Kenny Totten, co-founder and COO
In Startup Stage Act II, we hear from Bacarai on its developments from the past year.
In this past year, what is the one operational initiative you wish your brand could have handled differently?
In the past year, we have focused on developing our white-labeled group product for airlines.
Our software automates many of the processes that currently bog down airlines and group customers - which means it must interact with many different backend airline systems. These dependencies caused us to move slower than we would have liked.
Operationally, we should have spent more time delivering features that improve the experience for group customers, as we don’t have dependencies in that arena.
Are there any new addressable markets that you are targeting? (Other than the markets you mentioned last year).
We started out wanting to focus on automating your standard group contract workflow.
In our world, travel agencies, schools and businesses are the primary users of a group contract - we categorize them as B2B product users.
Your standard group contract allows for free cancellations, name changes and delayed payment, which are important terms for B2B customers.
However, through our work with the airlines, we realized the market is much larger, and thus have developed an instant booking shopping experience for groups of from 10 to 25 passengers.
Later this year, you will be able to shop for a group and invite your friends into the trip, creating a social experience while easing travel planning. Instead of being solely focused on B2B, we are now focused on group travel in general.
Our big vision is for Bacarai to be your operating system for group air travel - meaning no matter who you are, if you are traveling as part of a group, your shopping will start on Bacarai.com (launching this spring).
How has the founding team evolved in the past year?
We are happy to announce we have expanded our development team, adding several talented engineers.
In late-2019, Jason Skipper, who previously worked at The Walt Disney Company, joined Bacarai as the vice president of technology. Jason leads our new development team and overseas integration efforts with our airline partners.
What has been the most unexpected challenge in the past year?
The most unexpected challenge of the past year is dealing with the differences in how each airline runs their groups programs from both a technical and business perspective. Differences in terms and conditions, payment and integration points all impact our product.
What feedback about your product have you received from customers in the past year?
We have quietly conducted tests with tour operators and travel agencies who have been quite positive about the product experience.
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We estimate that we would reduce the amount of time spent on the phone and doing manual work servicing group contracts by 75%, giving a lot of time back to travel agents.
How many times in the past year have you pitched to investors, and what feedback have you received from them?
We recently launched our first round of funding and have been positively received by the investment community, closing several small investments.
Our pitch is simple: Hundreds of millions of people travel in groups, yet there is no platform that allows you to shop and manage groups of more than 10 people online.
While most investors agree on the market size and vision, some do want to see more data on customers and traction prior to pulling the trigger.
What is your biggest risk heading into the next year?
We have several large projects and engagements in the pipeline. Our biggest risk is managing resources effectively.
Small teams are great because they are nimble and emphasize speed. The downside is, we have limited bandwidth, so we have to be extremely focused.
If you could go back in time one year ago, what management issue would you warn yourself about?
Our team was naive about the pace of enterprise sales. Our average sales cycle to close an airline is between seven and 12 months.
If we could do it over again, we would focus on building more value on the travel agent side and being good stewards of creating a first-class group shopping experience as we wait for airline deals to materialize.