San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 14, 2015 -- Rapid technological change along with the success of companies such as Uber, Airbnb and HotelTonight, is fueling a new wave of online travel start-ups.
There are many exciting opportunities for start-ups and solutions providers to get a foothold in the billion dollar travel & hospitality industry.
“People love to travel, it is something that inspires passion – and, it would appear, business ideas. But just because you’ve come across a problem on a trip, doesn't mean you’ve got a business,” says Drew Patterson, Founder of Checkmate and guest speaker at EyeforTravel’s upcoming Start-up Village, March 23rd.
EyeforTravel has put together 3 top tips to avoid failure.
1. Choose the right team
There are typically three stages to building a start-up. Getting it to work (technical), getting out and selling the value proposition (marketing) and thirdly running and keeping the business going (fundraising). You need to make sure you have a team in place who can handle each one of these stages.
For this reason, industry veteran Don Birch said he never looks at start-ups with just one founder. “They just don’t have the bandwidth to do what needs to be done,” says Birch, adding that three- to four-founder companies have a much greater chance of survival.
2. Know your value proposition
If you can’t tell the story of exactly what value you are going to create in well under three minutes, you’ll struggle to sell the idea to anybody!
Those who think they can solve a travel problem need to think very carefully about whether the value they are creating and their target audience, really stack up.
3. Learn from your failures
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it’s inevitable that new companies will make mistakes. The most important thing for any true entrepreneur is to take the lessons from these and apply them to the next venture.
“If you are going to fail in a task, fail fast and then crack open the champagne. You have learnt something new about your company. It can only lead to success,” says serial travel entrepreneur, Afzaal Mauthoor.
Dozens of start-ups will be meeting in San Francisco, March 23rd at EyeforTravel’s Start-up Village, to get the advice, contacts and potentially the investment they need to succeed.
Morning interactive sessions will be followed by EyeforTravel’s Start-up Awards 2015 competition. Adhering to stringent judging criteria, a selection of start-ups will battle it out to win ‘Best Travel Start-up 2015’.
Packed with networking opportunities, the EyeforTravel Start-up Village is open to start-ups, investors, entrepreneurs, and all other interested parties to attend. Entrance passes to the event can be purchased here.
EyeforTravel’s Start-up Awards are open to all online travel start-ups who started their company after June 2011 and have less than $2.5 million in financing. All entries must be received by March 6th, 2015. Find out more - http://events.eyefortravel.com/mobile/start-up-village.php
For all event enquiries contact:
Gina Baillie
GM
EyeforTravel Ltd.
London, UK: +44 (0)207 375 7197
US Toll Free: 1 800 814 3459 ext. 7197
gina(at)eyefortravel(dot)com
About EyeforTravel Ltd.
Founded in 1997, EyeforTravel Ltd. is a leading business intelligence provider for the online travel industry. EyeforTravel drive forward innovation in the online travel industry through news, conferences, research and reports.
EyeforTravel’s Start-up Village 2015 will take place March 23rd, Hotel Nikko, San Francisco. The 1 day event brings together entrepreneurs, investors and start-ups focusing on (but not exclusively) travel, social, data and mobile.
EyeforTravel’s Start-up Village 2015 will be co-located with EyeforTravel’s Mobile & Innovation in Travel conference and EyeforTravel’s Social Media Strategies for Travel conference. http://events.eyefortravel.com/social-media/index.php
Gina Baillie, EyeforTravel Ltd., http://www.eyefortravel.com, +44 2073757197, [email protected]
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