? (customer contact info, payment status)
Any tourism industry-specific regulations? (consumer protection laws)

8. Risk Scenarios

Critical for contingency planning:

Market Risks

What if aggregators raise fees by 50%? (margin impact, mitigation strategy)
What if courses start adopting APIs faster than expected? (manual desk becomes unnecessary)
What if major competitor enters with VC funding? (price war, how do we compete)
What if golf tourism drops (geopolitical, economic, pandemic)? (diversification, cost-cutting)

Operational Risks

What if manual desk can’t handle volume? (when do we hire second ops staff?)
What if key courses stop working with us? (concentration risk, backup inventory)
What if Investor’s transport network can’t scale? (third-party transport alternatives)
What if payment fraud/chargebacks spike? (fraud detection, reserves)

Technology Risks

What if aggregator APIs go down during peak season? (backup manual process)
What if LINE changes API terms? (where else do customers contact us?)
What if PromptPay adoption drops? (backup payment methods)
What if we get hacked/data breach? (security measures, insurance, incident response)

Financial Risks

What if we don’t hit 20 packages in 90 days? (burn rate, runway impact, pivot options)
What if unit_economics are worse than projected? (margin compression, volume compensation)
What if working capital requirements higher? (courses require prepay, cash flow crunch)
What if CTO leaves after 6 months? (knowledge transfer, contractor backup, equity vesting)

9. Execution Unknowns

Critical for realistic planning:

Hiring

Where to find ops manager candidate? (job boards, referrals, salary competitive?)
What skills must ops manager have? (Thai language, golf knowledge, customer service?)
Where to find developer candidate? (local dev community, bootcamps, remote?)
What tech stack must developer know? (Node.js, React, mobile, APIs?)

Office/Infrastructure

Do we need physical office? (or fully remote for first 3-6 months?)
Where should office be? (Bangkok? near courses? near Investor?)
What equipment needed? (laptops, phones, desks, or BYOD?)
What legal entity structure? (GolfOkay already registered? need new subsidiary?)

Sales & Marketing

How will we acquire first 20 customers? (Tan’s existing list, ads, SEO, partnerships?)
What marketing budget needed? (Facebook/LINE ads, SEO, content, other?)
Who handles customer support? (CTO, ops manager, Tan, chatbot + human escalation?)
What brand positioning? (premium, budget, convenience, expertise?)

Priority Research Sequence

Immediate (Before Go/No-Go Decision)

Tan’s current volume & revenue (validates 20 packages in 90 days is achievable)
Course relationships & commission rates (validates unit_economics)
Customer persona & acquisition channels (validates demand & CAC)
Aggregator terms & API capabilities (validates tech approach)
Transport margin & capacity (validates ancillary revenue)

Pre-Launch (Weeks 1-2)

Specific course list (manual vs API mapping)
Payment gateway selection & integration (PromptPay + cards)
Ops manager job description & hiring (get in place week 1-2)
Office/infrastructure decisions (physical location or remote)
Marketing channel testing (small budget, validate CAC)

During Build (Weeks 3-8)

Customer interviews (pain points, willingness-to-pay)
Competitor mystery shopping (pricing benchmarks)
Direct course relationship templates (pilot 2-3 relationships)
Risk scenario planning (what-if analysis)

Continuous Learning

Customer feedback loops (CSAT surveys, support tickets)
Course relationship expansion (which to prioritize)
Technology performance monitoring (API reliability, booking success rate)
Market intelligence (competitor moves, pricing trends)

How to Use This Document

For Adimov:

Highlight which questions you can research (web search, competitor analysis, industry reports)
Mark which need Tan validation (only he has the data)
Flag which need investor input (transport terms, capital structure, other partnerships)

For future instances:

Check this before building new concept pages (don’t theorize, research first)
Update when questions answered (move to relevant concept docs)
Add new questions as gaps discovered

For investor meeting:

“Questions to Validate” section in investor_pitch pulls from here
Some questions are blockers (must answer before commit)
Others are “nice to know” (can discover during build)

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