Startup of the Day - Raveable

The company of the day is Raveable, based in the US. Their mission is to help travelers find the perfect hotel quickly. You will find below an interview with Philip Vaughn, Co-Founder and CEO of Raveable. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.raveable.com.

Interview with Philip Vaughn, Co-Founder and CEO of Raveable

Who are you?

Philip Vaughn Co-Founder and CEO of Raveable.

How do you feel being the most promising ‘company of the day’ per Microsoft?

It is great. I like that Microsoft is providing recognition and promotion for startups.

What did you do before creating your company?

I worked inside of Microsoft as a Group Manager in SQL Server.

How did you get the idea? What s the genesis?

Raveable was started because I found that I could research a car or consumer electronics device in much less time than I could find a hotel for my next vacation.

What do you sell? What is your company’s mission?

We make money when someone books a hotel room at one of our travel partners. Our mission is to help travelers find the perfect hotel quickly.

What is your market?

Leisure travelers.

Funding history? VCs? BA?

Raveable is currently self-funded.

Growth? Internationalization?

Currently we have over 30 million opinions on 55k US hotels and resorts. We plan to add international destinations later this year.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

The two founders are the only full-time employees. We have 5 developers working on Raveable.com.

Are you hiring? If yes, what? Where?

Not yet.

Which platform are you building on? Why?

We perform all of our backend analysis using SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio. After working on the products we knew SQL Server and Visual Studio would give us the features and development speed we needed as a startup.

Do you have any Software IP? Is there something that you’re the only one to do on the market?

We developed patent-pending software that semantically analyzes hotel reviews for positive and negative opinions about individual hotel features.

Who’s your role model?

Jeff Bezos.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/internet areas?

Mobile applications look very promising right now.

Looking for funding? If yes, how much?

Not yet, we will start the fundraising process in a few months.

What about the BizSpark Program? What do you think? Are you going to join? Why?

We like BizSpark because it provides Raveable access to Microsoft products without the friction typically associated with a big company. Equally beneficial are the marketing opportunities that Biz Spark provides.

Any advice to young Software entrepreneurs?

Before you write the first line of code develop critical success/failure points for the business. They will create small momentum building victories or the ability to course correct at a lower resource and morale cost.

Anything else you’d like to say?

We would love your feedback. Follow @raveable on twitter and tell us what you think of our analysis of the Top 10 hotels in Seattle or Romantic Hotels in Seattle.