Travel & Hospitality.
Travel tech operator + travel data insider — for vendors unifying portfolios or modernizing the data graph.
- Three acquisitions, three platform stories.
- Travel data without a buyer narrative.
- AI prioritization stuck in committee.
Qualify yourself in 10 seconds.
- Best for
- Travel data platforms, hospitality intelligence vendors, demand-gen platforms, portfolio companies with fragmented acquisitions, and travel media / commerce data owners.
- Typical trigger
- We've acquired 3 products — they need to become one platform story.
- Engagement shape
- Audit → Sprint → Retainer
- Core output
- Unified Product Vision
- Time horizon
- ~12 weeks (two phases)
- Best mapped to
- Market Entry Audit → GTM & BD Sprint, scoping into an Advisory Retainer.
If any of these sound like your meeting last week.
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“We've acquired 3 products — they need to become one platform story.”
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“Our travel data is syndicated but we don't own the buyer narrative.”
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“We need AI integration but don't know which use case to prioritize.”
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“Privacy posture is tightening (GDPR → CCPA → state laws) — we need a framework, not a patch.”
- You're Pre-Series A / Pre-PMF — no enterprise traction or buyer urgency.
- You want a media-mix line item without sharpening the buyer narrative.
- You need a vendor-comparison spreadsheet, not a designed go-to-market motion.
- You're not willing to narrow ICP or kill segments that look promising but don't close.
- There is no internal owner to carry the work after the engagement ends.
Three operator anchors.
I built travel tech that Expedia acquired — and ran travel-data syndication from inside one of the largest data marketplaces. When travel AdTech vendors need to unify scattered acquisitions, modernize their data architecture, or build the buyer narrative behind their travel-intent assets, I've already done the work from both sides of the table.
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Travel tech operator
Built and exited HotelClub.com to Expedia Group; built RatesToGo.com (Orbitz / Expedia). Understands the hotelier rate-intelligence pain end-to-end.
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Travel data insider
Scaled travel-data syndication architecture at Lotame — including travel-intent data products — to 121% YoY growth before the Publicis acquisition.
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Privacy-first AI / ML architecture
PII-based data strategy frameworks for $1B+ clients; contributed to IAB REARC privacy frameworks. Privacy posture as design constraint, not bolt-on.
Representative engagement pattern from a leading travel rate-intelligence and AdTech portfolio (4-week scoping + 12-week execution archetype). Client names, decision-makers, and revenue targets are masked; operating logic and public career anchors are retained.
- The Ride of a Lifetime · Robert Iger
- Range · David Epstein
- Good to Great · Jim Collins
Unified Travel Intelligence Stack.
Three scattered product lines, one buyer-facing platform — bridged by product vision, data architecture, and the buyer narrative that turns travel-intent assets into commercial leverage.
What ships, shaped like this.
Unified Product Vision
Modular AI-powered platform vision integrating rate intelligence, demand generation, and travel-data surfaces. Customer-validated, API-first, GDPR/CCPA-ready, with a 12-week execution plan and KPIs.
- 01 Technical, product, and process assessment
- 02 Customer discovery insights (personas + use-case validation)
- 03 Detailed product roadmap (features, timeline, milestones)
- 04 Agile execution plan (engineering + team design)
- 05 AI / ML strategy for personalization + attribution
- 06 Privacy / compliance framework (GDPR + CCPA ready)
Show all 8
- 07 GTM strategy (messaging, onboarding, adoption flows)
- 08 KPIs and success metrics
Sample structure only — no client data. Final artifact is shaped to the engagement, the data available, and the decisions the read needs to drive.
Two-phase engagement (~12 weeks total)
- 01
Phase 1 · Scoping & Inventory
Comprehensive current-state assessment across product lines to identify unification opportunities.
- Technical, product, and process assessment
- Inventory of platforms, data flows, integrations
- Stakeholder interviews (internal teams + key clients)
- SWOT analysis and innovation gaps
- Preliminary unification recommendations
Milestone4–6 weeks · stakeholder interviews complete by Week 2, SWOT by Week 4, recommendations by Week 6
- 02
Phase 2 · Roadmap & Execution Planning
Customer-validated unified product vision, modular architecture, and actionable execution plan.
- Unified product vision across the portfolio
- Customer discovery insights (personas + use-case validation)
- Detailed product roadmap + agile execution plan
- AI / ML strategy (personalization + attribution)
- Privacy / compliance framework (GDPR + CCPA)
- GTM strategy + KPIs
Milestone8–12 weeks · customer discovery Week 4, roadmap + GTM Week 8, execution plan + KPIs Week 12
Applied thinking, published.
Same vertical. Different operating layer.
When the vertical is clear, the next question is which company system carries the strategy.
Operating playbooks
- Org DesignOrg design is GTM infrastructure. This playbook helps scale-ups move from heroic execution to clear ownership, decision rights, capacity planning, and repeatable operating cadence.
- RetentionPost-sale operating system for retention, expansion, renewal confidence, churn prevention, and Net Dollar Retention (NDR). It turns reactive renewal management into a designed expansion motion — customer health, expansion triggers, and a board-grade NDR number.
Other vertical playbooks
- AudioWhen audio platforms fight for US brand budget, the bottleneck isn't reach — it's the buyer narrative.
- GamingGame advertising is now a scaled media channel — not a niche buy. Translating that into Americas GTM.
- NativeNative + recommendation platforms grow fast — the US enterprise bottleneck is rep productivity and ACV expansion.
- AttentionAttention measurement is a category that has to be created — not just sold.
- App GrowthApp-first DSPs and mobile growth platforms turning existing US demand into a focused, lean commercial engine — not a cold market entry.
- GrowthOperating model for aligning marketing, sales, data, and customer feedback into one revenue system for scale-up growth.
Market references last validated: June 7, 2026. Revalidate before pitch use.