STARTUP STAGE: Wanderift brings a subscription model to air travel

Wanderift

Founded in December 2017, Wanderift allows users to buy a subscription of either $369 per month for three one-way flights or $459 per month for four one-way flights. Subscriptions are month-to-month.

Subscribers book flights through the Wanderift web or mobile app anywhere from one to 21 days before departure on carriers including American, Delta and United.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

Wanderift is airline travel as a subscription. Subscribers pay a monthly fee for a certain amount of tokens. One token corresponds to a single one-way flight to any of our destinations.

We currently focus our subscriber base in specific markets, and out of those markets our subscribers can travel most major U.S. cities. Subscribers can fly American, Delta or United.

What inspired you to create this company?

We noticed that the travel industry was resistant to the subscription model and that it hasn’t worked in the past. We believe Wanderift can change that.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.

• Strengths : We have an “A” team that has the ability to make Wanderift succeed.
• Weaknesses : Creating a new product in the travel space, it is hard to gain traction.
• Opportunities : The travel industry is somewhat dated, allowing opportunity for disruption.
• Threats: A large online travel agency using its vast resources to try to perfect the subscription model.

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective?

• Pain point 1: Last-minute travel is both expensive and unpredictable.
• Pain point 2: Booking a flight is cumbersome.

So you've got the product, now how will you get lots of customers?

We plan to grow our social media presence and work with travel blogs. We will also partner with vacation rentals in the markets we operate and appeal to their customers. And we will speak at startup events and offer special deals on subscriptions to members of co-working spaces.

Tell us what process you've gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

After building out our MVP we did a six-month paid beta test. This allowed us to make improvements and see what users wanted in our product. Having feedback from users that actually paid for our product insured that we were able to create a product and subscriptions specifically crafted toward our users.

How and when will you make money?

Our predictive algorithm determines if a flight a user has searched for fits within our 6.5% margin for the whole community of subscribers. If the flight doesn’t fit within our margin, we suggest alternate trip dates or indicate there is just no availability for the search.

Currently we have a 96% success rate - when a user searches for a flight they get what they searched for. Our model doesn’t focus on making money through breakage - we want our subscribers to use their flights. Since our paid beta, we have been making money.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team, and why do you have what it takes to succeed with this business?

• Zachary Burau, founder - Zach’s vast technical background gives Wanderift a unique advantage when it comes to offering the best tech that a travel company can offer.
• Brad Burau, CFO - Brad’s 25 years of experience owning, operating and purchasing dental offices has given him the ability to be an “A+” CFO and valuable member of Wanderift.
• Austin Speer, CMO - Austin’s experience with the marketing team at Ferrari gives him unique insight and experience when it comes to executing Wanderift marketing campaigns.
• Phillip Verlee, ticketing fulfillment advisor - Phillip’s experience as founder of Travel Automation along with his many years working with Sabre has allowed Wanderift to have an exceptional ticket fulfillment process.
• Trey Fayard, advisor - Trey is the founder of FlyGlo Airlines. He brings a unique perspective when it comes to offering a beneficial product to airlines, along with offering a product the traveler would love.

What's been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

The most difficult part of creating Wanderift has been meeting the high expectations travelers have for products such as Wanderift. The bar is set high when it comes to offering a new and unique service in the travel industry, and it’s important that Wanderift meets those standards.

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact - so why are you going to be one of lucky ones?

Wanderift offers an exceptional product that is extremely beneficial to the traveler. For a travel startup to succeed it has to offer value to the traveler, and we believe Wanderift does that.