If you dread catching flights during the holiday season, you’re not alone. Forget admiring the flying wonder. Getting through an airport is still very difficult, and here’s the Atlanta-based startup Traveler can I help.
There are many sides to what the company does, including an AI-enabled chatbot called VERA. But “at its simplest level,” its team told me, “the Travelsist platform connects travelers who need help getting through the airport with a Travelsistant who provides concierge and personal assistant services to help them get from their route to the plane with safety and time.”
Founded by former flight attendant Veronica Woodruff, the startup was a Startup Battlefield company at TechCrunch Disrupt earlier this year. At the time, I highlighted how he was part of a growing group of startups making life easier for people with disabilities. but there are many more people Travelsist can help, including working moms like Woodruff.
“I arrived at the airport one day for a cross-country flight and realized I had left my daughter’s stroller at home,” she recalls.
From parents to seniors to first-time travelers, there are many who could use a hand, and there’s more than wheelchair or stroller services that can make airports more accessible. That’s why Travelsist also provides passengers with “wayfinding or other physical or navigational assistance in what is often a very stressful and chaotic part of their journey.”
Behind the scenes
While Travelsist’s end users are passengers, the startup’s customers are airports and airlines (with a few exceptions where passengers can request assistance and pay for it themselves).
The move to B2B2C makes sense: They have a legal obligation to help people with disabilities, for example, but it often proves costly and difficult, so they’re willing to outsource it, like Travelsist.
Travelsist doesn’t just find people who can provide assistance. it also leverages technology to make the whole process more efficient. For example, the platform reduces wait times for help by locating where it’s needed, Woodruff told me.
While the company received international interest, the US was its initial focus, starting with Atlanta — and not just Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). Travelsist is now able to assist passengers flying in and out of its city’s two largest airports. Since Disrupt, it has closed a partnership with DeKalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK), which Woodruff described to me as “a popular regional airport in the Atlanta area that serves a lot of private flights and VIP travelers.”
It’s a natural progression for Travelsist to expand its audience, and it already has. Since its inception four years ago and subsequent launch in 2020, the company wrote in a document shared with me by head of product Dino Decespedes: “Travellist’s value proposition has evolved from renting baby gear for mothers who travel, to a business software solution that solves human capital headaches for the world’s busiest airports and airlines.”
Speaking with Woodruff in person, the human element mentioned above comes through much more clearly and it becomes clear how passionate she is not only about helping travelers, but also providing Travelsists with rewarding and potentially life-changing work opportunities.
“What I love most about being able to offer people the opportunity to work for a company located at the airport is that they have the opportunity to meet someone beyond their front door. There are so many people from so many different walks of life, you never know how a 10 minute conversation can affect or change your life. that person might be someone who can get you an even better job than Travelsist,” Woodruff said.
In the meantime, Travelsist intends to ensure that these 1099 workers “know they are valued and appreciated” and that they enjoy good working conditions. “We’re proud to be a technology company first, but the number one thing is that we’re bringing a new culture to this industry where people can have more control over their time, earn good wages and be educated with [new] skills.”
Travelsist’s employee app is there to support these employees by filling them in with specific details about a traveler’s request and location, as well as providing them with training and reminders. For example, making sure a passenger is properly buckled in before picking them up and asking nicely for permission – a welcome change, given that flying with a disability all too often ends up being dehumanizing.
If the company ever runs out of Travelsistsants, they can be counted on My ALWAYS, another Atlanta-based startup (PANDA stands for Personal Assistants Next Door). It’s run by a very good friend of hers, Woodruff said. “We have an agreement where I can dip into her staff: If I need them, they come and work for us. Atlanta is a beautiful place to build because of those relationships.”
In addition to its core team and Travelsists, Travelsist also has around 25 contractors and “a lot of people who advise us and meet with us”. The company was part of the first women-focused cohort of the Atlanta-based Techstars Founder Catalyst Program, held in partnership with JP Morgan. he also received support and awards from many other organizations. That’s part of being from Atlanta, Woodruff said. “Atlanta is a very hands-on city when you’re building something that people believe in. People want us to succeed.”
Outside of Atlanta, the company flew relatively under the radar until recently, when it acquired some provisional patents that made the team more confident about its chances against the competition.
Artificial intelligence is part of its strategy: At TechCrunch Disrupt, it launched VERA, a chatbot that can answer travelers’ questions “about flight times, airport shops and restaurants, security line wait times, directions parking, airport and TSA rules, hours of operation and much more,” the team wrote to me.
Image Credits: Traveler
For airports and airlines, the chatbot is another opportunity to improve traveler satisfaction, which they can track alongside other metrics in the custom data dashboard provided by Travelsist.
This value proposition seems to be resonating. “We are on track to close 12-15 new airports in the first half of 2024, which will allow us to serve more travelers end-to-end — at their departure airport AND their arrival airport,” Woodruff texted me.
Travelsist has already raised some $850,000 in funding to execute its plans, including investments from The Fearless Fund and grant from Black ParentPreneur Foundation. But it is understood to be looking for more and is currently raising a $5 million Series A round that it hopes to close by the end of the year. This would be timely as travel woes will be on many minds at this time of year.
