Web 3.0 & Group Travel: Groople CEO Mike Stacy (Part 4)

SM: How did you finance the different phases of the company? MS: The early stages of the company were funded by an Angel and subsequent capital has been raised through VC’s. The first 2 rounds (Angel and Series A) were raised by the Founder, a total of $8.2 Million. I raised 2 rounds. One within 3 months after joining the company ($6M) and another this year ($5.2M).

SM: What financing stage are you at right now? MS: We recently completed a $5.2M round of financing with our existing investors, Flywheel Ventures from New Mexico, Vista from Colorado, Arrowpath from California, and First Albany from Boston.

SM: Will you be raising more money? MS: We do plan on raising additional capital.

SM: What timeframe? MS: In the mid-fall timeframe.

SM: What is your ideal investor? MS: An investor who has experience with consumer businesses and has experience in the travel business.

SM: This seems to be a very well-capitalized company … almost $20 Million invested already, and you plan to raise more money! You need a very sizable exit to provide adequate returns to your investors. You articulated a $92B TAM for the group travel market. You better capture a very significant portion of that market. Do you have competition? MS: There is one company called Group Travel Planet that addresses this market. However, we’re the only venture funded player. We have already created a lot of barrier to entry by doing deals with a large number of the hotel chains. We provide the group travel function for Travelocity. We also have deals with Best Western, some of the Starwood brands, Wyndham, etc.

SM: What % of the hotel market is chains versus independent? Is it very fragmented? That would make the supplier relationship function extremely expensive! MS: Only 30% of the hotels in the US are independent. Thus, we can capture over 70% through big deals with the chains who own them. It’s not that bad. We’re also signing a deal with a major airline, a major sports organization, and a large travel agency.

SM: What are your thoughts on Exit? MS: This might sound like a cliché but I don’t spend too much time thinking about an exit. I spend all of my time thinking about ways to improve the experience for our customers across all customer touch points, ways to improve our teams individual and collective performance and profitably growing revenue.

to be continued

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

This segment is part 4 in the series : Web 3.0 & Group Travel: Groople CEO Mike Stacy
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