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TRAVOLUTION START-UP SUMMIT


red at IBM’s London headquarters last month. Juliet Dennis and Lee Hayhurst report Seven of the best


Secret Escapes: from ‘sewer’ to $1bn sales target


Online luxury travel deals publisher Secret Escapes is targeting £1 billion in turnover within two years.


The target follows rapid growth


by the business, which began as a start-up in 2010 before expanding internationally. Co-founder Tom Valentine


said: “We put £250,000 into the business to start with. We are now in 20 territories and we are competing with Google for staff. “We are now on series D


[fourth-round funding]. Our goal is to become a £1 billion business within the next couple of years.” It’s a far cry from the early days of the business, which moved from co-founder Alex Saint’s kitchen table to a “horrible” basement in the offices of his former firm Dealchecker. Valentine recalled: “We were


selling incredible holidays to the Maldives out of what was


“Our goal is to become a £1 billion business within the next couple of years”


effectively a sewer. We could not bring clients into the office so we spent half the day in cafes.” Valentine, who began his career


at eBay, said raising money was critical to the company’s early growth but admitted there was also “an element of luck” in coming to market at the right time. In 2011, Secret Escapes raised


around £800,000 in initial series A funding, which it spent mainly on digital marketing and acquiring customers. Valentine said: “Over the


course of time you become part of the customer’s travel process and make money after acquiring


VALENTINE: ‘You have to invest upfront to acquire customers’


the customer. You have to invest upfront.” The company later turned to TV


advertising to expand and break into overseas markets. By 2013, the business was


employing 120 staff and facilitating £200 million worth of holiday bookings. Valentine said he believed in a


“testing culture” as a strategy for business success, but admitted the company had made mistakes by being “too short-termist”. “Our mistakes have been


convincing ourselves that a project is so important that we abandon having it test-based,” he said.


Summit goes on a Culture Trip with founder


The summit heard from Doctor Kris Naudts, the founder of one of travel’s most-talked-about start-ups, Culture Trip. The firm raised $80 million in series B funding this


year after revealing plans to establish an OTA to sell flights and accommodation to readers of its content who intend to travel. The firm, which now employs 200 people,


recently moved into new offices near Bond Street and hired former Expedia and dnata Travel boss Andy Washington to head up its push into the travel agency sector. Naudts, a former psychiatrist, told delegates about the firm’s struggles in its early days when it was


constantly on the verge of running out of money and was based in a tiny office in the Elephant and Castle area of London. His break came when he raised $2 million from Silicon Valley investors. To read the full article about Culture Trip’s rise


from cramped offices in south London to securing $80 million investment, visit bit.ly/TravoCultureTrip


n Culture Trip founder Doctor Kris Naudts will speak at the Travolution European Summit in London on September 26, where he will talk more about the firm’s approach to using content to inspire its users to travel. Early-bird tickets are available until July 31 for £299. Go to: bit.ly/TravoEuropeanSummit


new travel start-ups


The Travolution Start-up Summit heard from the leaders of seven innovative and exciting new travel ventures trying to establish themselves in the sector:


Swayy Hotel and restaurant booking site for digital Influencers.


Chief executive: David Gabriele


Car & Away Car-sharing service for travellers when they are away.


Founder and chief executive: Andy Hibbert


Esplorio An automated trip curation and content mobile app.


Co-founder and chief marketing officer: Essa Saulat


Shoot My Travel A website that puts travellers in touch with local


professional photographers. Co-founder and chief executive: Valerie Lopez


Sn-ap


An on-demand inter-city coach travel provider.


Founder: Thomas Ableman


Stasher A short-term luggage storage service.


Co-founder and chief executive: Jacob Wedderburn-Day


Under The Doormat An upmarket, full-service London home-letting website.


Founder and chief executive: Merilee Karr


12 July 2018 travelweekly.co.uk 63


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