New Aussie site Tripbooka is one of a few dozen companies that will be making their pitches at the Travel Innovation Summit at the PhoCusWright Conference in Los Angeles in November.
Here's the company's 30-second pitch:
Tripbooka provides a unique virtual marketplace for high street travel agencies to compete for the online traveler.
Travelers log their desired itinerary via the customized portal with ease. Simultaneously, multiple agents using Tripbooka’s exclusive automated platform quote and compete for that business.
Tripbooka offers a seamless online experience for the traveler tailored with the expertise of an offline agent.
Its founder, Luke Crawford, believes that his background in working for United Airlines, tour operator Scenic Tours, and global distribution system Travelport gives him a solid foundation to start his company.
Q&A with Tripbooka founder Luke Crawford:
Tell us how you founded the company, why and what made you decide to jump in and create the business.
Several years back I attended a travel agency franchise conference, as a supplier. I was sitting amongst agents, listening to their senior leaders get up on stage and talk.
Sales got up, spoke and sat back down. Marketing department did the same, along with IT, legal and finance.
In the background, I could hear these agents -- my friends -- talking around me to each other.
They were getting louder and louder until they were all basically saying the same thing under their breath back to senior management: "How are you going to help me get the customer through my door."
While the agents were meaning their physical door, I was thinking more laterally about the online door via digital marketing.
At this point, the concept of Tripbooka was born. Online marketplaces were starting to come into fashion in other verticals.
Fastrack to the beginning of 2011: I'm having many sleepless nights asking myself, why hasn't this been done before, what am I missing, will it work, how will it work and where do I start?
It became apparent that I personally needed to bring my idea to market and help the travel agent compete for the online traveller. I wasn't ever a travel consultant, but I ended up marrying one.
Size of the team, names of founders, management roles and key personnel?
Currently it’s just me, depending what day or hour you get me depends what hat im wearing and what role im in.
That said, I have surrounded myself with professionals in their field such as marketing, legal, design, content writing and development in which I pay for their services.
I have also built a very strong, dedicated and passionate non-executive advisory board who specialise in IT, finance, payment solutions, sales, marketing and legal, who have helped guide me to where I am today.
More importantly my wife has supported me in so many ways. People who have not dipped their toe or dived into the startup world cannot truly understand the personal sacrifices one makes to go on this journey and what it means to be surrounded by people who believe in what you’re doing and support you every step of the way.
Funding arrangements?
For the time being it has been self-funded. My aim was proof of concept which we have been successful at so now once the new design, look and feel is released in a few weeks we will be actively looking for funding.
With pitching at WIT2014, attending Web Summit as an exhibitor and pitching at PhoCusWright Innovation Summit, we hope to gain interest.
Estimation of market size?
Just looking at APAC alone, as projected by PhoCusWright, APAC’s total gross bookings are to reach over 378 Billion by the end of 2014. Online penetration is modelled at capturing just 28.7% of the 378B.
Now we could say that we would be looking to complete for a share of that 100 Billion.
However with some strategic partnerships in place we could also be looking at the other 71.3% as an opportunity, as it's hard to estimate the market size because the business has the ability to evolve in any direction.
Competition?
Well this question is hard to answer as we are looking to create the first fully automated and integrated hybrid platform that will link the online experience for the traveller with the offline experience of a professional travel agent.
So to an extent it can be the market we are aiming our business to, and that is your traditional travel agent.
But from an online perspective, anyone is, may it be supplier direct, traditional OTAs, Alibaba Travel, Google, TripAdvisor -- all you have to do is pick one and in anyway shape or form they are a competitor.
We don’t really focus on our competition, we keep an eye on trends and what’s new, but we are focusing on getting our model right and being the best we can in market.
Revenue model and strategy for profitability?
We aren’t charging the agents at the moment but as Tripbooka grows and we review the data, we will revisit this model. Once the traveller is happy with their quote, they pay a holding deposit of $30 to lock in the quote.
Given we are less than a month old we are looking closely at the data and user experience that we are collecting.
Regards our strategy for profitability, we are currently finishing different versions of the Tripbooka overall platform.
Once completed, Tripbooka technology will be able to sit across many other areas of travel and be integrated with many of the agents back-office systems, thus making it a seamless process from start to finish.
We can’t reveal to much of our secret sauce just yet as we are still adding the last of the ingredients.
What problem does the business solve?
I know my answer is probably going to put some people off. However I see a lack of centralised online travel content and personalised online customer service, which makes it hard for travelers to research and book bespoke itineraries in one place.
Time-poor travelers do not have time to liaise with numerous travel agents online or offline for the best deal and or service, nor do they want to be hassled for their business.
On the other hand, for the travel agents, they are finding it increasingly tough to compete with larger online travel providers for new business.
With clients becoming time more web-savvy, traditional travel agents now need to fund an online presence involving web optimisation, SEO, PPC, or digital marketing initiatives -- all of which can be costly and impact operating expenses.
Tripbooka addresses these issues, acting as a matchmaker.
How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?
If I could show you some of the very early wireframes I created you would think a six-year old completed if for a school assignment and just passed.
To date there hasn’t been any real pivots that has made Tripbooka rethink its direction.
It has certainly evolved to be able to include more third-party applications. But I'm a true believer that if you don't adapt to what the market is telling you, you will be left behind.
The most important thing to understand is any feedback that’s given, take it on board, sleep on it, talk to those who are involved in the business and more importantly the front-line users. Then make your decision but do it quickly.
Why should people or companies use the business?
It gives travellers a piece of mind that they can research, shop and book in one single easy to use platform.
Also knowing that up to three agents are quoting you on your business and you can communicate with them at any time without your personal details being shown until you’re ready to commit to that quote. That is a powerful proposition.
Also with the other versions we are currently completing it would be a fantastic offering for many TMCs to have it as an extra offering / hybrid to their services. Because they currently have the "no touch" approach which is their corporate booking tool and the "complete touch" approach which is email and phone. Tripbooka’s model bridges those 2 combinations.
What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition?
Right now its building awareness through our social engagement online as we have identified the Gen Y’s to be our target market.
Tripbooka has also been selected to pitch at Traveltechs Conference in Sydney, WIT2014 in Singapore and finishing at PhoCusWright Summit in LA next month, where Tripbooka is one of the 32 Innovators presenting on stage.
As to the public, not only is our marketing plan starting to come into gear but Tripbooka is also showcasing at tech23 in Sydney and Web Summit in Dublin we are also in the middle of negotiating strategic opportunities with other parties.
Where do you see the company in three years’ time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome?
I see Tripbooka being established in other markets outside of Australia, also I see direct competitors entering the market if they already haven’t to some degree and adapting to the technology and enhancing the product offering / suite.
Lastly but probably the biggest challenge is hiring a good team. Going out and hiring a person tomorrow may not be the right person in three years.
What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that it requires a startup like yours to help it out?
I don’t think anything is wrong with the industry, I just think its missing a few key pieces from a 10,000 piece puzzle set. Tripbooka is fulfilling one of those missing pieces.
What other technology company (in or outside of travel) would you consider yourselves most closely aligned to in terms of culture and style... and why?
Outside of travel I would have to say the likes of elance.com, odesk.com or freelancer.com -- just due to the creation of their online communities. This is something Tripbooka is trying to achieve.
Which company would be the best fit to buy your startup?
A large franchise or OTA looking to have a direct connect to a community of travel agents.
Describe your startup in three words?
Adaptive, disruptive and exciting.
Tripbooka has made a Vine to showcase its concept.
Tnooz view:
We'll keep this short, because the real judging will happen in the field at PhoCusWright and WIT. But, to state the obvious:
The market Tripbooka is targeting is a tantalizing one: upscale consumers intent on making big-ticket travel purchases, who need help, and who are willing to pay for that help.
This rich target has attracted other companies.
To name just one: Earlier this year, Australia's own FlightFox shifted from a model of crowdsourced experts to connecting travelers with experts one-on-one, and many of those experts are agents.
Variations on this theme have also included modest US operations, like CruiseCompete and Fortnighter, though those comparisons are inexact.
To be fair, Tripbooka is aiming to do something slightly different that what others have done.
Even so, it might help if Tripbooka's founder added a business partner, someone to offer complementary strengths and weaknesses -- to be "up" when the other partner is "down" in the face of any (inevitable, temporary) setback.
Tnooz wishes Tripbooka well.