Travel tech. It’s a booming industry, but one where it can sometimes be difficult to bring big corporations and tech startups together.
That’s where Itai Green comes in. An avid travel tech aficionado, Itai is a self-styled Corporate Open Innovation Expert, as well as the Founder & CEO, Innovate-Israel.com.
He was the keynote speaker of the launch event of the Capsule T, an initiative of The Hellenic Chamber of Hotels(HCH), that took place recently here in Athens. We managed to catch up with Itai to talk about how the often frustrating gap between corporations and tech startups can be bridged.
Because let’s face it, the big corporations which do not adapt to change and bring in niche or specialized tech startups with expertise in areas which they operate in, are more often than not finding themselves in trouble. Or worse still, they face becoming obsolete.
Before we get into that discussion, however, here’s a bit more background about Itai.
Itai Green: an introduction
Rather than me tell you about him, let’s have Itai tell us in his own words:
“I’ve got 15 years of experience with startups in different domains. I was heading the innovation activity of Amadeus in Israel looking for startups in order to help our company collaborate with them for the benefit of Amadeus and of its customers. Then I founded Innovate-Israel.com in order to help corporations to innovate. But with a difference. Not with internal R&D departments because nowadays it’s not enough, but to innovate with third parties: with startups, with other corporations, as well as academic institutions. I also founded the ITTS community (Israel Travel Tech Startups) which is a community of 400 travel tech entrepreneurs in Israel that reflects 300 startups only in travel tech.”
As you can see, Itai is big on innovating. Which is never a bad thing in these times we live in.
Travel Tech: the state of play
Where are we then with travel tech in terms of the current state of affairs, future prospects and opportunities for entrepreneurs? In Itai’s words, the story is something like this:
“Travel tech is growing around the world. We are seeing increasing amounts of investments in travel tech, not only among Israeli startups but also global ones. More travel corporations and tourism ministries are realizing that without embedding innovation, they will lose market share. Those who do not want to end up like Nokia have to innovate with third parties. The same goes for those who do not want to be surprised by the next Airbnb.”
Working with tomorrow in mind
For Itai, it’s all about working with an “eyes on tomorrow” mindset. He says: “The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow. What used to work for you till today is not going to work for you in the future. Actually in the very near future, unless you adopt innovation from startups. And that is true for any corporate: for hotels, insurance companies, banks, retail and even for countries. And the reason is because technology (rate of development) is growing really fast.”
Now we’ve got those heavy introduction questions off our chest, let’s dive into the rest of what Itai had to say.
What was the idea behind ITTS?
Itai: “The idea was to make Israel the center of travel tech globally and help entrepreneurs get strategic partners and funds. We wanted to help them get in touch with corporations: travel agents, hoteliers, airlines and others and build a global ecosystem. I started it two years ago with a whatsapp group of 20 entrepreneurs when I quit Amadeus. I just didn’t want to lose my contact with them, this was the reason to create the community. The whatsapp group is the best platform to network for startuppers.”
How can corporations innovate similarly to startups?
Itai: “Corporations that do not innovate – will die. Corporations cannot rely solely on internal R&D departments which are slow and not-updated in tech.”
Is there a big shift in startups’ focus that is more travel tech oriented?
Itai: “Well, that’s exactly what we see happening the last year or so. What’s unique with this ecosystem is that once entrepreneurs in Israel see that travel tech is a good ecosystem, they shift their technology and their solutions to travel. Because when an entrepreneur in the area of Big Data analytics or AI, for example, develops the technology, now their decision is to which market to approach first. If they know that the ecosystem of travel is strong and can provide them with the first client they will shift it to travel.”
Could you give us a few representative examples of your travel tech startups?
Itai: “One of them is Pruvo which is a startup that helps travelers pay the minimum prize for their hotel. It actually helps in direct booking. And that’s a great opportunity for hoteliers to sell their rooms directly without intercessors like Online Travel Agencies. Another example is Refundit. They make VAT reclaiming a fully digital experience, thus solving the problem of long queues of people in the airport waiting to get their VAT back and filling in forms manually.”These couple of startups have won the UNWTO-Globalia startups contest last January in Madrid.
Global collaboration
Tell us about your collaboration with travel professionals around the world? How do you get feedback?
Itai: “We are currently the interface of multinationals that come to Israel in order to look for startups. We connect with other agencies in order to stay updated. And we have a group of hoteliers and travel agents around the world and we are engaging with them. We learn about their interests, about their challenges and we provide them with solutions from our community. We participate in innovation conferences and we also run meetups with Visa, Google and other multinationals.”
Tell us a few things about trends in technology and how they can be incorporated in your area of interest (travel)?
Itai: “Virtual and augmented reality, or mixed reality, are technologies that enable hoteliers to offer services to potential clients in advance before booking. This way clients can “experience” how the hotel will look and feel. Also AI can provide clients with 24/7 service and not only that. Hoteliers can also learn a lot from the data that they will gain. Social media and reviews are really important to make clients happy, while software bots can help people that work within hotels that do repetitive jobs to do it automatically. Then you also have IoT and data science which are big factors in travel tech. Both entrepreneurs and hoteliers need to consider all of these as part of their business planning and strategies.”
In what ways can entrepreneurs benefit from their collaboration with other startups?
Itai: “For entrepreneurs it’s a great opportunity to share useful information that contributes to their development. For example, if an entrepreneur is looking for an API from a GDS, or has any other question, then the community definitely has an answer and will get the answer in a few minutes.
Let me give you another real one example. There is a startup in Israel, Gamitee that wanted to bring a senior professional from Europe but the cost of invitation along with accommodation expenses was really high. And of course that cost was huge for the early stage startup to cover. So what did they do? They just let other startups know who they wanted to invite. They shared this information along with guest speaker’s LinkedIn profile and they asked other startups: Do you want to meet him? Would you like to share the cost? And so finally 10 startups met this person, costing each of them only 100 euros. This is one example of how sharing and collaborating is great for everyone.”
Win-Win for corporations and startups
What do startups look for when collaborating with corporations and what corporations can get from startups?
Itai: “Startups are looking for a collaboration with corporations because corporations have the know-how, because they own industry expertise and they have a working platform. Entrepreneurs have a unique understanding of technology, a very sophisticated and a very creative one. They are working really hard 24/7 but they don’t know the industry. And this collaboration is a win-win for both sides. Entrepreneurs and corporations need each other. Why? Because:
- Corporations need entrepreneurs in order to stay relevant, offer the best value to their customers and run their business efficiently.
- Startuppers need the corporations because they have a working platform. They have the industrial know-how and this is priceless.
A corporation that collaborates with a startup gets the technology first, gets it for relatively attractive price in commercial terms and it may get a really unique technology and crowd out competitors.”
What advice would you give to corporations on how to collaborate with startups?
Itai: “Good question. I would say the following:
- You have to have a single point of contact, one person that is in charge of relationship with startups.
- Provide the startups with a clear answer. You can’t have startups waiting for your answers that are changing. Startups cannot waste time.
- You have to have the budget. In most cases the budget for POC (proof of concept) is relatively small.
- Treat startups with respect and be transparent with them.
- Make sure that in your board of directors there is at least one person that understands technology, innovation otherwise in five to ten years the corporation will be not relevant. In Israel, there is a new regulation that requires such a professional board member in each bank – soon it’s going to be in each company – there must be an innovation professional as a board member. Someone that is more relevant to technology
- And finally you have to be available 24/7. When I was working in Amadeus a startup sent me a Whatsapp message on Friday (which in Israel it’s like Saturday) and if I didn’t answer immediately the startup would think my company wasn’t interested. That’s the mindset of startuppers.
Israel & Greece: similarities
What are the similarities between these two countries? And how do they affect travel tech?
Itai: “Well, we have a lot of similarities in terms of culture, climate, talent and mentality. We are both Mediterraneans and so we are characterized by open communication. In addition we both have entrepreneurial backgrounds. Israelis are kind of jealous of how strong the travel business in Greece is. Nearly over 20% of GDP direct and indirect. And we can only be jealous of such numbers. Travel is really important for Greece and without adopting technology it’s going to be reduced. There is also competitive field. You need to make sure that these numbers should only grow and that is going to happen only with technology.”
What benefits does Greek ecosystem have compared to Israel?
Itai: “One of the biggest problems of travel tech startups in Israel is that they can run a small POC in a hotel chain, but at the end of the day they will not make money out of it because the commercial business, the numbers are really small. Israel is really small place. They have to export. But that’s not a problem for Greece. In Greece you have the best hoteliers, the best travel agents, you have airlines, you have all the ecosystem you need in order to try your technology. So, an initiative that will contribute to the collaboration of all these members is of great importance.
The beginning might be difficult but you should be patient. It would be a great opportunity to learn. I strongly believe that you will be able to reach your goals at the end of the day. Because you have great and unique assets that we don’t have. Greece has also great entrepreneurs. Israelis are more than eager to work with entrepreneurs from your country.”
Which synergies do you think could and should happen between the Israeli and the Greek entrepreneurship and tech ecosystem, in the travel tech space, and beyond?
Itai: “The Greek market is a great opportunity for travel tech and fintech startups that can implement their tech in Greek corporations. The Israeli commercial market is small. We at ITTS we will be more than happy to help corporations, startuppers and academic organisations since we believe that everyone has to collaborate. It’s not going to work if there isn’t communication among them. They need to work together in order to be able to build a great ecosystem.”
And finally, what advice would you give to Greek ecosystem?
Itai: “An important tip for Greeks – regulation should enforce having at least one board member in each corporate with a deep expertise in innovation. This will be a great starter. In Israel that’s an prerequisite in the bank sector and soon for the insurance as well. One more tip – make sure all ecosystem players collaborate, including academic institutions.”
Hear, hear! Thanks for your wise words Itai.
