Since 2015, our team is working on the development of the Columbery business. During this time, we have gone through a number of the incubation programs, have done many pivots and MVP. We have also communicated with hundreds of investors and funds. This made us experts possessing an extensive database which we would like to share with you. First of all, we would like to provide you with the ecosystem start-up guide. This guide will help those willing to develop their business in the travel industry.

How to: from an idea to the dream team

So, you have an idea this is the start for your business development. Probably, you already have a team, and everything is set for a promising start. Alternatively, you may not have a team yet. In this case, you should start attending hackathons and other tech-events aiming to create your idea and team to develop your business further. It is vital to know that such companies as Sabre, Amadeus, IATA, various airlines, famous booking aggregators, tour operators and other travel market players regularly organise thematic hackathons which you can attend. This is probably the best thing you can do as a start-up. However, if they are in a different country, too far to get to or it is way too long to wait for them happen, the best thing to do is to attend a local hackathon regardless of its theme.

You can check the List of the best Hackathons and the events here:

ChallengeRocket Platform — https://challengerocket.com
Hackalist — https://www.hackalist.org
Hackevents — https://hackevents.co
Major League Hacking — https://mlh.io/
Devpost — https://devpost.com
HackathonsNear.me — http://www.hackathonsnear.me
Hackathon IO — http://www.hackathon.io
Meetup — https://www.meetup.com/ — check the events in your city in Tech
Facebook — check the events in your city
LinkedIn — check the events in your city

You can use any other sources to create your team. What we outline here is just a recommendation on how to find people interested in the same things you do. So, the first steps are done, and you have developed your first pitch deck for you to go and approach the early investors. Most probably, they won’t listen to you as your project is at the stage of an idea and your team has just been set up. They won’t look at your project as the team is a crucial ingredient and most of the start-ups fall apart because their teams are not strong enough. Therefore, the best thing you can do at this stage is applying for the incubation and acceleration programs. This will allow you to grasp an opportunity to test your idea, talk to experts, to get extensive expertise and experience and to check congruency of your project and find out which parts of the project need more attention. Aiming this, you can apply for many universal incubation programs, but there are also some for travel market only.

Top 10 Incubators & Accelerator for travel startups
Booking.com booster https://booster.bookingcares.com/
Travel Startups Incubator https://www.travelstartups.co/
Travelport Labs Accelerator https://www.travelport.com/labs
Travel & Hospitality Center of Innovation https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/resources/plug-and-play-launches-global-travel-hospitality-platform-of-innovation/
Amadeus for Startups http://www.amadeus.com/msite/amadeusforstartups/index.html
Virtuoso incubator https://www.virtuoso.com/member/travelexchange/incubator
Paris’s travel startup incubator Welcome City Lab https://welcomecitylab.parisandco.com/
Starbust http://starburst.aero/
Hangar 51 https://hangar51.com/accelerator/
Conector Travel Accelerator — Launched at FITUR http://www.conector.com/aplicar/

What’s more, when you see that everything is OK and you can continue working on developing your project, it is time to approach business angels and venture funds and seek investment from them. Choosing the first investor and fund is crucial, as the success of your project is heavily dependent on who your investors are. There is a list of investors who are experts and invest in the travel market.

Top List of VC funds for travel startup
Travel Capitalist Ventures — http://www.travelcapitalist.com/
Firstminute Capital — https://firstminute.capital/
HotelTonight — http://www.hoteltonight.com/
Altair — http://www.altair.vc/
AdventureLink Travel Inc — http://www.adventurelink.com/
Amadeus Venutes — https://bit.ly/2mKYe5o
PROfounders Capital — http://www.profounderscapital.com/
Pole Capital — http://www.polecapital.com/
Gobi Partners — http://www.gobivc.com/
Bedrock Capital -http://www.bedrockcap.com/
Most probably, this is the stage when you need to incorporate your company as well as it is time for choosing a market to start your project. The best thing you can do is begin with entering one market and gradually testing and adapting opening the next markets. When we were selecting the markets, we were relying on the following criteria:

• The first country must be start-up friendly. In other words, there must be at least necessary conditions for developing your SME (e.g. tax reliefs, incubators, accelerators, venture funds).
• The language of the receiving country. There is a list of top languages in the world, and if you are developing a travel startup, the language is one of the main aspects.
• The location itself must be attractive for the tourists. For this, here is my list of countries:

Top 10 Locations to start your travel startup
GB — London
France — Paris
Germany — Berlin
Spain — Barcelona
USA — San Francisco
UAE — Dubai
Portugal — Lisbon
Turkey — Istambul
Singapore
China — Bejing

Media presence is crucial for the project development. The success will be a lot more visible if you work with the appropriate media targeting travel market.

Top 30 media about travel tech
Mashable — https://mashable.com/category/travel-tech/
Tnooz — https://www.tnooz.com/
Skift — https://skift.com/
TravelTek — https://www.traveltek.com/
TravelTeckReport — http://traveltechreport.co/
Eye for travel — http://www.eyefortravel.com/
Jing Daily — https://jingdaily.com/category/travel-tech-social-media/
Travel Massive — https://travelmassive.com/
TravTalk Magazine Middle East — http://travtalkmiddleeast.com/
Tourism Breaking News — http://www.tourismbreakingnews.ae/
Travel And Tour World — http://www.travelandtourworld.com/
Smart Trevel News — https://www.smarttravel.news/
Travel News — https://www.travelnews.ch/travel-tech.html
Travolution — http://www.travolution.com/
Travel Think — http://www.travel-think.com/
PhocusWire — https://www.phocuswire.com/
L’Echo Tourustique — https://www.lechotouristique.com/e-tourisme
Hostel Tur — https://www.hosteltur.com/
FVW Medien — https://www.fvw-medien.de/english/15/13205
STRATEGOS — http://strategos.fr/
Monocle — https://monocle.com/
Wired — https://www.wired.com/
Jacobs — http://jacobsmediagroup.com/
Travel is Your Business — https://travelisyourbusiness.com/
Slow travel story — https://www.slowtravelstory.com/
Culture Trav — https://www.culturewithtravel.com/
Travel Pulse — https://www.travelpulse.com
Catalyst — http://catalyst.cm/about/
Fast company — https://www.fastcompany.com
The beat travel — http://www.thebeat.travel

You should also allocate some time to work with the travel bloggers. Some of them are the following:

Top 20 Bloggers \ Influencers
Thomas C. Wilmer — https://thomaswilmer.com//
Jacintha Verdegaal — https://www.instagram.com/urbanpixxels/
Dan flying solo — https://www.danflyingsolo.com/
Melissa -https://abrokenbackpack.com/
Lili — http://www.lilistravelplans.com/
Hippie in heels — https://hippie-inheels.com/
The Savvy Backpacker — https://thesavvybackpacker.com/
The broke backpacker — https://www.thebrokebackpacker.com/
Salt in Our Hair — https://saltinourhair.com/
Just One Way Ticket — https://www.justonewayticket.com/
The Social Girl Traveler — http://www.thesocialgirltraveler.com/
Everything — Everywhere — https://everything-everywhere.com/
The Travel Hack — https://thetravelhack.com/
Flashpacker Family — http://flashpackerfamily.com
Violeta Matei — https://violetamatei.com/
Pint Size Pilot — https://pintsizepilot.com/
Don’t Forget to Move — https://www.dontforgettomove.com/
I wandered — http://iwandered.net/
Young Adventuress — https://youngadventuress.com/

Aiming at understanding the currents of the travel market, it is also important to attend tourist events. Here are some events for you to choose from:

Top 10 events в Travel Tech
Travel Technology event- http://www.traveltechnologyeurope.com/
IFITT — http://www.ifitt.org/
Travel Tech Con — https://www.traveltechcon.com/
Travel Tech Me — http://www.traveltechme.com/
Travel Tech Israel — http://traveltechisrael.com/
Eye for travel — http://events.eyefortravel.com/travel-distribution-summit-europe/
Phocuswright Europe — https://www.phocuswrighteurope.com/
WTM — http://london.wtm.com/about-the-show/show-features/travel-technology/
RISE — https://riseconf.com/
Travel massive — https://travelmassive.com/events/2018/06/travel-tech-con-2018

It is also important to read about all GDS, OTA, META. Subscribing to the LinkedIn and Facebook groups and pages is essential.