Fluent wins Innovation in Travel Awards at TDS America with Chronicles of Earth & MATTR Runners-Up
Fluent's text/image translation mobile app wins Eye For Travel's TDS America Startup & Innovation Awards. Chronicles of Earth & MATTR take Runner-ups. A total of 12 startups pitched. Triptease - Providing transparency on 3rd party rates to boost direct...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in Chronicles of Earth the Trusted Travel Network
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in Chronicles of the Earth, a mobile app aimed at adventure travelers. Chronicles of Earth, in beta and available in the Apple App Store is a mobile app and trusted network for travelers where they will...
FlitWays grows TSI’s investment by 430% to scale to $550K (TTM) in 2015 now raising $500K in a seed-series
10 months ago, FlitWays raised $25,000 investment from Travel Startup Incubator and they used the $25,000 to increase their revenue by 430% within 4 months. FlitWays is now raising $150K-$1M via Flashfunders and the Travel Startups Investor Network. FlitWays offers...
The Take Off – Creating the Next Great Travel Startup
Matt Zito, Managing Partner of Travel Startups Incubator participated with other travel startup founders and Amadeus in a 3 part video series produced by Skift about what it takes to create a startup in the travel industry. Watch the video below and a special report...
There will be blood
Is your company bleeding, getting ready to die?Are you waiting there for something to click? I know some of you are hurting.Well actually many of you are hurting. We’ve estimated that potentially 40%- 50% of the startups we fund will eventually fail.That’s painful...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in Jolie a Luxury On-Demand Chauffeur Service Platform
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in Jolie a luxury on-demand chauffeur service platform. Jolie focuses on connecting clients with professional ground service providers across the lifestyle industries, allowing for a luxurious, high-end...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in VidPal an On-Demand Travel Destination Video Platform
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in VidPal an On-Demand travel destination video platform launched in New York City. The VidPalTravel.com platform gives video freelancers paid opportunities to the freelance video community and gives the...
Your Travel Startup just lost $1M.
Over the last few months we have moved into fundraising mode here at Travel Startups Incubator. We just launched the Travel Technology Investor Platform to help our startups expand their reach in accessing angel investors, VCs and strategic investors (travel...
Travel Startups Incubator Launches Travel Technology Investment Platform Connecting Travel Tech Startups Directly with Investors
The platform is the first of its kind in the travel technology industry, giving more exposure to travel tech startups as they seek to raise vital series seed funding. Travel Startups Incubator (TSI) announced today the launch of its Travel Technology Investment...
Travel technology the travel industry needs.
A few entrepreneurs recently emailed me asking, what does the travel industry need. This is a great question, so I thought this would be the perfect time to shed some light on what we have seen come thru the incubator, what gets us excited and get some input from some...
Start-up & Innovation in Travel Awards 2015 Submissions Due by July 31
The Startup & Innovation in Travel Awards are being held on October 19, 20 in Las Vegas at TDS North America, Eye For Travel's largest USA based event for travel tech executives and startups. I am excited to be asked to participate as a judge again this year in...
Travel Startups Incubator and Skyscanner announce Innovation Partnership
Skyscanner, a leading global travel search engine for flights, hotels and car hire, has entered into an Innovation Partnership with Travel Startups Incubator to help the incubators portfolio companies gain access to the Skyscanner for Business API’s and data. Matt...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in Africabookings
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in Africabookings, a hotel bedbank (wholesaler) with offices based out of Zimbabwe, Africa and the UK. Africabookings is lead by founder and CEO Bruce Tapping and a investment group of veteran travel...
Travel Startups Incubator and Amadeus announce Strategic Alliance
New Amadeus program features strategic alliance with Travel Startups Incubator to deliver best-in-class travel technology and expertise. Amadeus, a leading technology partner for the global travel industry, announced today the launch of “Amadeus for Startups,” a new...
An Open Developer Sandbox and API Platform for the global travel industry.
API’s are all I think about lately on the Business Development side of work I do for the startups in our portfolio. Every startup is either looking to distribute their API or acquire an API from a 3rd party travel company. For our investor friends and non-techies in...
Trveler Traction Days
Listen in as we interview Pablo Chavez the Founder of Trveler for Traction Days. Contacts: Pablo Chavez pchavez@trveler.com Phone: 1-888-510-1154 Website: http://www.trveler.com
Flitways Traction Days
Listen in as we interview Tobi Mac the Founder of Flitways. Contacts: Tobi Mac tobi@flitways.com +1-310-870-7082 ex 10 http://www.flitways.com
Tutton Traction Days
Listen in as we interview Oscar Rodriguez co-founder of Tutton for Traction Days. What's Tutton All About? Contacts: Oscar Rodriguez and Eduardo Iglesias Co-founders of Tutton oscar.rodriguez@tuttonapp.com Phone: +1 (415) 629-2125 Skype: oscar.marcelo88 Website:...
Adventure Bucket List Traction Days
Listen in as we interview Blake Pridham the co-founder of Adventure Bucket List (ABL) for Traction Days. ABL is a startup in the Travel Startups Incubator operating in the tours and activities space. Contacts: Blake Pridham, Co-Founder & COO email:...
Proxce Traction Days
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...
Spacebase, FLYR and Africa Bookings win Travel Startup Awards at Startup Village in San Francisco.
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...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in Veedback
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...
Travel Startup Founders Video Series CEO Numaan Akram Rally Bus
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...
Proxce wins the Innovator Spotlight Award
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...
Travel Startups Incubator visits London for Travel Technology Europe
This past week Nicole and I attended the Travel Technology Europe conference in London. Have to say that this was one of the best conferences we have ever attended. There must have been three-to-four thousand people there. We setup our booth and founders interview...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in Adventure Bucket List – ABL
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in Adventure Bucket List (ABL) a business-to-business (B2B) unified reservation management and sales distribution platform for tours and activities. Adventure Bucket List is a travel startup based out of...
Travel the 4th best industry if you want an exit for a tech startup.
View image | gettyimages.com CB Insights one of the leading corporate data intelligence companies has released their 2014 Global Tech Exits Report on global tech exits. In 2014 the travel industry was a leading industry in exit growth in % change from...
Travel Startups Founder Video Series Horizon Founder Drew Meyers
In this interview you'll learn: How Drew Meyers is building Horizon into a private trusted network of friends for places to stay while traveling. His experience at Startup Chile an incubator/accelerator. How he is adding a donation model to the product to spur growth...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in Trveler
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in Trveler a subscription-based spontaneous travel and adventure startup for millennial travelers. Trveler is lead by co-founders Pablo Chavez, George Haskell and Krista Scimeca. Trveler is currently in...
Travel Startup Founders Video Series Cherae Robinson Tastemakers Africa
In this video interview you'll learn: How Cherae is building Tastemakers Africa a travel startup in Africa. What it's like to be a women and African-American entrepreneur in the travel technology industry that is dominated by men. How she is looking for travel agency...
Startup Village debuts at the Mobile and Innovation Travel Conference March 23, 24 San Francisco
Startup Village a 1-day event March 23 will debut at Eye For Travel's Mobile & Innovation Travel conference in San Francisco. Startup Village includes a full day comprising of three sessions and panels, a pitch awards and networking. Travel Startups Incubator...
Travel Startup Founder Video Series Vineet Budki Co-Founder Guiddoo
Interview with Vineet Budki the co-founder of Guiddoo. In this video interview you'll learn: How Guiddoo is building both a B2C and B2B business with an in-destination mobile travel app. How Vineet aggregated unique content from destination tour guides and travel...
Travel Startup Founders Series Andrew McNulty Founder TouchStay
Andrew McNulty is the founder of TouchStay a digital online welcome pack for vacation homeowners to share with their guests. With Touch Stay, you can share all your local knowledge and insider tips so your guests will enjoy the best possible stay! In this interview...
Travel Technology Europe 2015 February 25-26 London
Travel Technology Europe 2015 is the perfect platform to meet face to face with key buyers from across Europe. TTE Disrupt TTE Disrupt will be showcasing grassroots technology from some of the most innovative young start-ups within the travel tech industry. • Are...
Successful travel startup founders are always asking.
Asking is part of selling. Before you can sell you have to ask. In startup mode it seems like we ask, ask and then ask some more. If you don’t ask you’ll never get anywhere. It’s as simple as that. I launched the Travel Startups Founders Series in early 2013, short...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in Tutton
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in mobile travel app Tutton, a Mexico startup with an office in San Francisco, CA led by co-founders Oscar Rodriguez and Eduardo Iglesias. Tutton helps you find your friends when you travel. Tutton is...
Travel Platforms and Travel APIs are the NEW drivers of growth in the travel industry.
Platforms (open sales and distribution systems) and the API (application programming interface) are driving the next phase of growth in the travel industry. Leading travel companies are transitioning from building their own new products and services to building...
Travefy & Zipkick Travel Startup Founders Video Series
I had the pleasure of talking with David Chait the founder of Travefy and Jason Will the founder of Zipkick at the Concur DevCon conference in San Francisco, California. Travefy is a group travel planner. Plan trip details together, collect money from the group for...
Today we lost Henry Wang a great technologist, a big thinker and a friend.
Our friend and team member Henry Wang passed away yesterday on November 9th from a rare form of cancer that he had battled for over 4 months. Henry was an advisor on the Travel Startups Incubator team and a close confidant of Managing Partner, Matt Zito. Henry had a...
LoungeBuddy and Paradine each win a $50,000 investment at Concur’s DevCon.
Concur’s DevCon conference on Thursday October 30th in San Francisco was a great event. LoungeBuddy and Paradine each won a $50,000 investment from Concur. The event was very well run. One of the best travel events I’ve ever attended. ...
What Startups Can Learn About Travel Planning
This is a guest post from Drew Meyers co-founder of Horizon. Drew is a member of the Travel Startup Founders Network. The travel vertical is one of the largest consumer industries in existence. The online landscape is comprised of multiple niches - some large, some...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in FlitWays
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in FlitWays a Los Angeles, California startup led by business entrepreneur Tobi Mac. Matt Zito, Managing Partner at Travel Startups Incubator says, “FlitWays is building the foundation for a global ground...
Ayoopa and 30K.com Travel Startup Founders Video Series
Managing Partner, Nicole Zito and I had the pleasure of talking with Wayne Lopez the founder of Ayoopa and Rui Bom the founder of 30K.com at the Eye For Travel TDS America conference in New York city last month. Ayoopa is an online rental marketplace for travel and...
Travel Startups Incubator invests in Proxce
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our 1st investment in Proxce a Silicon Valley startup led by entrepreneur and engineer Madhu Madhusudhanan. Matt Zito, Managing Partner at Travel Startups Incubator says, "we are very excited to be making our first...
12 Travel Startups Pitch at Eye For Travel Innovation Awards
Twelve travel startups pitched on September 11th at the Eye For Travel Innovation and Startup Awards in New York City. Managing Partner Nicole Zito and I got to meet all the startups pitching. I was one of the 4 judges. Below are some pics of the event. We will have...
Travel Startups Incubator to invest $500,000 in 10 travel startups.
$50,000 investment. Apply Now! In each startup we will invest up to: $25,000 in cash. $25,000 worth in professional advisement, fundraising and business services. Matt and Nicole Zito, veteran travel entrepreneurs and startup advisors are the Managing Partners of...
Travel Startups Incubator Launching August 18
$50,000 investment. In each startup we will invest up to: $25,000 in cash. $25,000 in professional advisement, fundraising and business services. I am very pleased to announce that we will be launching the Travel Startups Incubator at TravelStartups.co on August...
Pitch your Travel Startup at the Startups & Innovation Travel Awards.
Come pitch your new product, service or innovative travel startup in front of over 400 investors and senior level travel executives from North America. Do you think you could be the next HotelTonight or OptionsAway? Both companies are former winners of the TDS America...
Travatar – A Travel Business Idea for the Taking
This is a post by travel entrepreneur Drew Meyers. Most of you likely know what Gravatar is (& have an account): Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. It's a...
Travel Startup Founder Series: Chip Conley Founder Joie de Vivre
Chip Conley is the founder of Joie de Vivre and now the Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy for Airbnb. Joie de Vivre is one of the largest boutique hotel brands in the USA. Chip Conley is one of the most creative entrepreneurs in the travel and hospitality...
How to sell last minute travel inventory in the comment section of a Facebook post.
Would Facebook users buy your last-minute travel inventory by simply telling them to type their booking order into the comment section of your Sponsored post or product posts on your Fan page? Example: A Sponsored post for the Ace Hotel in New York City shows up in my...
Travel Startup Founder Series: Atle Skalleberg CEO StudentUniverse
In this interview you'll learn; How Atle Skalleberg worked his way up to becoming the CEO of StudentUniverse, the 2nd largest student travel company in the world moving millions of student travelers per year. Why StudentUniverse acquired WeHostels a mobile booking app...
I Want It Now.
The human attention span is getting shorter and shorter, at least here in America. When we want something we want it now. We are moving into a new world where instant gratification is the name of the game. Amazon drones and the idea of instant delivery within minutes...
If I Were 22, I’d learn how to take $1 and make it into $2
This post was published at LinkedIn as part of the "If I Were 22" series. When I was 22 years old I was a college student at George Mason University (GMU). My first entrepreneurial venture was the “Brew Bus.” I bused college students from GMU on the weekends to the...
How to do business with an Internet giant.
I recently helped one of my travel startup clients strike a deal with an Internet giant. Yeah, it was a big deal. Most likely multi-millions in customer lifetime value (CLTV/LTV). It went down like this. I sent an email to my main contact. My email was 3 lines. Yes,...
Travel Startup Founder Series: Krissa Curran Founder FOF Travel
In this interview you’ll learn; How FOF Travel has built a unique revenue generating business model within the social travel space. A new twist to the travel sharing economy targeting the 18-35 year old market. How Krissa Curran and her co-founder got the idea to...
Travel Startup Founders Network
The Founders Network is a PRIVATE peer-to-peer networking community for travel startup founders, travel CEO’s, travel executives and investors to connect with one another, a startup mentoring program and a professional business development resource to help you grow...
What if?
What if you thought you could change the world with your idea or product?What if you're looking for ways to grow your company's revenue?What if you were looking to get out of the corporate rat race to start your own business?What if you're the CEO of a multi-million...
How to get your first 100 customers
"How to get your first 100 customers." The ebook (PDF) is 35 pages long and meant to be a quick read in one sitting. The books content will help you acquire your first 100 customers. Although my ebook is not 100% dedicated to travel businesses the strategies inside...
Travel Startup Founder Series: Kerry Gallivan Founder Chimani
Sponsor: Matt Zito's Inner Circle is an affordable, high-value strategic advisement, consulting and coaching service that will help you grow your travel startup. Learn more. In this interview you’ll learn; How Chimani is building a mobile app business for the USA's...