David Chait of Travefy

March 22, 2020 thetechtribune

An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with David Chait, the co-founder and CEO of Travefy, which was honored in our:

Tell us the origin story of Travefy – what problem were you trying to solve and why?

Travefy started from the consumer side when my co-founder Chris and I found that group travel coordination was broken. From our own experiences traveling with friends and family, we suffered from the endless threads of emails and frustrating lack of transparency when planning trips. From those experiences, we built the first version of Travefy, which was a group travel planning tool to collaborate on details, build rich itineraries, and track/collect group expenses.

Putting it out to the market, we listened to our users, watched the data, and found that travel agents and advisors looking for better ways to communicate with their clients and share proposals/itineraries were among our fastest growing segments.

Recognizing that opportunity and the need for tools, we became the Travefy of today – SaaS tools that power the success of travel professionals.

What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?

Like most entrepreneurial journeys, we’ve had a wild ride of ups, down, and lessons. Among the many hurdles we’ve encountered, I’d say the biggest (early on) was finding the best way to make feedback actionable.

For us, we learn so much from our users (via both direct feedback and usage patterns) that helps inform our path forward and ensure we’re meeting their needs and helping them grow their travel businesses.

It absolutely took us a while to find the best way to aggregate everything to ensure we consistently work on the right priorities that best improve Travefy for all of our users.

What does the future hold for Travefy?

At our core, we’re a team of builders. The future for Travefy is bright and we’re consistently listening to our users’ requests for new features and services that simplify their work flow and help them focus on selling and growing their travel businesses.

In 2020, this has included Travefy expanding into client management tools for travel advisors.

What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in Lincoln?

Lincoln has a fantastic tech startup scene and Travefy is thrilled to be headquartered here!

With amazing local talent and a strong mentorship/funding environment, local companies are poised for growth. It’s amazing to see the scene grow over our 7 years and we can’t wait to see what comes next.

What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Remember that you’re building a business, not a startup! With that in mind, make sure from day 1 you have a plan for the key factors that make a company sustainable – how to monetize, control cost, and provide real compensation/benefits for your employees (your most valuable asset).