Traction Days, video interviews direct with the founders of our portfolio companies, so you can get an insiders view and hear about how our startups in the incubator are performing and whether their product or idea is gaining “traction.” Traction Days are an opportunity for our startups to showcase their company or product and to tell their story.
Listen in as we interview Madhu M. the founder of Proxce for Traction Days.
Contacts:
Madhu M. madhu.m@proxce.com
+1-408-480-8785
http://www.proxce.com
On March 23 and 24 at the Eye For Travel Mobile & Social Media Strategies conference in San Francisco, Space Base, FLYR and Africa Bookings took home startup awards at the inaugural 1-day Startup Village.
1st Place Winner: Space Base
2nd Place Tie: FLYR and Africa Bookings
There were two morning panel sessions, “Secrets to Online Travel Success” and “Meet the Investors,” followed by 13 startups pitching to a panel of 4 judges.
The first panel session included veteran travel entrepreneurs and founders including Erik Blanchford, Executive Chairman Couchsurfing, Drew Patterson, founder Room 77 and CheckMate, Zaid Al-Husseini, VP of product Gogobot, Krista Pappas, COO Duvine, Heddi Cundle, founder myTab.co, Jeff Manheimer, COO Tripping and Ruzwana Bashir, CEO Peek. The discussions centered around the challenges in starting an online travel business and how the panelists overcame these challenges to build successful companies. There was much discussion around mobile in travel and how mobile was driving growth in their businesses.
The second panel session included Manu Rekhi, Director Inventus Capital Partners, Cameron Yuill, Angel Investor and Matt Zito, Managing Partner Travel Startups Incubator. The discussion centered around what each investor looks for when investing in travel startups and the audience got to ask many questions to the panel.
The judges for the startup awards included, Kevin McLaughlin, Cameron Yuill, Matt Zito and Zaid Al-Husseini.
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in Veedback, a video travel review app and discovery guide to the city. Veedback is based in London, UK, lead by business founder Haroun Hickman, lead engineer Ryan Gittings, and marketing team Andy Arnett and Philippa Bywater. Veedback is currently in app development and will be launched in the city of London, helping bring London to life for travelers.
Matt Zito, Andy, Haroun Hickman and Nicole Zito at Travel Technology Europe.
The Veedback mobile app enables travelers to shoot a 20-second travel review and then upload the video to the Veedback platform and share with friends via the social networks. Video is the most engaging and compelling medium for travel reviews and we think now is a great time to launch a video travel review application.
Matt Zito, managing partner, Travel Startups Incubator, says “most travel reviews are in text and use still images or photography. Video is much richer and will add more value and credibility to the overall travel review.”
The three managing partners were impressed by entrepreneur Haroun Hickman and his pitch to the incubator. When we launched Travel Startups Incubator back in the Fall of 2014, Haroun wrote us an email describing two ideas in travel he was working on while advising startups at the London School of Business incubator. We immediately gravitated to the video travel review concept because we felt this was a big opportunity for the taking and that no one has really tried to tackle. TripAdvisor is the #1 player and there are many travel review companies selling SaaS to hotels for their own internal reviews. We feel Veedback can be a true disruptor in the travel industry. We have high hopes for Veedback.
Contacts:
Haroun Hickman, Founder Veedback
email: harounhickman@gmail.com
In this interview you’ll learn;
- How Numaan Akram launched Rally Bus as a crowd sourced on-demand travel company. On his first bus event 5,000 people showed up.
- How he went from bootstrapped to raising over $1M in investment capital.
- How he leveraged unused transportation inventory (buses) to take people to major sporting and music events.
Proxce won 1st place in the NBTWorld Innovator Spotlight Awards. Proxce is a startup in the Travel Startups Incubator.
The Innovator Spotlight Award presented by NBTWorld highlights early stage technology innovations in travel and hospitality and recognizes the best and the brightest solutions that have the opportunity to revolutionize the way travelers interact with technology.
The judges a panel of technology industry experts deliberated over weeks and designated the top three startups along with honorable mentions. The travel startups were selected based on criteria including innovation of the product or solution, the value to the travel industry as well as future traction as an adoptable platform.
You can read more about the other winners here.
