B0arding
B0arding invites travelers to submit video reviews of hotels and short-term rentals they’ve stayed in and rewards them with a $20 travel credit for a future trip booked on its platform.
Founded in 2023, B0arding has more than two million hotel and vacation rental listings sourced from Amadeus and Booking.com.
What is your
30-second pitch to investors?
B0arding
is a “video Tripadvisor” for billions of GenZers, with accommodation content from Amadeus and Booking.com.
Describe both
the business and technology aspects of your startup.
The
platform enables its users to discover and trade their video content
for travel credits, along with booking stays. The more videos you submit, the
more credits you get. We use AI and global distribution systems for content verification and
distribution.
Give us your
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.
- Strengths: Founder-market-fit plus our
UGC (user-generated content) flywheel is similar to TikTok
- Weaknesses: Lack of access to
unlimited cash
- Opportunities: Catering to GenZers and
everyone who loves transparency
- Threats: Competitors will start
copying us, but it will be proof for our product-market-fit, so I am looking
forward to it
What are the
travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the
industry perspective?
Customer angle:
- Current travel booking
platforms don’t meet GenZ’s buying behavior - Most GenZers go to social
media to get video reviews and create a disjointed experience when book travels - As a result, GenZers don’t
maximize spending power on travel bookings
Industry
angle:
The
Federal Trade Commission announced a crackdown on fake reviews. It’s going to add more
difficulties for brands (hotels, OTAs, review platforms) to build
consumer-to-brand trust and loyalty, but it opens all the doors for us since
our product perfectly fits as a solution and is well aligned with this
regulation.
In
other words, hotels need high occupancy and retention rates, B0arding
is a solution.
So you’ve got
the product, now how will you get lots of customers?
We grant travel credits – virtual money – per each submitted and approved video review.
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Tell us what
process you’ve gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and
the size of the addressable market.
We just talked to lots of customers through our CEO’s
previous venture. He founded a chain of hostels servicing the GenZ
demographic with $12 million annual revenue. Our serviceable addressable market is $32 billion.
How and when
will you make money?
Our business model is
transactional, but there are ways to add additional revenue streams in the
future, like cost-per-click and/or distribution.
What are the
backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team?
- Our CEO previously founded a
chain of hostels servicing the GenZ demographic with $12 million annual revenue, 10
years of sales, business development and growth. Strategic partnerships and sales at Groupon Travel and other tech startups. - Our CTO has 20 years in IT
management, development and operations and information security, seven years in
high-load development for travel tech (basically, he never sleeps) - Our CMO has eight years in corporate
Hollywood PR (Walt Disney, Warner Bros, Universal)
How have you
addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?
Immigrants from Eastern Europe and South America founded our
company. We’ve deliberately created a culture
where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute their unique
perspectives. Our team represents almost all the continents of our
planet.
What’s been
the most difficult part of founding the business so far?
Building a product people
want.
Generally,
travel startups face a tough time making an impact – so why are you going
to be one of lucky ones?
We built the product people
want and we have support from the industry giants.
A year from
now, what state do you think your startup will be in?
“Going to the Moon” stage.
What is your
end-game? (Going public, acquisition, growing and staying private, etc.)
Ideally – going
public.
Phocuswright Innovation Platform
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