🚫 OTAs Suck ✅ Building a Book Direct, Decentralized, Open-OTA ➜ 🚀 Operators Get Direct Bookings ✈️ Travelers Get Rewards for Booking Direct 💰 Anyone Who Refers Travelers Owns Them & the Revenue Stream They Generate.

🐥 I'm a startup founder, launching a direct booking travel platform for the AI agent era.

Why? Today, Online Travel Agent (OTA) commissions are draining 10's of billions of dollars out of the travel ecosystem. They enrich "Big Tech" and "Big Travel", at the expense of everyone else. I know because I helped them do it. For years I was a super-affiliate of Expedia and other big OTAs. I fed $100m+ in hotel bookings to the OTAs, generating $10m in commissions, but adding little of value to the ecosystem.

Now, I'm building a new travel distribution platform and protocol that enables travelers and their AI agents bypass the OTA middlemen and book direct.

👇 Want to be notified when we launch? Leave a comment in the featured post below titled "AI-powered community", or reach out and connect! 

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Previously...

🐣 I co-founded a venture studio. We launched 3 notable ventures:
 
1️⃣ 3Genius International. Network of travel booking websites. $100M+ in bookings and $10M+ in gross profit.

2️⃣ Moola.com. Multiplayer game. Grew virally to 450k community members, $7.6M economy. PCWorld's “Best Places to Waste Time on the Web”.
 
3️⃣ Locationary. Local data and community platform. Rewarded users for crowdsourcing local business data (eg. like for Apple Maps). $4.5M in funding. Acquired by Apple.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

🧠 Current Interests: AI, community, machine learning, travel, fintech, loyalty rewards, web3 / tokens / blockchain, creator & influencer economy, social commerce, marketplaces, network effects.

Arlen Ritchie

Director of Brand Strategy and Creative at X for Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA)

Resonance-loughderg

Resonance is a not-for-profit festival of ideas that takes place in September on the shores of Lough Derg. Inspired by the Talks of TED and the Music of Other Voices set in the picturesque twin towns of Ballina Killaloe, in Ireland's mid west.

Cofounder of Resonance Festival

SXSW

Advisory Board Member

Twitter

Harnessing Twitter's API to deliver ground-breaking work for the world's best brands and agencies. Supporting a team of remarkable strategists and technologists across Europe, Middle East and Africa to create ideas worth talking about.

Director of Twitter Next - Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA)

Inkvine Communications

Inkvine provides retained marketing consultancy for a select number of preferred clients in the technology sector. It specialises in market research, online PR and inbound marketing and relies heavily on analytics and measurement for quantifiable ROI.

Chief Executive Officer

Sportstech Ireland

SportsTech Ireland is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to position Ireland as a hub for sports technology and innovation. It was created by three tech entrepreneurs, Gráinne Barry, Martina Skelly and Emily Ross. It delivers a series of programs and events, drives entrepreneurship and connects mentors and startups.

Co-Founder

WhatClinic.com

WhatClinic.com is a healthcare search engine supporting consumers in over 135 countries.

Director of Marketing and Communications

Maverick International - (Formerly Digino Marketing)

Digino is Ireland’s leading full service digital marketing agency. 

Since 2001, Digino has delivered quantifiable growth for its clients through creative, highly targeted, online marketing campaigns and award winning website design. Digino's work creates awareness, consolidates brands, drives web traffic and increases sales.

Director of Client Services

UNICEF Ireland

UNICEF Ireland provides funding for UNICEF’s work worldwide as well as directly funding a growing number of country specific programmes in the areas of health, water and sanitation, education, child protection and emergency relief.  During my time at UNICEF, I managed a suite of high-revenue CRM partnerships with global brands like IKEA and AerLingus. I took on the role of Director of Public Fundraising for an interim period, while also directing the corporate strategy. I returned fully to corporate partnerships in August 2009.

Corporate Sponsorship Manager

Was asked to take on the role of Director of Public Fundraising for a six month period, to facilitate the search for a permanent placement. Was delighted to welcome the extremely talented and lovely Lisa-Nicole Dunne to UNICEF and then to return to my role in Corporate Fundraising, where I was responsible for a portfolio of high-revenue CRM partnerships with IKEA, Fyffes, AerLingus, P&G and others.

Director of Public Fundraising

Brightspark PR

Brightspark was an experiential marketing company providing  bespoke services to clients within the technology and finance sectors in Ireland. Specialising in high-risk event performance additionals such as pyrotechnics, trapeze, stilts, fire, art, interiors and lighting.

Managing Director

(Still) Director of Brand Strategy at Twitter for EMEA

Loves words, hates jargon. 

I have spent twenty years helping organisations to grow their business. I hold multiple qualifications in marketing, PR and analytics. I have held leadership roles both agency side and in-house. Most of the last decade was spent accelerating technology startups and scaleups. 

I joined Twitter in 2021 to lead the Brand Strategy Division for EMEA. Twitter was acquired in 2022, and rebranded to X Corp in July 2023. 
 
I previously founded strategic consultancy firm Inkvine which helped award-winning deep tech firms to communicate for growth. I mentor and advise organisations across the globe, including accelerators and VC funds in Berlin, London and Dublin. I co-founded the not-for-profit SportsTech Ireland to drive Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland, and sit on a number of advisory boards including SXSW Pitch in Austin, and GoGreen Routes - a pan-European 10.4M EU funded research project related to green and blue exercise. I speak regularly on branding, entrepreneurship, ecommerce, startups and communications. I have written for national publications and guest-lectured for leading universities. 

'Just Evil Enough' a playbook for subversive marketing (by Alistair Croll and yours truly) will be out early next year. 

Mentor - AwakenHub for Women Founders
Mentor - Mentoring for Scale
Mentor at LeAD Berlin - Sportstech Accelerator
Mentor at WoW - Launchbox

Advisory Board SXSW Pitch
Advisory Board Sure Valley Ventures
Advisory Board GoGreen Routes

I don't connect on LinkedIn with people I have not yet met, or have not yet been introduced to. Sorry about that:) But you can follow me, here or over on X (formerly) twitter @emilyjaneross.

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