STARTUP STAGE: Itair aims to help creators make their content bookable with AI

Itair

Itair CEO Priya Agarwal believes "TikTok/Reels are now the new travel search engine," and she and her partner, CTO Swapnil Thombre, are hoping to help creators monetize their work.

Founded in 2023, Itair is made up of a team of two that aims to build an AI-powered engine to automatically convert influencer videos into bookable itineraries.

What is your 30-second pitch to investors?

TikTok/Reels are now the new travel search engine. Travel creators are the backbone of the travel content that inspires opulent booking decisions for people. 

However, these creators are not compensated enough for their hard work in content creation and investment into travel, outside of the occasional brand deal. Thousands of these travel creators are missing out on millions in affiliate revenue from the bookings they drive.

We are building the artificial intelligence-powered LTK for travel, automatically converting their videos into bookable itineraries with detailed information for our users/their viewers. This generates a consistent stream of revenue for them, with no additional effort on their part.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

Any creator can immediately start monetizing their itineraries by signing up at our website. They sign in with their TikTok, we automatically import their videos and use our algorithm to convert them into bookable itineraries. Then they get a public “link in bio” that all their viewers/followers can go to to book things they see in the creator’s videos, and their itineraries are also shared with all our tens of thousands of users.

Our algorithm takes any travel short form video, “understands” it and the context of your trip, and then searches across thousands of data points to populate details for each activity of the itinerary. Then we use large language models to compile a bookable itinerary and have AI chat features for the user to edit it to their heart’s desire. 

Right now we are a web app that works across desktop and mobile. We also have a unique “text us any video -> itinerary” feature where you can text any travel TikTok to Itair’s number, and we’ll send you a bookable itinerary from it. 

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

Strengths: Our founders are a powerhouse duo, with technical degrees from UC Berkeley. The CEO has experience in travel content creation as well, bridging the gap between the root problem and the technological solution.

Weaknesses: We are just launching our pilot program for creators, so we have to iron out the details of the affiliate revenue model. But the opportunity exists and the proof is in billion-dollar platforms like LTK that exist for fashion and beauty.

Opportunities: While there are AI solutions in travel in general, we are one of the few that use the power of AI combined with the influence of social media to build our platform. Our creators make money, and our users get a much more streamlined, personalized experience, all free of cost for both users and creators.

Threats: There are a lot of travel AI players that have emerged, especially with the boom of generative AI. However, we have a very unique take and insight into the creator space that helps us solve a core part of travel unlike anyone else.

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

For our creators, we are helping them generate a steady stream of income with zero effort. They already put a lot of time and work into their content creation. They don’t need to also put the effort into creating itineraries on other platforms, writing blogs or making content for brand deals to make money. That’s what our powerful AI does for them.

For our users, we are eliminating the hours of research it takes to search the recommendations in each travel TikTok video they watch and plan a trip. Through our platform, they get video content and itineraries, personalized to their preferences, with all of the price and booking details in one place.

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

We’re focused on onboarding as many creators as possible right now to grow our content and trove of valuable itineraries. We’re reaching out via direct message, email, in-person exclusive events and through lots of publications like PhocusWire.

This will make our platform as trustworthy and content-rich for our users as possible.

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

We’ve personally spoken to and interviewed dozens of travel creators who have stated revenue generation as an obvious pain point and enthusiastically expressed interest in this model. 

Additionally, we know our users have folders (or sometimes not even folders) of saved travel TikTok videos they don’t know what to do with. We’re here to help with that.

Travel is one of the top three niches in affiliate marketing. The average affiliate marketer in the travel niche could earn $14,000 a month. The global affiliate marketing industry is expected to grow to $27 billion by 2027.

How and when will you make money?

We’re already making money through affiliate link partnerships with major travel providers. Our goal will eventually be to offer more premium services and direct bookings with hotels, restaurants and activities.

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

Priya Agarwal, the CEO, was previously a product manager with experience in AI and building consumer products. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a computer science degree and on the side loves to make travel content.

Swapnil Thombre, the chief technology officer, was previously a senior software engineer at Square and Microsoft, with experience building consumer products. He also graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in computer science and loves travel hacking. 

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?

As one of the few female founders in the AI travel industry, Priya has made it her personal mission to make traveling safer, easier and more enjoyable for women, who make 80% of the travel decisions.

She has also made it a priority to cultivate a diverse and inclusive environment at our startup. We actively support women in STEM and female travel creators and aim to maintain a significant representation of female employees. 

Both co-founders of South Asian descent are committed to hiring and empowering people of color, reflecting our dedication to diversity across all levels of our company.

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

The most difficult part has been figuring out which side of the problem we wanted to solve for. We started as an AI travel planner, but we learned of a more dire problem in monetizing videos for content creators. 

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

We believe that we are actually solving a problem facing a lot of content creators and addressing a true gap in the market. It’s really tough to upkeep a link in bio storefront, especially in travel where it requires a lot of work. However, there is a significant upside in earning potential from it, so our conversion technology will remove all of the barriers to entry for the creators.

Our luck will come from our partnered creators earning more and spreading Itair to their followers and other aspiring creators. Our luck is also our brand, our insight and our vibes.

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

With a network effect on both the creators’ and users’ side, we see our growth becoming naturally exponential. This will allow us to focus on creating direct partnerships with travel businesses for direct booking links, advertisements and creator sponsorships.

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

We want to go public and keep growing. Our goal is to be the next generation’s Tripadvisor.