Archivo de julio/2015

Ofrecer trabajo a miles de personas es una buena idea

worktoday app comienza el verano con fuerza y se hace un hueco en las mejores aceleradoras y programas de España

• Impact, una de las 16 aceleradoras avaladas por la Comisión Europea ha seleccionado a Worktoday en su Segunda Open Call para formar parte de su programa de financiación, aceleración y mentoring
• Startup Alcobendas selecciona a Worktoday para formar parte de su programa de aceleración
• Worktoday está entre los finalistas de la fundación Everis al emprendimiento y a la innovación
• Premio Fast Track de Wayra en El Gran Pitch de Socios Inversores

Madrid 21 de julio de 2015

Worktoday App nace para unir a personas que quieren trabajar y son grandes profesionales con jefes que necesitan con urgencia una ayuda extra en sus empresas. Durante los meses de verano el crecimiento de esta aplicación móvil para conseguir empleo de manera inmediata es más que constatado. A ello se suma el apoyo y reconocimiento de grandes instituciones europeas y españolas que confían y comparten la visión del equipo promotor en cuestiones de fomento del empleo.

Impact es una de las 16 aceleradoras de la Unión Europea asociadas al programa Fi-Ware. El pasado 16 de julio seleccionó a Worktoday App entre 57 finalistas para acceder a su programa de financiación, aceleración y mentoring. Impact sólo selecciona proyectos que empleen la tecnología FI-Ware y que sus fundadores tengan dedicación plena en el proyecto.

El pasado 18 de Junio, SociosInversores, plataforma pionera en equity crowdfunding y líder en los mercados de habla hispana, entregó los premios a los proyectos empresariales más innovadores del año dentro de la primera edición de ELGRANpitch, el concurso nacional de colaboradores de SociosInversores. Entre los premiados, Worktoday App recibió de manos de Fran Palleja, Finance Manager de Wayra España, el premio Fast Track en Wayra.

Worktoday App se muda a Startup Alcobendas con el apoyo del Ayuntamiento de Alcobendas. Un jurado compuesto por representantes de importantes empresas, del mundo del periodismo, de la banca y de la universidad, seleccionó el pasado 7 de Julio a 9 proyectos para la segunda convocatoria de StartUp Alcobendas a la que se han presentado 105 proyectos.  El equipo se instala en Alcobendas para recibir hasta noviembre un programa de aceleración personalizado y continua formación con el apoyo de Cink Emprende.

El proyecto está además en la fase final de los premios de la Fundación Everis al emprendimiento, a la innovación y al talento, que otorgará a aquel proyecto empresarial cuya propuesta tenga como objetivo la explotación de una innovación tecnológica, de gestión, social o ambiental.

Para los fundadores de Worktoday App, todos estos impulsos por parte de aceleradoras e instituciones tan relevantes en el ecosistema emprendedor suponen un fuerte empujón para seguir creciendo. Crecer y crecer es la obsesión de los promotores de Worktoday para generar puestos de trabajo y facilitar la selección a las empresas del sector servicios.

Hot Hotels, from IE to Techstars Boston

8th July 2015

A little piece of history was made in Boston on the 4th of June when Hot Hotels  become the first company from Spain to be accelerated by Techstars in the USA.

Two of the four co-founders of the company are IE MBA graduates. Adelaida Muriel Galet (MBA 2012) and Joseph Anthony Haslam (MBA, 2004). Completing the team are CEO Conor O´Connor who has a long history of starting Travel and Technology companies (Mydestinationinfo.com, Hoteles.es, Spansurf, Spantel)  and Jose Manuel Fernandez Muñiz who was previously General Manager of  Muchoviaje

Ade, who is the COO of the company, and will spend the entire 13 weeks of the intensive program in Boston until Demo Day on September 1st. Joe, who is the company Chairman, is currently skyping in to sessions but will go to Boston in August.

According to the Seed Accelerator Rankings, Techstars is ranked as the number two accelerator in the USA. There is a less than 1% acceptance rate and in accordance with a policy of transparency they publish year-by-year breakdowns participating companies.

As Joe Haslam explained in this interview in Novobrief, the main motivation was to get closer to the cluster of Travel Tech companies in the Boston area. Also the success of Kayak, Trip Advisor, ITA Software means that there are Venture Capital firms who know the sector well.

Hot was set up in January 2012 and has been live in the App store since March 2012. The company is based in Marbella and recorded a +2,100% year on year growth in bookings in 2014.

After bootstrapping for two years, Axon Group led a seed round of $1m in April 2014, Hot has since added another $1m in funding through Business Angels in Ireland as well as soft loans from ENISA and Emprendetur.

The full list of companies in Techstars Boston Class of 2015 is here.

Author: Jose Manuel R. Person

What’s Guestperience?
Guestperience is a new and fresh solution to help hoteliers to enter in the mobile era. We believe that motels must go beyond just selling beds, and engage more with their guests . Y-guests are interested in a lot more than booking a room such as for instance, Wifi across the property; which has become one of the most critical factors when searching for a hotel. We are focusing in the after- booking expereince: pre-arrival assistance, experience throughout the stay aiming at improving the property’s reputation when guests leave.
As a result , we built up a solution that consists of  a combination of a customized app and our Guest Management system which is fully integrated to hotel systems, Guestperience is drastically increasing the number of touch points during the stay, increasing revenues per guest and cutting costs anchored to printing.
 Tell us how you identified the necessity of offering this service?
As travellers or guests we have identified some anomalies in hotels when we are travelling. For example like queuing when check-in or check-out, order of services through traditional landline phones, low appealing directories and a feeling that when we are in a hotel, there are hundreds of things happening around that we are not noticing due to not using the best channels to communicate them.The changing context within hotels is an unstoppable trend. It is boosting in countries like UK or US, but mainly in luxury hotels. Spain is a large market of hospitality and we want to be pioneers making this «guest technology products» affordable for any kind of hotel. Hotels must embrace mobile era and take advantage of its wifi service. Nowadays, 25% of guest in US are considered digital savvy and 3 out of 4 bring their own smartphone when they are staying and are keen to explore new useful apps.
What’s your value proposition and differentiation from your competitors?
Guestperience is a solution that gathers  all what guests request in a mobile app. The design of our apps is strategically thought to offer a “win-win” deal among hotels and guests. 50% to open a new channel «hotel to guests» and 50% «guests to hotel».
Some propertes have noticed how guests are changing their way of enjoying a hotel experience and  have started building their own apps, but these are mainly the top chains like Marriot. The development of these types of «guest products” costs a lot of money, and also there is a huge risk of failure when a hotelier decides to build an app as it is not his core business. That is why only big players can afford it.
Then is when Guestperience adds  value as a solution that is flexible, affordable, modular, scalable and fully supported by our team.
Our main competitors are out of Spain, but we know most of them are interested to enter a market like Spain. Guestperience will face more local competitors very soon, but it is not worrying as we are developing a new category of product and they might help us to generate demand.
What kind of benefit your customers can obtain from guestperience?
Depending of the type of hotel, benefits are to increase the revenues per guest or cut printing costs. For instance, Imagine a hotel that starts to receive Chinese travellers and all the information of the property and services are in spanish and English. The cost of translating and re-printing the directory books are high in comparison to the multilingual functions that Guestperience app is offering.
What type of feedback you are getting from the industry?
Our first customers (La Moncloa de San Lazaro Hotel) are happy with the new benefits that they are delivering to their guest. Some others, see Guestperience as a great solution, but do not believe that now it the right moment for them to implement it. however, our business is a B2B2C, which means that Guestperience also cares  about the feedback of users (guests), making guests really excited to go to a hotel that has an app like Guestperience implemented.
How do you built and integrate your solution?
We initially work in a “look&feel” that our customers like, then analyse what kind of services are available in the property in order to explore if we can integrate with their PMS, CRM and CRS (systems used by hotels). Guestperience can integrate with hundreds of PMS and with this integration the experience for the guest is great as you can do your check-in and check-out in your own mobile and bring in your mobile the bill of your stay (hotel restaurants or bars, spa….) without having to wait for obtaining it at departure.
After that we configure an app for the customer and upload hotel and surroundings touristic content. From that point on, hotels can update info in real time.
What are your future plans for 2016?
Guestperience has a great challenge to face. The company has been supported by EMPRENDETUR for its business plan, so we are building a strong team to increase our chances of becoming a leader in this guest technology sector. If we beat our commercial goals during 2015, we are ready to make the first steps in international markets.
We are very interested in collaborating with IT hospitality experienced professionals, so if you are interested, please do not hesitate to contact us

About us:
Founders: Jose Manuel R. Person and Santiago Fernandez.
Founded: June 2012.
Headquarters: Madrid, Spain.
Team: Santiago Fernández, Jose Manuel R Person, Marco Uzcategui, Elena de la Torre
Contact: jmperson@guestperience.com