PicThrive helps tours and activities providers offer customers an easy way to buy and share images and videos after their experience.
The startup recently graduated from Travelport Labs. The accelerator program saw the startup go through an intensive period of mentoring with access to entrepreneurs and industry specialists.
What problem does your business solve?
After an experience like ziplining or white-water rafting, guests are excited to buy and share photos of their adventure, until the tour operator tries to sell them a CD or USB….
PicThrive makes it easy for tours and activity operators, via its cloud platform, to sell more photos/videos and turn social sharing into new bookings and reviews. For the tourist, PicThrive makes it simple to buy, view and share photos/videos immediately after an experience.
Names of founders, their management roles, and number of full-time paid staff?
PicThrive was founded by brothers, Keith and Neal Belovay. While the whole team does whatever it takes to get things done, Keith is the ‘hacker’ or software engineer and Neal the ‘hustler’ is focused on operations.
The company currently has four full-time staff and is hiring.
Funding arrangements?
PicThrive received $30,000 as part of Travelport’s accelerator program. Keith and Neal bootstrapped the company from the beginning and are continuing on this path, taking inspiration from industry leaders FareHarbor and Rezgo. They want PicThrive to remain a family business.
Revenue model?
PicThrive is transactional based, aligning itself with tours and activity operators. This means we have to build strong partnerships with clients and are motivated to bring their photo programs to the next level.
Why do you think the pain point you’re solving is painful enough that customers are willing to pay for your solution?
Photos are the last touchpoint a tour and activity operator has with its guests. It is critical the last memory is of happiness and professionalism, not one of frustrations or annoyance.
The current photo process of burning USBs/CDs is clunky, frustrating and inefficient; not only for the guest but also for the tour operator. Furthermore, the operator is delivering a product that guests cannot use until they get home from vacation. Many computers don’t come with a CD player anymore and the new Macbook is doing away with the USB altogether.
We’ve spent countless hours talking to operators, getting our hands dirty by working in different photo departments and even going so far as camping for days at a remote, off the grid zipline to get it right.
As a result, we developed PicThrive to integrate into any tour and activity operation, making photos/videos a highlight and a breeze for all involved. The platform delivers operational efficiency, automating the cumbersome tasks and ensuring guests leave happy with photos in hand.
The platform has shown that it can increase photo revenues for tour operators and improve the profitability of an operation. In addition, it provides automated marketing to help increase bookings for a tour operator.
Ultimately, PicThrive helps a tour operator stay 100% focused on delivering the best customer experience, provides them an additional revenue stream and automates their word-of-mouth marketing.
External validation?
PicThrive recently graduated from the Travelport accelerator program for travel technology startups. The program provided full-time staff and mentors that coached the team through the Lean Startup methodology and helped them learn how to make smarter decisions.
Some of the mentors that helped the company along its journey include Lawrence Hester from FareHarbor, Andy Glover from PivotDesk, Bruce Rosard from UP211, and Leith Stevens and Alex Kremer from Redeam (formerly Actourex).
The company has active clients in the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK. Millions of photos have been uploaded to its platform to-date.
Third party apps have been developed for PicThrive using its API. The API is free and available for anyone to build apps on top of or connect camera technologies to.
PicThrive is also an official partner of FareHarbor.
Tnooz view:
This seems like such a simple idea that you wonder why it hasn't been solved before. That might be because the tours and activities market is so fragmented with lots of small operators. It might also have something to do with the general lack of technology in the sector.
PicThrive seems to be answering the customer expectation of a fast and easy buying, as well as sharing, experience. The idea of making the most of this last touchpoint with customers so they leave feeling happy is a good one. Often what seems like the little things are what makes a big impact.
It is also addressing important elements for the tours and activities providers in terms of additional revenue and a potentially valuable marketing tool and business driver. It's the sort of ready-made content that businesses can use and potential customers want to see.
Going forward you can see possibilities for the service to extend into other areas such as cruises perhaps if it's not already. The point is that this is a startup well-positioned for the age of online sharing tapping in to people's love of sharing experiences across social media.
Related reading:
From startup to business poised for growth - tracking graduates of the Travelport Labs Accelerator
Why Travelport launched its travel startup accelerator