I was speaking with an investor on the phone recently.
I described that we were raising capital to build Travel Startups Incubator into a $1B global business.
I could tell right away he didn’t know much about travel technology.
He had a lot of knowledge, passion, and money, but no real travel experience.
That’s OK because I knew he was a savvy investor.
He asked, “Matt, how does Travel Startups Incubator know what to invest in?”
What a great question.
Surprisingly, we aren’t asked that nearly enough.
Initially, we literally have four questions to which we are looking to uncover the answers from founders.
Founders write the answers to these four questions in our incubator application.
We don’t tell anyone what they are because then we figure everyone might just tell us what we want to hear.
If you clear all four then we get serious.
We believe we can tell fairly quickly whether what you are building can be big.
Here’s a hint: (more…)
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in TraknProtect. Designed to ensure hotels know where their physical assets are located in the hotel at all times, TraknProtect’s proprietary technology provides real-time location of all the assets in your hotel.
TraknProtect is an inventory tracking and analytics platform that allows hotels to know in real time where key assets are located and quickly respond to guest requests for such assets. TraknProtect uses Bluetooth beacons and Bluetooth/WiFi hubs to communicate where items such as rollaway beds, cribs, housekeeping carts, bellhop carts, microwaves, fridges and more can be found throughout a hotel property.
Hotels using the TraknProtect system not only improve employee productivity and customer service but also exceed guest expectations by responding to immediate needs for extras in a surprisingly timely manner. Increased security of hotel property is yet another benefit.
The Chicago-based TraknProtect team includes co-founder and CEO Parminder Batra, co-founder and COO Sagar Patel, and CTO Fadi Kahhaleh. Since starting to work with hotels in 2014, Batra and Patel have partnered with hospitality leader Hyatt Hotels Corporation, which is also based in Chicago. This partnership was recently featured in the Chicago Tribune article “Startup will Help Hyatt Housekeeping Find You a Crib,” which provides details on the TraknProtect program at the 1,200-room Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. (more…)
