VIDEO: Travel investors on startup survival

As the pandemic hit, many startups turned to their investors for advice on their a plan.

The term Minimum Viable Business has been used to describe the steps many startups took to reduce costs as much as possible and create the best opportunity to emerge out the other side.

During the Phocuswright Europe 2020 virtual event last month, investors shared how they had helped companies in their respective portfolios as well as some trends they are seeing.

Investors agreed that while it’s not the best time for exits, new opportunities can present themselves and companies should work on product and think about what can do now that they would not otherwise have been able to do.

The opportunity for mergers and acquisitions was discussed with some feeling that startups might not want to wait out the pandemic.

Segments of travel that might do well in the pandemic such as vacation rentals and startups working on API infrastructure were also highlighted as part of the discussion. 

The panel, hosted by Charuta Fadnis, senior vice president for research and product strategy at Phocuswright, was made up of the following investment experts:

• Jaroslaw Czernek - investment partner at Rockaway Capital
• Neil Glynn - managing director at Credit Suisse
• Christoph Schuh - partner at Lakestar
• Sean Seton-Rogers - general partne at PROfounders Capital