Author: Abrar

This post firmly offers advice to travel startups and companies starting to raise capital, have partially raised a round, or any travel startup that needs more capital & revenue.   Remember that my viewpoint refers to capital raising and funding, not the overall travel market, which will likely be strong through Q4 2022, as I addressed in an earlier post.   Capital Is Scarce For all but the most successful travel startups, capital raises are not an option for all intents and purposes (broadly speaking, for angel investors and VCs in general). The small % of overall travel startups I am ... Read more

If I ran a travel startup or company, I would actively plan for 18 months of challenging capital raising times starting Q1 2023. You need to survive the next 12 months and, in all likelihood, the next 18 months without raising any additional capital. Act now if your travel startup expects to run out of money in the next six months. Make the tough decisions now to lower your burn rate and extend the financial viability of your travel startup. Prevention is better than a cure, as they say.

Our beloved travel companies are one sector bucking the trends (cue long overdue applause and cheering). This bucking of the trend is (a) not being fully appreciated or recognized, (b) it's essential to focus on the positive in addition to the negative, and (c) for travel companies to make hay while the sun is still shining.

The travel industry is NOT experiencing the case of "rising tides lift all boats"; the tide (for the travel industry) isn't rising that fast, nor as broadly, to warrant this characterization, in my opinion, as of Sep 2022. At the moment and in the future, successfully investing in travel requires an experienced travel industry veteran point of view to know where to invest and where to avoid. You cannot just be savvy and have money and expect a positive return (in my experience).

People ask if the pandemic is forcing me to switch away from exclusively investing in travel companies versus opening up our mandate for other industries, to which my response is a resounding NO. Absolutely not; it's more profitable to make travel investments with the industry turning the corner on COVID (tangibly and in sentiment). One notion from last week's discussion with Jean-Francois that particularly resonated was how significant change - everyone knows the travel industry has experienced and continues to - enables lucrative opportunities.

Every projection --- IMF, World Bank, Industry Analysts, WSJ, Bloomberg  --- I read is not just worse next year, but significantly worse.

Consumers are increasingly opting for “Buy Now, Pay Later” services regarding financing options. These services are exploding in use and will only increase in the months and years ahead. Quick Background These services directly or indirectly use companies such as Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, and PayPal Credit for consumers to make interest-free installment payments on a purchase over several weeks. These companies are high-tech clearinghouses in addition to their direct-to-consumer offerings. Just today, Apple introduced its BNPL via Apple Pay, and I have no doubt it’ll be wildly profitable for them, given their various channels and cross opportunities. Not A New Concept ... Read more

I am cutting (global) travel industry growth targets by 15% for June/July/August summer travel. GDP growth reduction, skyrocketing inflation, consumer price increases, central bank rate increases and additional contributing factors (staff shortages, low morale..).

I believe we’ll talk about “life before the Metaverse” the way we talk about “life before the Internet”. Not anytime soon but when access to VR devices, bandwidth and content are available; similar to the proliferation of the Internet and and future Metaverse Native generations.

“Fit the allotted time to content and event type rather than the opposite.”