Sell your travel company when you are on top.
Travel industry awards don’t sell companies or raise investment capital.
No one ever went broke selling early.
Venture backed need 3-4 rounds of financing to build a lasting and profitable travel business.
Selling a $500M travel company and $5M travel company are the same.
You have the 2nd highest burn rate behind Uber one VC said
Does your travel company have an economic metric that is shared company wide?
The question every startup founder & CEO ask themselves.
Most nights I made $1,000 in profit. Some nights I made $3,000 in profits.
The most valuable asset in the travel industry is the transaction.
M&A deal structures in the travel industry, I’ve seen lately.
The fastest way to grow in the travel industry is through M&A.
It was worth $2.2M, 88x our $25K investment when the company went public.
Legacy travel companies will be dethroned by a different business model.
Hotels have legacy technology because they have legacy leaders.
When I hear, “the travel industry can’t innovate because of legacy systems.” I know it’s not true. It’s not legacy systems impeding innovation. It’s the people running legacy travel businesses.
A recent post at LinkedIn that received good engagement and comments. Feel free to read the post here and comment at LinkedIn. You can also private DM me or send me an email at matt@travelstartups.co Thanks for reading. Offices: Florida / Maine / New York USA Contact:...
Save American Capitalism by Building an Equitable Ownership Economy
A Thesis for The American Dream 2.0 Entrepreneurs, board of directors and owners of small businesses have a responsibility to save American capitalism. We help ensure the greatest economic and wealth creation system in the history of the world by making employees...
Insights after 40 mentoring calls with founders and CEOs on the COVID-19 Crisis
Over the last 14-days, TSI talked with senior travel executives and 40 emerging travel tech founders, one-on-one for 20-minutes each. Below is a summary of what we advised and what we learned. No sugar coating, it’s really bad. In our view worse than the 2001 dot com...
MyLifeID, Traxo Raise Investment Capital from TSI Travel Tech Investment Symposium
2/21/20 - MyLifeID & Traxo have both received investment capital after 1:1 meetings with investors at the TSI Travel Tech Investment Symposium on Jan 8th. 21 investors met with 20 emerging travel tech companies through (200) 1:1 meetings between investors and...
TWAI Acquires Airlines Technology from Meeting at a TSI Symposium
On April 30, 2019 at the TSI Travel API & Microservices Tech Symposium, CEO Trideep Aggarwal of TWAI met with CEO, Varun Bansal of Airlines Technology. After the Symposium the two CEO’s engaged and started to discuss an API licensing deal. The licensing interest...
Don’t Fight the Tape
In my 20’s during the .com run of the late 90’s, I traded IPO’s and wrote a book. One day, a guest staying at our fly-fishing lodge told me, “Matt, you can’t fight the tape.” He was hoping my publisher, John Wiley could get “Trade IPOs Online,” printed and in...
How to Pilot Travel Technology with Corporates
This year we’ve focused on helping our portfolio companies and advisory clients gain technology pilots and licensing agreements with larger travel companies. We won’t sugar coat it, it’s a tough road. We’ve successfully facilitated deals with GDS’s, Travel Management...
Now is the time to launch your travel technology startup
The old guard in the travel industry is embracing the startup ecosystem and new entrants are entering to assist travel startups. There is more pre-seed money and organizations catering to travel tech startups than at any time I can remember. When we launched Travel...
Do you have what it takes?
I was speaking with an investor on the phone recently. I described that we were raising capital to build Travel Startups Incubator into a $1B global business. I could tell right away he didn’t know much about travel technology. He had a lot of knowledge, passion, and...
An OTA Killer Arrives?
A new mobile travel application is infiltrating the consumer travel industry that we believe will change how travelers plan and ultimately purchase travel. We’ve coined this new travel application, “mobile travel chat” (MTC). Riding the waves of smartphone...
There will be blood
Is your company bleeding, getting ready to die?Are you waiting there for something to click? I know some of you are hurting.Well actually many of you are hurting. We’ve estimated that potentially 40%- 50% of the startups we fund will eventually fail.That’s painful...
Your Travel Startup just lost $1M.
Over the last few months we have moved into fundraising mode here at Travel Startups Incubator. We just launched the Travel Technology Investor Platform to help our startups expand their reach in accessing angel investors, VCs and strategic investors (travel...
An Open Developer Sandbox and API Platform for the global travel industry.
API’s are all I think about lately on the Business Development side of work I do for the startups in our portfolio. Every startup is either looking to distribute their API or acquire an API from a 3rd party travel company. For our investor friends and non-techies in...
Travel the 4th best industry if you want an exit for a tech startup.
View image | gettyimages.com CB Insights one of the leading corporate data intelligence companies has released their 2014 Global Tech Exits Report on global tech exits. In 2014 the travel industry was a leading industry in exit growth in % change from...
Successful travel startup founders are always asking.
Asking is part of selling. Before you can sell you have to ask. In startup mode it seems like we ask, ask and then ask some more. If you don’t ask you’ll never get anywhere. It’s as simple as that. I launched the Travel Startups Founders Series in early 2013, short...
If I Were 22, I’d learn how to take $1 and make it into $2
This post was published at LinkedIn as part of the "If I Were 22" series. When I was 22 years old I was a college student at George Mason University (GMU). My first entrepreneurial venture was the “Brew Bus.” I bused college students from GMU on the weekends to the...
How to do business with an Internet giant.
I recently helped one of my travel startup clients strike a deal with an Internet giant. Yeah, it was a big deal. Most likely multi-millions in customer lifetime value (CLTV/LTV). It went down like this. I sent an email to my main contact. My email was 3 lines. Yes,...
The day we were offered $1M dollars for an idea.
One day my phone rang. This guy says, “Matt Zito, the IPOguys"...I am building the next generation Initial Public Offering brokerage platform to distribute shares directly to individual investors. I’ve got patents. I am going to pay you boys $1M. How soon can you get...
Dirty little secrets about NET rates.
I am working with a new client and we are analyzing moving their hotel contracts from a commission rate-contracting model to a net rate-contracting model. Here are my thoughts about NET rates and why I think NET rates are the best contracting model for travel...
You know your travel startup has arrived when they try to take you out.
We were finishing up our second ski travel season when a letter arrived in the mail from an attorney in Fairfax, Virginia. Our main competitor was trying to stop us from conducting business. The travel competitor was a mature travel company that had been around for...
Fear and greed kill travel startups.
Fear and greed are a travel startup entrepreneurs two archenemies. The key to managing your fear and greed is to recognize it, acknowledge it and then find a balance with each one. Make decisions that are not based in fear and know when enough is really enough. It’s...
5 techniques to create the next hot travel startup.
In this post you'll learn 5 techniques you can use to take your current or new travel startup idea and iterate the core components into a singular-use travel product. I see a product trend in the consumer Internet space I call “singular-use,” products. Popular...
Without her I’d be nothing.
I sat down next to this beautiful girl. Her name was Nicole Spotswood. I had seen her on college campus but never met her. We chit chatted. She was a golfer and an athlete. She was smart. I really liked her. I wanted to date here right then and there. I had to figure...
Pull the covers to your side of the bed.
“Matt, you’re pulling the covers to your side of the bed.” I’ll admit, when I was a young travel startup entrepreneur I was a taker. I tried to take at every corner. I felt that the only way to succeed was to be a ruthless and take as much as I could. If you let me...
The tour bus was flipping. I thought it was over for our travel startup.
As CEO and founder of your travel company you are going to be making tough choices in the face of adversity. These decisions will impact the short-term bottom line and have consequences for years to come. The travel business is fluid, always changing. Your customers...
These four words can change your entrepreneurial life forever.
It was Spring 1992. I was walking out of my last communications class in my senior year at George Mason University. Professor Robert Conley taught me communication and entrepreneurial skills, how to think for myself and take initiative. He forced us to write as a way...
Travel Startup Founders Series: Steve Kaufer Co-Founder & CEO TripAdvisor
Travel Startup Founders Series are inspirational short stories direct from travel startup CEO's, founders and entrepreneurs. The Travel Startup Founders Series is an exclusive from TravelStartups.co. Sponsor: ChooseToTravel Group - 80 destination-domain names for sale...
The travel industry is building less authentic travel start ups.
Is it me or are you noticing more travel start-ups that are really just technology businesses or media companies operating under the disguise as a leisure travel business? These new start ups are companies termed as social travel, meta-travel, affiliate-travel...
M&A for Travel Tech Companies
We are pleased to announce our Mergers and Acquisitions service providing both buy-side and sell-side M&A for leisure and business travel technology companies. Covid-19 has had an impact on the travel industry and many travel startups are either closing, merging...
Traction Day: Travel Curious – a Verticalized Private Day Tour Operator with Instant Bookable Inventory for Resellers of In-Destination Travel
Travel Curious, specializes in providing private, unforgettable cultural tours and bespoke experiences with handpicked guides to travelers in 62 cities around the world. Travel Curious is unique in the tours and activities sector due to the scale of its operation, its...
Sept 30, 2020 the FICCI Travel Start-Up Accelerator Series Towards a Self Reliant India
Excited and honored to give the closing address at the FICCI Travel Start-Up Accelerator Series event on Sept 30, 2020. FICCI will introduce a free virtual platform for mentoring, guiding & advisory for tech based travel on Sept 30th. Register for the opportunity...
Financial Projections for Travel Startups
Impress investors with your financial projections. At TSI, we’ve worked with hundreds of travel technology startups on their product and investment decks. One of the hardest components is the financial projections. We teach startups to tell the story on what they’ve...
Sell Private Jet Charters with NeoJets for Travel Agency’s, Agents, Brokers, Entrepreneurs
NeoJets partner program enables Travel Agencies, Agents, Enterprises, Brokers, Entrepreneurs to book private jet charters globally, through a web-based online booking engine. NeoJets instant booking capability gives you access to 1,900 private jets. Search for...
TraknProtect Launches TraknKleen, Hotel Cleanliness Protocol Compliance Solution
TSI portfolio company TraknProtect launches TraknKleen,TM a housekeeping app and data set (API) for corporate travel managers and business travelers. TraknKleenTM trilaterates data from multiple sources, such as housekeeping carts, I.D. cards, cleaning supplies, and...
Ehave & MyLifeID Sign Licensing Deal after 1:1 Meeting at TSI Investment Symposium
Ehave a provider of digital therapeutics (EHVVF) signed a licensing partnership with MyLifeID after a 1:1 meeting at the TSI Travel Tech Investment Symposium on Jan 8th in Miami, FL. Ben Kaplan, CEO of Ehave attended the TSI Investment Symposium as an angel investor....
Free Emergency COVID-19 Business Mentoring Calls
Starting Friday till April 1st, we are offering free mentoring services to B2B travel tech companies in light of the virus impacting the global travel industry. On the call we’ll share 3 things we think you should do immediately, and we’ll provide advice on questions,...
30SecondsToFly to license TWAI aggregation engine after 1:1 Meeting at the TSI Symposium Jan 7th
30SecondsToFly CEO Riccardo Vittoria met TWAI CEO Trideep Aggarwal at the TSI Travel API & Microservices Tech Symposium on Jan 7, 2020 which led to a successful integration of their technologies. 30SecondsToFly uses TWAI's aggregation engine to connect its TMC...
Thomalex partners with Sherpa to license eVisa API after 1:1 Meeting at the TSI Symposium
After a 1:1 Meeting at the Jan 7th TSI Travel API & Microservices Tech Symposium, Thomalex an Online Booking Tool (OBT) for TMCs and Travel Agency's signed an API partnership licensing deal with eVisa provider Sherpa. The corporate travel agency customers of...
Sept 29, 2020 TSI Emerging Travel Tech Symposium
TSI is pleased to announce our 3rd, Emerging Travel Technology Symposium. APIs | Microservices | Data for the Business Travel & Leisure Travel Markets. TSI's curated private Symposiums bringing together travel companies for 1:1 meetings for relationship...
TSI Symposiums Jan 7th & 8th Conduct 350 1:1 Meetings Over 2-days
The 2nd TSI Travel API & MicroServices Tech Symposium was held on Jan 7th. The following day we launched the 1st TSI Travel Tech Investment Symposium. (350) 1:1 meetings took place over 2-days between (35) Emerging Travel Tech Startups, (10) Large Travel...
Top 3 Impactful Travel Technology Trends in 2020
TSI believes impactful growth in the travel industry will come from these three trends in 2020. #1 Direct-to-Supplier / Supplier-Direct – This is the #1 current trend in the travel industry. The trend is impacting every travel vertical from hotels, airlines, to OTAs....
Traction Day: Eddy Travels – White label AI Travel Assistant
Eddy Travels is a travel tech startup developing AI-powered travel assistants with custom natural language processing (NLP) for travel context. Travel companies can white label the Eddy Travels digital assistant to generate additional sales and increase the ROI from...
Jan 7, 2020 2nd Travel API, MicroServices & Data Tech Symposium
We are pleased to announce our 2nd, Travel API & Micro-Services Tech Symposium, part of the TSI Innovation Program. We bring together the leading TMC’s, Corporate Travel Managers, GDSs, Airlines, Hotels, OTA’s, Travel Platforms, Marketplaces and vetted global B2B...
Jan 8, 2020 Travel Tech Investment Symposium
We are pleased to announce a 1-day travel technology investment Symposium, dedicated exclusively to investing in travel technology. We’re bringing together the world’s leading travel tech investors and vetted, investment grade, global emerging travel technology...
NEOJETS signs 5-year deal with Jet Set X a Dassault-Backed Program
NeoJets (formerly Biz Airlines), a TSI portfolio company, signs 5-year deal with Jet Set X, a program based on the Dassault Falcon 8X to License the NeoJets Technology Platform. Jet Set X is the first private jet membership program to work closely with the global...
Traction Day: Hey Travelista
Hey Travelista participated in the Traction Program Batch #4 Hey Travelista enables organizations to reward their top members with experiential travel through access to curated 5-star hotel packages at exceptional prices. Members then gain access to luxury...
Traction Day: Rondevoo
Rondevoo participated in the Traction Program Batch #4 Rondevoo in BETA is a mobile app, helping leisure travelers, share, plan and manage travel. Rondevoo is centered around groups collaborating on taking a travel plan from an idea to a fun, engaging and easily...
Travel API & Micro-Services Travel Tech Symposium April 30, 2019
TSI’s inaugural API & Micro-Services Travel Tech Symposium, took place April 30th in Miami, FL at the Amadeus Executive Center. The Symposium centered around 1:1 meetings for relationship building between travel tech companies. There were also presentations and...
Traction Day: FOFFit
FOFFit participated in the Traction Program Batch #4 FOFFit is the first social marketplace for home sharing. It is a fun way to rent your home or vacation rental with a more trusted network of friends and communities of people with similar interests. Join a few...
Traction Day: Around Vector
Around Vector participated in the Traction Program Batch #3. A SaaS platform that serves as mid and front-office to be used by travel counsellors in travel agencies specialized in the corporate travel (or travel management companies - TMCs). Around Vector is a travel...
Traction Day: B2BOOK.NET
B2Book.net participated in the Traction Program Batch #3. B2Book is a B2B Vacation Rentals platform between tourist accommodation owners or managers (Seller) and travel agencies, tour operators, Online Travel Agents (OTA) and GDS (Buyer). The platform was born with...
Rise of the Travel Platforms, a New Business Model, Driven by the API Economy
The travel industry is in the midst of a massive transformation. Driven by the API economy and new technologies, larger travel companies are morphing into global travel platforms with new business models. The Travel Platform trend is facilitating innovation throughout...
Pruvo & DestyGo Win the Future of Travel Startup Pitch Competition
9 travel technology startups from around the world, presented in front of 6 judges and 300+ attendees at the 2019 Future of Travel Summit in Miami, FL. Pruvo, rebook the same hotel room for a cheaper price, won the Peoples Choice award. DestyGo, smarter conversations...
Future of Travel Tech Summit February 12th in Miami, FL
The 2nd annual, Future of Travel Tech Summit is being held February 12, 2019 in Miami, FL at the Lyric Theatre. TSI is looking forward in participating. Matt Zito, Managing Partner of TSI will be moderating the investment panel in the morning session. TSI readers,...
Create a Photo Map of your City in 5 Minutes
Photo Mapping for your Digital Assets “On my San Francisco trip, Streetography helped me find a restaurant, a coffee shop, and a bar I would have otherwise missed!” — Isaiah Little, Newark Convention and Visitors Bureau Build a Photo Map of your city, neighborhood or...
Pitch and Exhibit at the Connect Travel Destination Marketing Summit Feb 20-22, 2019
Calling all destination marketing and in-destination travel technology startups. Do you have technology that is impacting destination marketers? Technology that helps travel planning or in-destination discovery? Destination marketers include Destination Management...
Travel Startups Incubator® Traction Day Nov 5th
8-global travel technology startups participated in Travel Startups Incubator®, 9-week Traction Program, from Sept 1-Nov 1, 2018. The 8 startups participated virtually online. Matt Zito, Managing Partner of TSI, presented over 100+ learning content modules, including...
Traction Day: CultureMee
You need a map to get to your destination. But what map do you have for the local people? Welcome to CultureMee a B2B video content API to bring the local culture to life. We recently won the Youth Global Travel Awards 2018 for "Best Travel Technology Product." Our...
Traction Day: Kiva Solutions
The meetings distributor helping connect spaces and bookers. Instant online booking of meeting rooms and events. Kiva Solutions provides worldwide distribution of meeting spaces of hotels and other venues so that meeting planners and travel agents can book meetings...
Traction Day: nXus Software
nXus provides an online, bookable platform to help business travelers find the most cost efficient travel location for meetings. We allow you to research real-time costs of air, hotel, and car rentals for multiple destinations using a single query. We provide...
Traction Day: Streetography
Streetography’s Photo Maps show travelers what’s at places - restaurants, bars, clothing stores, coffee shops - by putting photos right on maps. Users see large photos on the map immediately, not tiny pins. It’s like Instagram for Maps. Creating Photo Maps is easy...
Traction Day: Troop Travel
TroopTravel has built an award-winning platform which uses big data and machine learning to find the optimal meeting locations for corporate groups based on your specific requirements. We are aggregating internal and external data feeds (micro services) and have...
Traction Day: Yana Trip
Yana Trip is a leading global platform for adventure activities. Focusing on sales to outbound Asian travelers we have over 1,000+ bookable activities. Yana Trip offers both a B2C website for consumer direct purchases and a B2B, API for OTAs and other travel...
Traction Day: yuriQa
yuriQa helps Travel Agencies, TMC’s and data analytics companies take the pain out of transforming complex live travel booking data into straight forward and actionable business insights. By making key business performance indicators and savings/revenue opportunities...
Travel Startups Incubator® Traction Program
Gain Traction and Accelerate your Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Startup. 9-Week Virtual Program Join Now! For Global Bootstrapped & Seed-Funded Companies Gain Traction. Accelerate your Company. Get Certified. Since Fall 2014, Travel Startups Incubator® (TSI) has...
ZingTrip Wins EyeforTravel North America Startup Award, Kiva Solutions Runner-Up
ZingTrip, a mobile application helping people stay fit while traveling, won the EyeforTravel North America Startup Award in Las Vegas. Runner-up, Kiva Solutions, helps meeting planners and travel agents book meetings and events in real-time. Special thanks to Greg...
Travel Tech Investor Discussion with JetBlue Ventures, Highgate Ventures, Boeing and Travel Startups Incubator®
Digital Disruption in Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Fantastic investor panel with insights for travel startups looking for investment capital. Investors included JetBlue Ventures, Highgate Ventures, Boeing and Travel Startups Incubator®. The panel discussion took...
Pitch at the EyeforTravel Start Up Awards Oct 18-19, 2018 in Las Vegas
Calling All Travel Start-ups & Innovators! Does your travel company have what it takes to succeed in travel? Is your product or app a key weapon in your battle to win and engage travel consumers? New travel brands will find out as they battle it out as part of...