You can view of a copy of our pitch here:
Some quick information:
-I currently own 100% of Afore, without outside institutional investment.
-We plan to generate 50m in revenue by 2025.
-Our unfair advantage: we’ve been working with travel advisors and creators since 2016. We’ve spoken with more than 250 and gotten survey results from another 2500.
-The time is right because a shift is happening in the travel industry post Covid, where millennials desire local expertise and help from real humans. At the same time, the explosion of the creator economy and web3 has created an opportunity to bring two markets together: 100b creator market and then 432b offline travel market.
-Our team has worked in the travel industry for a combined 40+ years and worked together for 5+ years. In 2014, we started a French company in Sophia Antipolis, Travelaer SAS, hired 50+ people, and created a successful travel product for the airline industry. In 2019, we were acquired by a publicly-traded USA company, PROs Inc (NYSE: PRO) and now that I have fulfilled my exit duties, I have started my next venture.
-Right now, we are pre-product stealth mode, hoping to do a lite marketing/awareness launch in the next month and launch our most lovable product by fall of 2022. We are looking to raise 500k to 1 million euros, with 250k to 500k potentially committed, but not in the bank.
You can view of a copy of our pitch here:
Happy to do a zoom, meet in person, or whatever works.
Mike
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Planning and booking travel can be a time-consuming and frustrating experience with the average traveler visiting more than 200+ total digital touchpoints throughout the life of the trip.
Travelers have planning and booking fatigue and a new generation is turning to travel advisors for help.
At the same time, the travel advisor industry is shifting beyond traditional agents with creators and influencers looking to make additional income from their travel experiences and expertise.
The problem is that travel experts have no modern tools to connect with, communicate with, or collaborate with this new generation of travelers, and creators have limited ways to make money sharing their travel expertise and knowledge.
Introducing Afore:
Afore is a blockchain-based travel marketplace (b2b2c) providing human-centric, localized knowledge and experiences by connecting travelers and creators through all phases of travel and rewarding their participation in the form of cryptocurrency.
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Why now?
Market
-Travel agencies are 100b market in the USA, 432b globally.
-The creator economy is 100b market.
-The travel advisor business is shifting beyond traditional agents with creators and influencers looking to make additional income from their travel experiences and expertise.
-Nearly half of U.S. travelers — or 44 percent — who rarely or sometimes used travel advisors in the past said they were now more likely to use one post-pandemic
Technology
-Travel advisor tools are outdated and primarily focused on booking
-There are no digital applications to connect advisors to travelers and vice versa.
-Web3 and blockchain technology create new opportunites to decentralize the travel industry.
Behavior
-Covid has made travel booking a hassle and a new generation of travelers seek help from real humans.
-Travelers prefer to communicate by messaging and utilize real time collaborative tools along with advisors.
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Competition
Our competition fits into different quadrants:
B2B Applications for travel advisors: TravelJoy, Umapped, Axus, Vamoos, Travefy
-Most b2b advisor applications are focused on travel planning and itineraries for traditional travel agents, not local experts.
B2C Applications for Travelers (travel agencies): Elsewhere, KimKim, Tourlane
-There are travel agencies that focus on connecting Travelers to their inhouse trip advisors, but they are not true marketplaces.
B2C Market Places for Travelers: Reco, Zicasso, Evaneos (mostly Europe)
There are sites that have basic, directory-like functionality to connect travelers to existing advisors, but they do not provide b2b tools to travel experts.
Afore uniquely focuses on providing travel experts with b2b tools that allow them to connect, communicate, and collaborate with travelers. We are reshaping the dynamics between creators and travelers using a support-to-earn model that will allow community members to share their experiences and knowledges in return for rewards in the form of cryptocurrency.
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Why you?
Mike Slone
-Self aware leader who is constantly willing to learn from others and hire those who are smarter.
-Trusted teammate focused on Customer-centric software and experiences for the travel industry for more than 20 years.
-Has spent 15+ years researching travel industry software, and 7+ years focused on travel advisor software and ecosystems.
-Have built teams of 50+ people from zero and managed distributed teams of more than 75 people.
-Hands on leader with a user experience, digital strategy, product creation background, who has taken concepts from idea phase to revenue generating products for 20+ years.
-Most recently founded and successfully exited Travelaer SAS which was acquired by Houston based PROS Inc (NYSE:PRO) in 2019.
-Passion for the travel industry to see it modernized like other industries such as music, movies, and transportation
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The team has more than 60+ years of travel industry experience- designing and building software for airlines and travel advisors.
The majority of the people on the team worked together at Travelaer SAS, which was acquired by PROS in August of 2019.
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We’re reinventing the travel agency into a modern ecosystem and community of advisors, creators, locals, and influencers who have new revenue streams beyond advertising and paid social posts.
We’re creating the largest community of travelers and travel advisors and our marketplace is the top place to connect for all travel related products.
Our platform is helping decentralize travel by utilizing a Web3 platform and connected to blockchain taking the legacy middle men out of the travel ecosystem, providing more transparency to travelers and advisors.
We’re changing the lives of our advisors and employees who are happy, healthy, and of course traveling more than they do today.