WIT Bootcamp 2012 Travel Starters

1. Travel for Starters
Timothy O’Neil-Dunne
Valyn Perini
Anil Damodoran
Filip Filipov
Alex Kremer
Frank Lin

2. Travel for Starters
• Don’t know what you don’t know about
travel?
– How it works
– Why it works
• Or doesn’t
– Where the opportunities are
– About VaultPad
– About OpenTravel

3. Think Of The Travel Industry As A Series Of
Tribes
• Unique cultures and practices within
each segment but
• Inter-connected
• Relationship-based
• And with similar technical and
commercial challenges

4. Distribution is Key

5. But First…
Have You Really Thought This Through?

6. Startup Success Formula
• Compelling proposition +
• Viable market
• Acquiring customers +
• Monetizing the activity +
• Secret Sauce +
• Retaining customers +
• Replicating the activity multiple times

7. Are you the right person for the job?
• Do you have relevant
experience?
• Are you “presentable”
• Are you skilled?
• Are you smart enough?
• Are you lucky?

8. The Team
• Does the team fit?
• Is it fit for purpose?
• Can you get help?
• How does it respond under pressure?
• Credible to stakeholders?
• Longevity?

9. “The Danger of Celebritizing
Entrepreneurship”
• Says the HBR Oct’12
– http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2
012/10/the_danger_of_
celebritizing_en.html

10. The Proposition
• Original
• Inspirational
• Valuable
• Repeatable
• Meaningful
• Indispensible
• Not someone else’s!

11. The Market
• Have you assessed the market?
– Quantified
– Qualified
• Is it viable?
• Who is already there?
• What will be the market’s response?
• How will you reach that market?

12. Do you understand the complexity?
• Markets are complex
• Products are complex
• Technology is complex
• Travel is complex
• People are complex
• Combinations are mindboggling

13. Catching Customers
• Catching customers is not the same as
acquiring users
– Just look at Facebook!
• Once caught you have to retain and leverage
them.

14. Monetization
• Traditional models are being blown up
• For example TripIt
• Beware the vendors
• CPC is dead and CPA?
• Follow the money
• Avoiding the SEO/SEM trap
• The elephant aka Google

15. Getting Information and Inventory
• Suppliers (hotels, airlines, etc.)
• Intermediaries
(GDS, OTAs, wholesalers, Pegasus, etc.)
• Technology providers (HP, Datalex, Wipro, etc.)
• Third party aggregators of information
(OAG, ARC, ATPCO, Smith Travel Research)

16. Travel Sellers Have A Galaxy Of Sources Constantly Sending
And Receiving Customer Data
Website Type of computer
Up-sell/cross-sell offers/responses
Browser
Direct connects Email offers/responses
GDS Search click-through rates
Call center Ad click-through rates
Kiosks Social media
Counter/On-board Location-based services
Loyalty/CRM/eCRM
Goggles
Form of payment
Smartphones
Partners Tablets

17. Questions…
• Do I need inventory or just information?
• Do I want inventory/info by
– Travel segment
– Region
– Category (luxury, economy)
– Brand
– Do I need it real-time or near real-time?

18. How Do I Pay for It?
• Many and different
• Determine it’s:
– Supply Paid
– Consumer Paid
– 3rd Party Paid
– Other?
• Is this defensible?

19. Resources
• Associations – HEDNA, CASMA, HSMA, ATTA
• Publications – Travel news
websites, analysts, consultants
• Conferences
• Make friends and have
conversations, endlessly

20. Travel for Starters
Timothy O’Neil-Dunne
Valyn Perini
Anil Damodoran
Filip Filipov
Alex Kremer
Frank Lin