I first want to explain a little bit to those who might not be familiar about Pilota what
it is we do, and then you can understand sort of how we pivoted because of COVID.
And what we do is we use machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict flights
that are at risk of disruption and then we provide the necessary tools to allow users
to proactively re-accommodate their travelers onto new flights when they're facing a risk of
disruption. So this product is primarily used by travel management companies and travel agencies,
so as you can imagine when everything happened in March, we saw a huge drop in usage just like
everybody else who was very focused on corporate travel. Obviously this was very disappointing to
us as an early stage startup because so much work goes into doing the research behind the product,
testing the product, piloting the product, and once we have new customers and we are
starting to sign on bigger deals this is when all this happened. And so at that point in time
the team and I had to look at the situation and make a choice. We had to either continue trying
to adapt our flight disruption product or someone gave us a really great piece of advice, which was
maybe step back a few more steps. Don't just look at the flight disruption product but maybe step
back even further and see how the technology that you've created and the resources that you have
can be used to solve some of the other challenges that may have come up because of COVID and might
be here to stay. And so at that point in time we went into research mode and so we conducted lots
of user research. We put out surveys, we did user interviews, we reached out to people that
we know in the industry to really understand both perspectives, how people in the industry
and outside of the industry were thinking about travel and trying to understand what sorts of new
challenges had arisen. And so through this process we quickly realized one huge problem that exists
was the information gap that was happening between travelers and travel providers.
So one thing that we were seeing right off the bat was travel providers were taking so
many new measures and really they're still doing everything that they can to make sure that their
travelers are safe while on their journey. And so this is really, really amazing but because of all
the influx of information from all the different travel providers, and because these measures and
preventions are always changing, it's really, really difficult for travelers to understand
who's taking what measures and what is the best way for them to stay safe while on their journey.
And so when we saw this problem that existed, this information gap between the travel providers
and the travelers, we realized that this is a problem that we at Pilota could solve, and that's
why we decided to create our product FlySafe. And so FlySafe allows travelers to compare
flights and itineraries based on the health and safety factors that matter most to them.
And so through this whole process of making this adaptation what we realized is a few takeaways
when launching a new solution during a crisis. And the first thing is it's so important to understand
the players who are in the industry as well as the people who would be consuming
the products that you're creating. Number two, it's important to understand the new
challenges that have risen and whether these are going to be long-term or short-term solutions.
And then the third thing is if you are going to adapt, and it's obviously important to adapt,
you have to make sure that you're building solutions not just for short-term problems
that are going to go away soon, but you want to make sure that you're adapting your business in
a way that will be sustainable long-term. I'm taking a step back and looking at the industry
as a whole. I think a lot of people have said this prior to me but it's really, really great to see
the level of innovation that has happened during the pandemic. Obviously it's terrible, the impact
that it's had on the industry as a whole, but when we look at the positives I think it's really,
really wonderful to see a lot of these larger players, a lot of these larger companies actively
seeking out innovation. I think innovation is no longer a nice-to-have, it's a necessity.
And I think everybody is looking forward and wants to make sure that when things recover, not only
are they still standing but they're positioned well to do so, and the only way to do that is
through innovation and working with emerging startups. And so that's been really amazing to
see. And just as a final note for Pilota looking forward at this point, we really want to make sure
that the vision of our technology is seen through. I think that it's going to have hopefully a big
impact on the travel recovery process, and so if anybody is interested in the technology or sees relevant
use cases within your company, feel free to reach out to me if you want to chat further.