Meet Vamos: a group travel platform leveraging data to make recommendations on the best time and place for teams to meet based on preferences such as: total cost (flight/hotel/transportation/etc.), travel time, airlines, and experience.
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Niko Zurita, a co-founder of Vamos, is on a mission to revolutionize corporate travel planning for remote-first companies. With a decade of experience as a head of people – and with two other fully distributed companies – Zurita intimately understands the challenges of organizing both cost-effective and enjoyable company retreats.
Vamos was born out of this necessity, aiming to simplify the complex process of planning travel for dispersed teams. Zurita’s inspiration for Vamos came from his experience at his previous company, where the leadership team frequently traveled to New York City for meetings.
“We were paying $300 every night for a hotel room, and the bill just got massive,” Zurita recalls.
As the market shifted and the company became more cost-conscious, Zurita was tasked with finding affordable yet enjoyable retreat locations. The process was cumbersome, and involved manually comparing flight costs, hotel prices, and other logistical details for various cities.
“I had to honestly get a bunch of Excel documents open and go from every origin city to every possible destination,” he explains. This labor-intensive task highlighted a significant gap in the market, especially as he spoke to other HR leaders for primarily remote companies. This led Zurita to create Vamos.
Vamos is more than just a tool for finding flights and hotels, though.
“The original hypothesis was that people care most about cost,” says Zurita. However, feedback from beta testers revealed that cost wasn’t the only consideration. Teams wanted recommendations based on convenience, comfort, and activities available at the destination.
“We started factoring in the most convenient spot, versus the most affordable spot, versus the most comfortable combinations,” he explains. Vamos now aims to provide tailored recommendations that consider city profiles and user preferences, ensuring that teams have enjoyable and cost-effective retreats.
Vamos is supported by a talented team of five co-founders, each bringing unique skills to the table. Luciano Diaz, CPO, provides valuable insights into data management – and roomed with Zurita during their UConn days. Matt Larson, CTO, and Jim Kerak, a principal engineer, focus on the technical backbone of Vamos. Austin Billings, formerly Zurita’s head of front-end engineering, contributes his expertise in design and user experience.
“Most of the team is fairly technical in nature,” Zurita notes.
Participating in CCEI’s Summer Fellowship Accelerator was ultimately a decision Zurita credits to a conversation with CCEI’s Jennifer Mathieu.
“Unlike a lot of other startups, we’re very fortunate in the fact that everyone [on the team] is pretty well established,” Zurita says. He explains that this summer’s programming has already provided Vamos with valuable resources and the opportunity to refine their product. “We were very fortunate that we were selected to move forward [this summer].”
With $15,000 in non-dilutive funding from CCEI’s Summer Fellowship Accelerator, Vamos plans to enhance its data capabilities.
“We fancy ourselves as a data company that happens to do travel,” Zurita says. He explains that about 50% of the funding received will be used to access data from Sabre – a global distribution system for booking flights – and to gather manual data on city profiles.
“We’re also very fortunate to have an intern this summer helping us understand each and every city profile,” he adds.
One of the biggest challenges Vamos faces is understanding the complexities of individual travel preferences.
“Everyone has their own unique preferences, and we need to get good about learning companies and knowing their preferences,” Zurita explains. Despite these challenges, Vamos has made significant progress.
“We’ve gone from an idea to a fully functioning recommendations platform in just about a year,” he states. The team celebrates milestones like launching the first version of their site, which allows companies to get travel recommendations and explore options. The second iteration will be launched in “the next few weeks, which is a bit more intuitive.”
As Vamos continues to develop, the team aims to fully automate the booking process and expand their marketing efforts. “Our goal is to have a fully functioning product where teams can book everything independently,” Zurita says. The team is excited about the future and remains committed to solving problems and improving the travel planning experience for remote-first companies.
For more information about Vamos or to plan your next corporate retreat, visit govamos.io or contact info@govamos.io.