Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: Web 2.0 (Page 6 of 9)

Flyspy: ‘Consumers Take Charge’

That’s how conference producer and host Phil Wolf, CEO of PhocusWright, described this next session at the the Travel 2.0 conference. He said it was one of the sessions he was most looking forward to, and also said it could be called “reverse yield management,” which I found fascinating. No doubt about it, Web 2.0 and Travel 2.0 fans, airfare search has entered a whole new phase.

One of the main reasons I trekked to Hollywood this week to cover the conference was to hear Minneapolis-based Flyspy do its first sneak-peak pitch — a limited coming-out, as it were, within its chosen vertical. Whatisflyspyslide Robert Metcalf, the founder and visionary behind chart-based Flyspy, was invited a few weeks ago by the event’s producers to introduce his service at this high-profile annual gathering of online and traditional travel execs. He told me he had to think about it for a while, but ultimately decided, even though it’s still early (the site isn’t quite in full beta release yet), that it was just too tempting an opportunity to miss — to get the kind of reaction he could get here.

Robert Metcalf is a very experienced software architect and developer of complex web sites. [He’s shown on the right in the onstage photo.] He describes Flyspy, which he’s been planning and developing very quietly for almost three years now, as the hardest problem he’s ever tackled. “The way airfare data works, it’s just a very, very complex system. When I got into it, I couldn’t believe it.” But now he feels all the hard work is paying off. He describes Flyspy as an “intelligent, at-a-glance airfare search engine.” [See sample Flyspy chart, which illustrates the frequent peaks and valleys of airline pricing, and just how volatile certain routes can be.] He said his main benefit is a “dramatic reduction in fare search time” because of his unique charting approach. The site provides actual, real-time flight data, not historical or predictive data as two other well-funded startups do (and to whom he says he’s often erroneously compared). That would be FareCompare and Farecast, respectively — firms that were also invited to speak in this session (though mysteriously the latter didn’t show). Another key difference I learned with these two sites compared to Flyspy: you can’t actually book a ticket at either.

Though in limited alpha mode, Flyspy has already been discovered and reported on this year by TechCrunch, Wired.com, and Fast Company, and others, and I’ve written about it here previously myself. “It just seems to resonate with people,” says Robert. You can find links to previous coverage at Flypsy’s “About” page.

Flyspyslide1

Robert says that Flyspy’s approach provides “market clarity and market transparency,” resulting in “high customer confidence.” What he’s learned from a significant amount of feedback he’s already received from his site’s users is that searching and booking on Flyspy eliminates buyer’s remorse. “We allow the consumer to really understand the market for trips they’re planning and their various options. And that results in a positive transaction instead of a negative one.” In other words, it takes away that nagging, uncertain feeling we’ve all had: “If only I’d had more time to search, I know I could’ve found a better fare.” Time is the valuable commodity today, and Flyspy addresses that consumer need head-on, he says.

Flyspyslide2

Flyspy’s Value Proposition
In his presentation, Metcalf said decision-making time is much faster and search much simpler with Flyspy than with all the other sites — whether you’re comparing to the old-line “Travel 1.0” sites (often called The Big Three), the airline sites themselves, or the newer so-called Travel 1.5 “meta search” sites. I guess that makes Flyspy a genuine Travel 2.0-era search site. Metcalf said Flyspy requires only one search, not many, to get the full picture — which is a major time differential. The number of data points on one of his charts would require 240 searches elsewhere. And Flyspy has the “most Google-like interface” of all the airfare search sites, he says. It’s really dead simple for the consumer.

Flyspyslide3

Partners Lining Up Before Launch
Toward the end of his talk, Metcalf took the opportunity to announce that Flyspy has several partnerships in place, even before the company officially launches. Well, he didn’t actually name who they are — just hinted broadly. These strategic relationships include:

1) A leading business magazine, where Flyspy will be a regular feature in the travel section of their web site
2) A frequent flyer web site with 15 million page views/month
3) A leading blog platform with 50,000 blogs and 18 million visitors/month
4) A leading online CRM solution with 500,000 users, where Flyspy will be the sole travel partner
5) A major daily newspaper (circulation 600,000) wherein Flyspy charts will be featured weekly
6) An industry publication with a monthly circulation of 80,000

After this session, I grabbed a shot of airline pricing transparency expert Nelson Granados (left) with Robert Metcalf. Nelson is an associate professor at Pepperdine University, where Flyspy is a case study this semester in two of his MBA classes. He previously held a similar position at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, and has also worked for Northwest Airlines.

Nelsonrob_1

In my interview with Robert Metcalf at lunch following the session, I learned he was approached at the conference by several firms that are interested in licensing Flyspy’s data, and also by at least one major, brand-name site that would like to feature Flyspy as its exclusive airfare search partner. “I’m very glad I came to the event,” he said. “I met a lot of great contacts and intend to follow up.”

Watch for another post soon recapping this high-energy conference. As I learned here, travel is the world’s largest industry. But the latest iteration of the Internet seems to be breathing new fire into it…

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Google Party Pix

Now, who would have guessed Google would throw a party? 🙂 It was a very cool wing-ding last night, at least for those in the know here at the Travel 2.0 event — that is, it wasn’t an official event. The venue was the Roosevelt Hotel, just a couple blocks away on Hollywood Boulevard. Very cool, retro place. They don’t build ’em like this anymore! I shot some pix on the way over (handheld without flash, so excuse the shakiness), including the lights at Graumann’s Theater and the El Capitan across the street. I took the rest of the shots around the pool where the party was held. The two guys shown, who I tipped a couple with, are Josh Steinitz, founder of San Francisco-based The Nile Project (also a surfer!) and Pasadena-based angel Mark Harris….my favorite nephew.

Speaking of Hollywood Boulevard, that reminds me of how bummed I still am to have missed Lou Reed last week at the Web 2.0 Summit in SF. One of my favorite tracks of his is “The Dirty Boulevard” — which this street sure is (but you don’t notice it at night). No wait…”Busload of Faith” is my favorite…no, wait….


Graumanns


Elcapitan


Pool


Poolhotelvert


Joshmark

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RealTravel Is Real (Web 2.0) Deal

Okay, you’re not gonna believe this, but the next company that inspired me to write a blog post I learned later is also headed by a surfer! Swear I did not plan this… Hey, what can I say? Surfers are really into travel. Ken Leeder is his name, and he’s the CEO of the most Web-too-oh-ified travel company I’ve seen so far here, RealTravel. I had a chance to chat with his director of marketing, Christina Brzica yesterday. [It’s early morning Wednesday now, the last day of the conference.] RealTravel is a pretty cool site, and a very good-looking one, too — featuring travel blogs, recommendations, trip planning, forums, search by destination or tags (activities), travel deals, and more. Realtravel

Some of you may remember that RealTravel, headquartered in Los Altos, CA, actually launched at the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Conference last year. They appear to have made some nice progress since then. Christina tells me they’re now approaching 2 million page views and 200,000 unique visitors per month. “Our number of contributors [as in user-generated content] is in the tens of thousands,” she said, “and we’re now measuring blog posts in the hundreds of thousands.”

The company does all this with only seven employees, which is pretty amazing. Talk about a great example of the latest Internet-startup credo, “Get big cheap,” huh? I also learned the firm’s chairman in Michael Tanne of social search site Wink.

Christina tells me that RealTravel just announced a partnership with SideStep (scroll down to see Press Releases), which will be noticeable on SideStep’s site in a couple of months. The firm has other partners as well, including Frommer’s.

In addition, last week RealTravel introduced a recommendation tool, whereby the site “interviews” you to learn about your interests and then suggests trips you’d like.

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Final Thoughts on DEMOfall…

Well, two days since my return from San Diego, let me summarize my take on the latest DEMO event and share some random images and opinions. First of all, everything was extremely well run. This is *the* most crack conference team on the planet — logistics, food, press support, absolutely flawless wi-fi, the whole nine yards — even great bumper music. Demofallstagecolors_1 I just wish theyda told me the hotel had two towers, and that if you were unlucky enough to make your reservations a bit too late, you’d get stuck in the West Tower and have to hoof it three-quarters of a mile to where the event was held, in and around the East Tower. For the prices, there has to be a better venue in the San Diego area.

But, more importantly, what was the tenor of the event, and what were the takeaways? I touched on a lot of that in my report published on event-review site Conferenza.com the other day. But let me ramble on a bit more, now that I’m two days removed from it all. DEMOfall was definitely an upbeat affair — exhuberance was in the air at every turn. [Even if sunshine wasn’t. Now, if someone could demo a technology that would remove fog, haze, and overcast from the San Diego climate, that would really be something!] Demofallpavilionscene It was reminiscent of the pre-crash conference scene for sure — and I wondered how many of these people were experiencing this “high” for the first time. My guess would be a large percentage, because there were many, many young faces in the crowd.

The mix of technologies — consumer tech vs. enterprise IT, business vs. home, widgets vs. software (including another kind of widget!) — was excellent. There was something here for everybody. Almost too much — but that’s always the case at DEMO. Trying to cover it all is essentially impossible for any one reporter. Which is why outfits like Ziff Davis/CNet send multiple people — but they have separate media entities, too, which is how they can do that. Demofallpavilionside_1 The press policy is a very democratic one, I learned: it allows only one reporter from any one media outlet, even including the WSJ, NY Times, USA Today. But let me apologize now for not covering all 67 presenting companies. Nothing against any of you that I didn’t — just not enough time. It’s flatly impossible to do, with any depth, anyway. [I did manage to blog some 37 of them, though!]

Would I recommend DEMO as the launchpad for a new startup? Absolutely, positively — if you can handle the rigor and the preparation. It’ll make a better company out of any fledgling startup, I assure you — just going through the process (starting with getting accepted). The next event, which will be #25, is in Palm Desert, CA, January 30 – February 1 (where the weather is guaranteed to be much better). It’s at the Desert Springs Resort & Spa. How does one apply to present? Read all about that here.

Let me share a few more pix I shot at DEMOfall — these with my new little HP Photosmart M425. That’s the one with the new “pretexting” feature… 🙂 Five megapixels, very compact, 3x optical — not bad for a hundred bucks. [More proof of The Cheap Revolution, as Rich Karlgaard calls it.] I’ve included a shot from the demo of the wi-fi bunny, from Paris-based Violet, a product Ed Baig of USA Today called “easily the silliest Demo product.” Demofallwifirabbit Another of my shots shows the two presenters from Eluma on stage, including VP marketing Joe Lichtenberg on the right, who just told me his firm got one of the coveted “Demo God” awards that were handed out at the final evening’s dinner (which I had to miss). Demofalleluma That’s two Demo conferences in a row where companies I’ve run into early and blogged about became Demo God winners. [Just lucky, I guess…]

A funny scene near the end of Wednesday’s closing session was Chris Shipley strutting out with the surfboard giveaway, replete with shades, to the sounds of The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA.” Demofallchrissurfboard I was so hoping to win that nice stick (donated by sponsor Qualcomm). But, alas, the guy in front of me did — and he didn’t even seem excited about it. Dude?

One final ranting bitch about the show, which I just have to get in, is exemplified by my final photo, which is of the CEO of Moixa Energy presenting. [You’ll remember this outfit, if you’ve been reading my blog, as the one that got my vote for the worst name — though I’ve since decided it’s a tie with PrefPass.] His “USB Cell” may be cool — though it certainly isn’t the most visually elegant product I’ve ever seen. Demofallmoixa But could the guy conjur up something better to wear than the most god-awful pair of jeans I’ve even seen? I look better than that when I’ve done lumberjack work for three hours in the woods behind my house, for kee-rist sakes. In his defense, he was just one of several presenters who were dressed shabbily. And, sorry, anything including jeans fits that category for me. Please, Chris, can we have a dress code for presenters? It’s the least they can do for us. Hey, if Steve Jobs is coming on stage — fine, he wears what he wants. But these guys, they ain’t no Steve Jobs — okay? 🙂 Certainly not yet… And having them pretend like they are is just too hard to stomach.

What were the takeaways of DEMOfall 2006?
The tech economy is strong. But we’re not in a bubble, according to the show’s producers. [How could we be when the Nasdaq is still 55% down from its high in the year 2000?]
Money is flowing. Many of these startups-you’ve-never-heard-of have already raised substantial funding, as reported in their profiles. And a person can only wonder how so many of them get such amounts, based on what appears to be a sketchy or risky plan. I can only recall a few presenters who said they were bootstrapped — that is, surviving just on their own funds at this point. Whatever happened to the raw, truly undiscovered startups getting a chance? Must they all be VC-backed already?
Consumer tech continues to influence enterprise IT. And Web 2.0 type services are leading the way here. The center of gravity is now on the consumer or individual user side of things. Internet apps are where the most energy is these days, not in computers, operating systems, desktop apps, and the corporate IT power base of old.
The tech economy, and really the entire economy, is going global faster than you think. This Demo had the largest number ever of non-U.S. presenting firms. And who knows what percentage of all the firms that pitched are relying at least partially on offshore technology expertise to develop their products. Either that or on immigrants who now call the U.S. home.

One final thing: links to a couple of excellent recaps of the event by some of the good press people covering it. First, a story from CNet with several contributors, including Rafe Needleman, Daniel Terdiman, and Dan Farber, all of whom I chatted with at the conference. And another good story is from Thursday’s edition of USA Today, by Ed Baig.

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Part 2: Flyspy Goes to School

Continuing from my post of yesterday….

Tech~Surf~Blog: Tell us about how you participated in the Carlson School MBA class. I assume you did a complete presentation about Flyspy for the students early-on to establish a starting point?

Robertmetcalf Metcalf: I presented the class with a very detailed look at Flyspy, from high–level concepts to detailed aspects of the business model and technology costs. Remember, the class was going to produce a business plan with an emphasis on IT management. The major points that I hit on were:
• What is Flyspy, what is the problem, and what is the solution.
• Market size and business (revenue) model.
• Understanding the airline industry using a supply-chain metaphor.
• Flyspy’s value to the consumer and value to the airline.
• Future product plans.
• Technology overview and the cost of managing technology.

Tech~Surf~Blog: What was your opinion of the quality of the papers produced by the 10 teams, as well as their PowerPoint presentations in the final class session? Were you impressed by their engagement in the whole process?

Metcalf: Each presentation (business plan) had to be delivered by midnight prior to the final class. I frankly didn’t know what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised when I received 10 business plans via email. Each business plan was roughly 25 pages in length, had a clear executive summary, a detailed course of action, various recommendations, a summary, and references.

After reading the first business plan I thought, “This one is a clear winner.” After reading each business plan, I had the same thought. Every plan was outstanding because each one addressed a different market segment. Half the class had a B2B solution and the other half addressed the B2C segment.

The class presentations were limited to 12 minutes each. Each team came prepared with a PowerPoint presentation making their case as to why their solution was the best one. And all of the teams used an information and technology strategy to frame the problems and solutions. They clearly knew how to start with a strategic vision and drill down into tactical, operational, and financials details.

Was I impressed? Yes! I was overwhelmed by the thoroughness of their business plans and the clarity of their presentations. I would add any one of the students to my team in a heartbeat.

Tech~Surf~Blog: What ideas presented by the teams really jumped out at you? Are you likely to adopt some of them?

Metcalf: Truthfully, most of the ideas they presented had never occurred to me. Very few of the students had an IT background, so their ideas came from areas they were familiar with. A few ideas were truly novel – combining what Flyspy does with another product or service to yield a solution that’s more powerful than either one….i.e., 1 + 1 = 3.

There are three ideas that we’ll adopt right away. The first idea is a UI (user interface) improvement that increases repeat traffic. The second idea addresses “buyer’s remorse.” It’s a solution that provides a different visualization of the flight and fare data that gives the end-user a comfort level that they have seen all of their options. The third idea involves frequent flyer information.

Tech~Surf~Blog: Tell us about the Flyspy partnership deals you announced at the final class session.

Metcalf: I announced a partnership with a data provider and a few advertising firms. Locking in a data provider is extremely important. If you look at a single Flyspy chart, you’ll see 30 data points for each of the 7 trip lengths. It takes 210 data points to make a complete Flyspy chart. Each data point represents a unique departure and return date combination. If you were to collect this data manually, using Expedia, Orbitz, or Travelocity, you would have to do 210 searches. You can see that it takes a lot of data to support the Flyspy user interface. Our data provider thinks that Flyspy is the future of searching for flights and fares.

Tech~Surf~Blog: What was the decision process you and the instructor used in selecting the winning team in this competition?

Metcalf: Nelson Granados and I selected a team whose idea was relevant, well researched, and fit into the existing Flyspy IT framework without a lot of additional software development. We picked three finalists that we felt met our criteria. In the end, we picked a team that presented a solid business case in a paper that was extremely well researched and filled with details. They didn’t miss a beat. It was one of the finest industry-related papers I’ve seen. I can’t say enough about the team, how well they must have worked together, and the quality of the final product.

As mentioned previously, Nelson is now teaching at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. This fall, I will be presenting Flyspy as a case study to another round of MBA students. Hopefully, they will have a different perspective on the industry and some more innovative ideas will emerge.

Tech~Surf~Blog: Once you receive your greatly anticipated seed-stage funding, what are some of the first things you’ll do? How will the funds be used?

Metcalf: There are two big areas that we’ll address: 1) turning the site from a “proof of concept” into a world-class search engine, and 2) hiring business development people. We need to get the base technology completed as soon as we can. And we also need to build relationships that will bring revenue in the door as well.

Tech~Surf~Blog: Anything else you want to leave with us regarding Flyspy, Robert – your plans, your vision, any thoughts about the process of getting funded and launched, hopefully here in Minnesota?

Metcalf: I never in a hundred years would have thought that changing an industry – if you can call it that – would be this difficult. My initial question of “why is this so difficult?” has, in one sense, changed my life. I know that I’ve made the airfare search process immeasurably easier for tens-of-thousands of travelers already, and that gives me a great deal of satisfaction.

The short-term plans are to launch the site, build a public relations campaign, and see millions of consumers use the site. The long-term will take care of itself if we pay attention to the customer and the details of running the business. My vision is balancing the process of keeping the site easy-to-use while we add more features.

Thanks for the questions, Graeme. I’ve truly enjoyed answering them.

——

Well, that’s it, folks. I’ll be continuing to follow this developing story closely. In fact, I know more news will be coming very soon. So, stay tuned to your handy-dandy Tech~Surf~Blog channel for all the updates…. (Or, if you haven’t yet, you can subscribe via the RSS or email feed icons near the upper right.)

cheers,
gt

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