Sounding Off: Big opportunities for travel startups must carry a warning

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered on our site that week.

It's hard to argue against those that have made so many investments in some of the biggest brands to emerge in the travel industry over the last decade.

They pore over pitch decks with a microscope, interrogate founders and then spend extraordinary amounts of time trying to understand a particular business and the sector in which it is operating in.

Inevitably, they turn away far more brands with ideas than they invest in. That's the nature of the investment world.

Often, they get it right. Sometimes they get it hopelessly wrong.

Jeff Jordan is absolutely correct when he says the industry presents plenty of opportunity for startups and that, in not so many words, technology gives them plenty of scope to challenge the status quo.

But those that have tried and failed (sometimes on numerous occasions) will counter that the reality of bringing a business into the industry and hoping to make a difference is not going to be easy.

Far from it, in fact.

Airbnb and Uber, at the top end of the disruptive scale, for want of a better phrase, succeeded because they managed to operate in ways that the existing players had not thought of, did not want to get into or simply didn't have on their strategic agenda.

They are the outliers of the last decade or so in online travel.

For everyone else, there is often an incumbent with deep marketing pockets, an arsenal of technology and an army of engineers, plus the wherewithal to move forward when an opportunity arises.

Dangling the glories of others in front of startups is a powerful, motivating force for any new business. Yet it must be tempered with ensuring a founder's feet are kept firmly on the ground.

It is, inevitably and importantly, always just a question of setting the right and realistic expectations.