The Spark of Genius Series is made possible by MicrosoftBizSpark. Each post highlights a unique feature of a startup. If you'd like your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details ?here.
Name: Mozio
Quick Pitch: Mozio is a budding travel site that handles all your ground transportation needs.
Genius Idea: Find all modes of ground transportation from your airport to your end destination on one site.
World traveler David Litwak has been to 65 countries, and has lived in Paris and Estonia. And while there are plenty of travel sites on the web, ?there?s really no true travel search engines out there, only flight search engines,? he says.
From that realization, travel site Mozio was born.
Litwak and his UC Berkeley fraternity brother Joseph Metzinger began creating Mozio in July 2011. In the long run, their ?grand vision? for Mozio is to build a comprehensive travel search engine. But for now they?re focusing on what is commonly referred to as the ?final mile problem.? How does one book transportation from the airport to their hotel or lodgings?
?It?s hard to compete with Expedia or Kayak,? he said. So Litwak and his team developed a smart plan: to build-up their user base in a segment of travel booking with less competition ? ground transportation, whether bus, shuttle or limo.
Litwak tells Mashable that, during his travels, he?d have 20 tabs open to find out how to get from one place to another via train, cab and bus. So, Mozio is tackling this problem first by creating a comprehensive search engine for ground transportation.
?We?re not interested in re-inventing the wheel, what we?re interested in is not having people have to check six or seven sites,? he said.
They?re working on forging partnerships with big OTAs (online travel agencies) to plug those sites? ground transportation data into their system. But they also want to include the smaller ground transportation companies that sometimes get overlooked on other sites. From small mom-and-pop shuttle services near city airports to Uber and Limos.com, Litwak said they want customers to be able to find the best price.
The team behind Mozio has been doing a lot of testing to ensure a smooth user experience.
?We?re trying to simulate the kind of scatterbrain-ness people experience when they?re searching for travel deals,? he said.
By the end of the year, Litwak said they want to have the top 40 airports in the country in the Mozio system of ground transportation. Mozio will be released in private beta on Aug. 14. You can visit the site to sign up. The Mozio team is also working on a mobile app. They gave this screenshot to Mashable:
Currently, Mozio is in the midst of raising its seed round of funding. So far, the chairman of Orbitz has invested.
Eventually, they?ll develop the ability to book ground transportation from Mozio, but currently Litwak says that?s not their first priority.
The Mozio team is based in San Francisco and consists of cofounders Litwak and Metzinizer, plus two fulltime employees and one parttimer. Right now, they?re looking to hire a front-end coder and designer.
What do you think of Mozio? Would you use it to book your ground transportation? Tell us in the comments.
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, nazdravie
Series presented by Microsoft?BizSpark
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/08/08/mozio/
marinol flight attendant pau gasol trade michael madsen spring forward day light savings day light savings
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.