Startup Stage: ReserveX wants to help travel providers integrate tours and experiences

What is your 30-second pitch to investors?

ReserveX has built the B2B engine for the tours and travel experiences economy—making the booking of multi-day tours and curated experiences as seamless and scalable as airline or hotel reservations. Multi-day tours represent the highest-margin product in travel, driven by millennials, Gen Z and baby boomers seeking authentic, shared adventures.

We offer a platform that includes both a white-label consumer solution and a modern agent interface, enabling OTAs, travel agencies, airlines, retailers and tour operators to unlock this under-digitized segment with less friction, higher commissions and global reach.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

Business: ReserveX operates a B2B2C model, partnering with leading travel brands, OTAs, airlines and travel agencies to power their tours and experiences verticals. Our platform helps them add high-value experiential content to their existing booking flows, generating incremental revenue and deeper customer engagement.

Technology: Our platform is built on a microservices architecture deployed on AWS using EC2, containers and managed databases. It features modular APIs that deliver real-time availability, dynamic pricing, content syndication and two-way booking flows. Our white-label solution supports rapid deployment with customization across languages, currencies, payment gateways and CRM systems, ensuring scalability across diverse markets and partners. We are also focused on AI, including a very exciting project with Google Cloud which will help innovate in this space in 2026.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.

Strengths

• Founders with deep domain expertise and proven track records building and scaling travel tech platform
• API-first architecture purpose-built for multi-day and curated experiences
• Early validation and traction through live partner integrations in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific—including our launch with Webjet Australia

Weaknesses

• Limited consumer brand awareness in early stages
• Dependence on B2B distribution partners to scale
• Only a subset of multi-day operators currently supports real-time booking APIs

Opportunities

• A global experience economy at a digital inflection point
• Airlines, hotels and OTAs seeking differentiated ancillary products
• Application of AI and personalization to better match travelers with curated experiences

Threats

• Expansion by incumbent OTAs or aggregators into the multi-day segment
• Rising CAC and potential margin compression in digital distribution
• Operational risk tied to supplier readiness and reliability

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspectives?

For consumers:

• Difficulty discovering high-quality, verified experiences through trusted travel brands
• Lack of real-time availability and instant confirmation for multi-day itineraries
• Fragmented booking experiences and inconsistent pricing

For travel agents:

• Manual, time-consuming booking processes using printed brochures or call centers
• Lack of automation and visibility into real-time availability
• Our ReserveXpert interface enables faster digital bookings, better conversions and higher commissions

For tour operators:

• Limited access to global distribution channels and modern booking tools
• High operational costs due to manual processes and fragmented systems
• Commission leakage and limited exposure to new audiences

Now that the product is built, what’s your strategy for customer acquisition?

• Strategic distribution partnerships with OTAs, airlines and travel agency networks
• White-label and API integrations enabling partners to embed tours directly into their platforms
• Membership programs offering exclusive member pricing and exclusive experiences
• Corporate incentive travel programs leveraging curated experiences for team engagement
• Consumer awareness through our partnership with Google Things to Do and our consumer brand, MyTours

Tell us what process you’ve gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

According to McKinsey & Company, the global “experiences” market exceeds $1 trillion, with structured, paid activities representing $250-$310 billion annually—nearly half of which is still booked offline.

ReserveX targets the digitally bookable subset of this market: multi-day and curated tours. Through over 100+ operator and partner interviews, we’ve validated the unmet need for a unified, turnkey distribution solution—positioning ReserveX to capture significant share across North America, Europe and Asia.

How and when will you make money?

• Commission/transaction fees on bookings
• SaaS/subscription fees for operators, agents and travel brands using our tools
• White-label licensing for enterprise partners

Early revenue is already being generated through live integrations, with a path to break-even in 18-24 months as partner volumes scale.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team?

• Dan Godsell, CEO: Veteran travel tech executive with leadership roles at Travelport, Flight Centre and Expedia
• Kelly Tompkins, chief product officer: Founder of AdventureLink (SaaS for multi-day tours) and LeisureLink (first GDS-linked vacation rental distribution platform) and early employee at GetThere (acquired by Sabre for $757 million)

Together, the team brings proven experience in scaling travel platforms from inception to exit.

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?

Diversity is embedded in our DNA. ReserveX hires globally, with balanced representation across gender, geography and culture. Our team spans North America, Europe and Asia—reflecting the global traveler base we serve. We design for inclusivity, offering multi-lingual, locally adaptable interfaces and supporting small, regional operators worldwide.

What’s been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

Scaling supplier integrations across hundreds of small and midsize tour operators—each with varying systems and readiness. Onboarding and building trust require education, integration support and consistent quality assurance, balanced with maintaining launch velocity and capital efficiency.

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact—why are you going to be one of lucky ones?

Experience distribution has long been fragmented, but digital readiness is accelerating. With the majority of bookings offline, ReserveX is building the infrastructure backbone that consolidates access to experiences (multi-day tours, day activities and cruises) and drives the booking online at lower cost through trusted retail branded websites.

Our retail partners and their belief in our team and platform are the main reason why ReserveX will succeed. Our domain experience, partner-first approach and modern platform make us indispensable to how retail partners tap into the rapidly growing market for unique experiences.

A year from now, what state do you think your startup will be in?

• Multiple live partner integrations across three continents
• Recurring SaaS and licensing revenue from operators and travel brands
• ReserveXpert fully rolled out to travel agents worldwide
• Tens of thousands of monthly bookings through the platform
• Industry recognition as the leading platform for booking experiences online

What is your endgame? (Going public, acquisition, growing and staying private, etc.)

ReserveX aims to become the global infrastructure for booking meaningful travel experiences. While open to future strategic partnerships or acquisitions, our immediate focus is sustainable, profitable growth—building a platform that connects the world through shared adventures.