Companies to Watch - July 25, 2018

These five NYC travel startups are going places

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July in New York is prime time for vacation. For New Yorkers, it could mean anything from a day trip to Long Island or a far-away retreat to a global dream destination. But for many others, it means coming into the city. With almost 60 million visitors annually, NYC reigns as the most visited city in the U.S.This month we are showcasing five of the most promising travel and transportation startups in our membership. Last month, as a part of our Pride Month celebration of LGBTQ+ founders, we featured Noken, a startup that curates flexible, personalized routes to explore new countries. Noken and these five companies are rethinking how to book travel, how to get around NYC, and even how to help build the next great travel company.Below you’ll find an abbreviated look into these exciting companies and their founders. Read the whole post to see more.

CruiselineWhat does your company do?Cruiseline Founder and General Manager Faraz Qureshi: We are TripAdvisor for cruises. We provide verified reviews for every major ship and port as well as featuring more than 400,000 traveler photos, including images of cabins, dining, and entertainment. We also search all the major booking sites so our users can easily compare prices.What is the best cruise you’ve ever taken? Any must-stop ports to build into the itinerary?FQ: A cruise to Alaska with 14 other family members. It’s an amazingly beautiful location and a cruise is an easy way to take it all in. For me, taking a seaplane from Ketchikan port to the most remote parts of Alaska was an incredible experience. 

HOST

What does your company do?HOST Co-Founder and CEO Jeffrey Thomashow: HOST (Hop on Short Trips) is an experiential marketing platform that works with brands to activate our pedicab fleet throughout New York City. It’s a great way for brands to launch new products, build customer loyalty, and get people talking and sharing.What’s the most important thing New York can do to better make room for pedicabs and other alternative transit options on our streets?JT: Dedicated protected infrastructure is critical to the growth of small electric vehicles like pedicabs, scooters, and bikes. The L Train shutdown is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform mobility in NYC. As Brooklynites and Manhattanites demand alternative modes to get around, I'm hopeful that more space will be dedicated to small vehicles.

Journy

What does your company do?Journy Founder and CEO Susan Ho: We pair travelers with a personal trip designer to plan their dream trip. Our designers make hotel, activity, and restaurant recommendations based on a traveler's preferences and organize those recommendations into an itinerary that makes sense logistically.What’s the worst travel snafu you’ve had, a trip disaster where the Journy app would’ve saved you?SH: When I was working at another startup, I didn't have time to plan anything for my trip other than book my flight and hotel. I ended up spending more than 10 hours in my hotel in Buenos Aires trying to figure out where to go, only to still end up in a restaurant surrounded by American tourists and nightclubs surrounded by 16-year-olds. But on the positive side, it gave me the idea to start Journy!

TRILL

What does your company do?TRILL Co-Founder and CEO Eric Shepard: TRILL is a platform that creates bookable experiences from social travel content. Our experiential travel platform lets users explore hashtags and trending destinations to build itineraries off our trusted content creators, and they can also book hotels, activities, and restaurants through TRILL. We reward our tastemakers with cash everytime someone books off their content.What’s the key that all the top travel influencers have in common, the secret sauce that makes them successful on your platform?ES: We focus on content instead of the number of followers. Some of our “tastemakers” with 2,000 followers are more successful than travel lifestyle influencers with 120,000 followers. The secret sauce is the ability for them to tell a powerful story through their photos. Users see their content and automatically want to transport themselves to that destination. 

VoyagerWhat does your company do?Voyager Managing Director John Matson: Voyager HQ is the startup club for the global travel, tourism, and hospitality industry. Our community brings together entrepreneurs, corporate partners, and investors from around the world to create the future of travel experiences through curated events, workspace, and actionable introductions. Digital membership is free!What’s the best place in New York for a coffee or lunch meeting?JM: NYC has no shortage of amazing coffee shops and restaurants that I could shout out, but Hanjan on 26th and 6th has been a more consistent spot for my lunch meetings. It has great Korean dishes and the service is fast, so it doesn’t break into your day too long.NYC Tech Community Events

July 31: Our member Stacklist is hosting “Building a Healthtech Startup,” which will feature a panel with leaders from our members Roman, Maven, and Casper, as well as Galileo. The panel will be moderated by Fast Company staff writer Ainsley Harris. Register now.July 31: Our member Voyager will host its Travel Trailblazers Breakfast, which will help you expand your network and share insights with other early-stage travel founders over coffee at the Voyager Clubhouse. The special guest for this edition will be Tristan Mace, the co-founder and CEO of Margin. Register now.August 7: Join the NY Tech Alliance for the August 2018 New York Tech Meetup at the American Museum of Natural History. The event will showcase apps and solutions from the AMNH’s BridgeUp STEM hackathon, which challenged participants to create tools and build solutions to real problems in scientific education, communication, and research. Register now.Join Us

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