🚫 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

Revela Systems

Co-Founder, Business Development Lead

Next AI

Participant - 2023 Cohort

Allsalt Maritime

Connected Systems Manager

EyeSpy Innovations

Responsibilities
•	Oversee the technical team, consisting of hardware engineers, UX designers, web developers, and firmware programmers
•	Assist in developing annual operating budgets that promote long-term stability
•	Protect intellectual property through rigorous security protocols and employee screening procedures
•	Monitor the industry for disruptive technologies, and evaluate levels of risk
•	Maintain strong relationships with key anchor customers
•	Qualify technology vendors, resellers, and strategic partners
•	Manage all expenditures relating to product development, engineering, and system maintenance
•	Ensure product designs are scalable and economical
•	Help define financial projections, business valuation, and revenue targets
•	Promote a productive atmosphere which encourages creativity, inspiration, and innovation

Major Accomplishments
•	Designed a full solution from the ground-up consisting of covert GPS trackers, cloud-based mapping software, and encrypted data connectivity
•	Gained the trust of high level RCMP investigative divisions
•	Led the negotiations and closing of a $100k recurring revenue Enterprise license deal with the Government of Canada

Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer

Viking Air Limited

Responsibilities
•	Aid in the structural improvements required for certification of the Twin Otter 
•	Oversee material specifications, drawing revisions, and substantiation reports
•	Work with production department to determine the best way to reference the drawing database for aircraft assembly

Major Accomplishments
•	Specified a new aircraft flooring material, including the ordering of materials, continuous inspection of the manufacturing progress, and completion of drawing revisions
•	Designed new avionics shelving and revised existing drawings for Twin Otter production
•	Played crucial role in a major emergency redesign of the Turbo Otter engine to plenum (air intake) connection after the realisation of limited vibration isolation

Assistant Aircraft Design Engineer

Mike has over a decade of executive and senior management experience in the technology sector. As co-founder and CTO of EyeSpy Innovations, he successfully led the design and commercialization of a highly secured asset tracking system. This is used by law enforcement to do everything from bringing down international fentanyl rings to curbing local bike theft. 

Then with Allsalt Maritime he led a team of scientists and engineers to launch AI-powered products for the marine sector. These products are used by government, military and commercial organizations around world to monitor the health of boat crews. 

Now with Revela, Mike is applying his expertise to bring a variety of AI solutions to the defence industry with the goal of improving operational efficiency and reducing costs. His empathic approach, passion for elegant solutions, and natural business acuity make him a valuable addition to any technology company.

taplio

The Battle

Arlen Ritchie

Mike Leslie

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