Friday, March 23, 2012

Getflight profile: exchange with Getflight founder Ian Cumming

Below is a Q&A exchange with Getflight.com.au founder Ian Cumming (pictured here on stage at WebInTravel). This is an instalment in my profile series on Australian travel search start-ups.

BOOT: Date founded

Cumming: January 2011

BOOT: Name of founders

Cumming: Ian Cumming

BOOT: Name of backers/investors

Cumming: Timothy O'Neil-Dunne (t2impact), Gill Hazel (travel industry advisor), Don Takaya (PR and media relations)

BOOT: How much money have you raised

Cumming: None.

BOOT: Description of the business

Cumming: Multi-channel distribution of sale airfares across web, social and email.

BOOT: What is the revenue model

Cumming: On the B2C side - Affiliate advertising (hotels, tours, car hire), and on the B2B side - Licensing of a white-label solution.

BOOT: Any success metrics you are happy to share (traffic levels, customer numbers, revenue numbers, number of searches)

Cumming: 8,723 alert subscriptions, 52,597 deals found, 268,652 deal alerts sent, 70,972 unique visitors, 47,935 searches to airline websites.

BOOT: Something you learnt along the way

Cumming: Online distribution of airfares is complex and innovation is in a stale-mate with the conversion rate.

BOOT: Something you wish you had done differently in launching a business

Cumming: Launched in an emerging market.

BOOT: What's next for the business. What are you working on that is exciting

Cumming: We are focused on developing a licensing model which allows OTAs to re-brand and integrate the GetFlight technology platform to increase distribution of their inventory and increase user engagement.

BOOT: Favourite non-travel website

Cumming:: readwriteweb.com

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