STARTUP STAGE: Emadri changes the packing experience for travelers and travel companies

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

Emadri helps travel companies monetize pre-travel shopping and on-trip activities. We do this by simplifying arduous aspects of trip planning and by providing a one-stop shop for personalized packing, shopping and activities. 

Our white label/API solution integrates into the customer journey and helps travelers pack, shop and book experiences, while driving new revenue and loyalty for travel companies.

What inspired you to create this company?

We were both management consultants, traveling nearly every day. 

Packing was a drag – and though we figured out a way to pack the essentials easily, we were often short of clothes for anything else but showing up at the office. 

Our solution solves that problem, plus it recommends things travelers might need and things to do once there.

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

Strength
·       One-stop shop for travel-related product and experience purchases
·       High conversion rates
·       Personalized recommendations

Weakness
·       Market awareness, new category within ancillary revenue

Opportunities
·       Simplify decision making process for travelers
·       Grow ancillary revenue for companies
·       Help companies connect with travelers

Threats
·      Copycats
·      Companies DIY (those it makes sense for)

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

Packing is a pain point for travelers, especially when traveling for vacation. Trying to figure out what to wear and what to decide to pack is a moving target based on destinations, dates of travel, weather and vacation activities. 

Currently, 86% of leisure travelers make a packing list before travel. At the same time, we all know one of the first things travelers do between the time they hit “book trip,” until the time they travel, is shop trip-related items and book activities. Travelers spend over $30 billion ever year on retail shopping for their leisure trips.

Emadri provides a customized packing list based on your customers’ destination, dates of travel, gender and weather forecast. In addition to the customized packing list, we provide recommendations for pre-trip retail shopping and on-trip activities booking, allowing travel companies to earn a commission on purchases your customers make related to the trip they just booked with you.

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

Essentially through partnerships. We are live with Virtuoso (we are in Virtuoso's incubator program), Indagare, Meeting Advice and are actively launching Secret Escapes now. 

Prior to The Phocuswright Conference in November, where we were nominated a Hot 25 Startup, and through some aggressive business development, we are in the process of signing agreements with an online travel agency, a cruise supplier, an airline, a credit card company and travel content websites.

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

We recognized the pain travelers have in packing and provide them a personalized packing list. 

Pretty much every traveler packs regardless of destination. We’ve gone a step forward by providing a packing list that is shoppable in one place, meaning we provide recommendations for pre-trip shopping and on-trip activities

How and when will you make money?

We earn a commission on products sales to travelers, whether its retail or tours and activities. We rev share those commissions with our travel partners. 

We also see an opportunity in the future to deepen and leverage our relationships with retail brands that want to reach pre-travel consumers.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team, and why do you have what it takes to succeed with this business?

The founding team comes mostly from management consulting, e-commerce and travel. Our team has extensive experience in the areas of tech; our CTO built SaaS solutions at Priceline, and has experience with recommender models. 

We also have very experienced and aggressive business development talent that won’t take “no” for an answer.

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

The most difficult part of founding the business was that the original founding team members were outsiders to the travel industry and did not have experience on the business side of travel. A lot of strategic relationships had to be built from scratch.

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

Our model makes sense. It’s a natural evolution that travel companies earn a commission on the things people buy for the trip they just booked. 

We have built a platform that focuses on the underserved part of the travel chain. We have high conversion rates and plan to keep improving. We constantly listen to customers and our partners and use machine learning to put the right products in front of travelers based on the trip they are taking.

Plus, our implementation is easy. We can provide an API if travel companies want to host on their websites and we can also provide a white label, which is much easier, within a week.