STARTUP STAGE: B0arding is a booking site that rewards users for video reviews

B0arding

B0arding invites travelers to submit video reviews of hotels and short-term rentals they've stayed in and rewards them with a $20 travel credit for a future trip booked on its platform. 

Founded in 2023, B0arding has more than two million hotel and vacation rental listings sourced from Amadeus and Booking.com.

What is your 30-second pitch to investors?

B0arding is a "video Tripadvisor" for billions of GenZers, with accommodation content from Amadeus and Booking.com.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

The platform enables its users to discover and trade their video content for travel credits, along with booking stays. The more videos you submit, the more credits you get. We use AI and global distribution systems for content verification and distribution.

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

• Strengths: Founder-market-fit plus our UGC (user-generated content) flywheel is similar to TikTok

• Weaknesses: Lack of access to unlimited cash

• Opportunities: Catering to GenZers and everyone who loves transparency 

• Threats: Competitors will start copying us, but it will be proof for our product-market-fit, so I am looking forward to it

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

Customer angle: 

• Current travel booking platforms don’t meet GenZ’s buying behavior
• Most GenZers go to social media to get video reviews and create a disjointed experience when book travels
• As a result, GenZers don't maximize spending power on travel bookings

Industry angle: 

The Federal Trade Commission announced a crackdown on fake reviews. It's going to add more difficulties for brands (hotels, OTAs, review platforms) to build consumer-to-brand trust and loyalty, but it opens all the doors for us since our product perfectly fits as a solution and is well aligned with this regulation. 

In other words, hotels need high occupancy and retention rates, B0arding is a solution.

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

We grant travel credits - virtual money - per each submitted and approved video review.

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

We just talked to lots of customers through our CEO's previous venture. He founded a chain of hostels servicing the GenZ demographic with $12 million annual revenue. Our serviceable addressable market is $32 billion.      

How and when will you make money?

Our business model is transactional, but there are ways to add additional revenue streams in the future, like cost-per-click and/or distribution. 

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team?

• Our CEO previously founded a chain of hostels servicing the GenZ demographic with $12 million annual revenue, 10 years of sales, business development and growth. Strategic partnerships and sales at Groupon Travel and other tech startups.  
• Our CTO has 20 years in IT management, development and operations and information security, seven years in high-load development for travel tech (basically, he never sleeps)   
• Our CMO has eight years in corporate Hollywood PR (Walt Disney, Warner Bros, Universal) 

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?

Immigrants from Eastern Europe and South America founded our company. We've deliberately created a culture where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives. Our team represents almost all the continents of our planet.  

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

Building a product people want. 

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

We built the product people want and we have support from the industry giants.  

A year from now, what state do you think your startup will be in?

"Going to the Moon" stage.

What is your end-game? (Going public, acquisition, growing and staying private, etc.)

Ideally - going public.