Interview. Advising and Consulting in 2022: A RoadMap
Simone Puorto
25+ years in travel and tech. Founder @ Rebyū & Travel Singularity. Techno-philosopher. Tech Journalist. Published Author (5x). Keynote Speaker. MBA Lecturer. 2x Exits. Advisor @ BWG, RobosizeME, Sleap.io, GAIN, KIRE.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a start-up accelerator for an interview. For reasons out of my control, the interview was not published, but I think it can still be a valuable read for freelance advisors or small consulting firms trying to get into the market. Enjoy!
What made you decide to start your own business?
Topics such as metaverse/metaverses, NFT, Web3, crypto, blockchain, Land, DAO, VR, AR, MR, XR, Artificial Intelligence, and robotics are often casually thrown around by the media and during conferences. Yet, most entrepreneurs grasp to get a sense out of these notions. That was the main reason I started my own business: to fill this gap.
How did you come up with the idea for your company?
The term "Singularity" has been popularized in technology over the last decades, and it refers to a point in time when technological advancements will be so fast that they will change human civilization as we know it today. At first look, all the technological advancements we have witnessed over the last decade seem to have happened in silos, in random order, and utterly uncorrelated with each other. Yet, at closer observation, these were all converging into the foundation of a new, hybrid industry, where entrepreneurs, finally freed from hyper-complicated tasks, will be able to return to the essence of their profession: simply caring about their customers. Hence the choice of using Singularity's concept in the firm's name.?
Who is your company most useful for?
Founded in 2017 as a partnership of educational consultants, Travel Singularity's vision is to solve the growing need for connecting the dots between digital disruption and change with the existing technology and processes, mainly in the travel and hospitality industries.?
What problem does your company solve, and how would you say it relieves "pain" for your customers?
These are the primary services we offer:
The problem the company tries to solve is to bridge the current state of affairs with future technologies and manage and sustain change in digital disruption.?
Have you tried to raise funding? Why or why not?
Not at this stage. We're a small consulting firm by choice, and we have no immediate plan for expansion.
What are some marketing strategies that have worked for you?
Believe it or not, even though we manage big marketing budgets for our clients, We've never spent a single euro on marketing our own business. All our clients came organically through WoM or the articles and books I publish.
What are some marketing strategies that didn't work for you at all?
Again, we don't do much marketing, but I've almost stopped talking at events. Usually, it's just a waste of time. I prefer talking to students during my lectures than in front of bored entrepreneurs.
Whom do you believe to be your biggest competitors? How do you differ from them?
Hard to say. We work with markets worldwide, while hotel consulting firms focus only on local markets. We have 4-5 different competitors in each country we operate in.
How exactly does the company develop talent?
Everybody in the company is free to make decisions, run A/B tests, and change strategies for our clients. I only have one rule: no micromanagement is tolerated in Travel Singularity. If you really want to innovate, breaking it and fixing it later is easier than being trapped in paralysis by analysis and hierarchy. In his book "Outliers", journalist Malcolm Gladwell covers the story of the high rate of Korean Air plane crashes in the 90s. Perhaps not everyone knows that cockpits are designed so that, to work correctly, all operations should be performed by two people, dividing tasks and checking each other to avoid or correct any procedural errors. This means that cooperation, teamwork, and a flat communication system are essential for any flight's success. Listening to the black box recordings, you frequently encounter situations where the co-pilot notices the pilot's mistake but does not dare to contradict his superior. The Korean language has six different degrees of courtesy. Can you imagine a co-pilot pilot's difficulty in correcting his superiors without breaking the rigid Korean hierarchy etiquette? Well, that's what we avoid doing at Travel Singularity.
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What criteria do you consider when hiring employees?
I only hire people that I consider smarter than me. I like to be intellectually challenged. Ipse se nihil scire id unum sciat.
What was the toughest problem you didn't expect when you started? What did you learn from it?
At first, I tried replicating the same approach I used in my previous experiences in bigger web agencies. However, I soon realized that I had to charge more and get fewer clients if I wanted to offer a real high-level service. That was totally unexpected.
What's your biggest mistake in your business, and what did you learn from it?
As above: understanding how much I had to charge for my services. It's easy, when you start, to undercharge, but then you get stuck with high-demanding clients underpaying you. That's why I like being paid by the hour: you know my rate and how much of my time you will get in return.
What does the company's trajectory look like over the next five years?
?I'd like the firm to become more industry-agnostic. When we started, our clients were 100% hotels or travel companies. Now it's probably 70%-30%. I want to get to 50/50. After 25 years in the hospitality industry, I am not as intellectually excited as I was initially. Web3 is giving us a great opportunity. I've been a geek all my life, and this new mainstream interest in tech is working in our favor. In five years, I'd like Travel Singularity to be perceived as a consulting firm for innovative companies, not only travel/hospitality companies.
What are your industry's biggest challenges in the next five years?
In hospitality? Labor shortage. But, again, this is good for us. We've been evangelizing entrepreneurs about automation for years. They finally understood that we were right all along.
How do you define success for a startup?
I am not a very venal person. You're successful if you can make a living doing what you love. It's not necessarily a question of becoming filthy rich.
What metrics do you consider the most important when monitoring the health of your startup?
Customer satisfaction. And, of course, the satisfaction of my team. So far, we have client retention of 99% and staff retention of 100%. I'd say the company is pretty healthy.
What pieces of technology does your startup swear by?
First, get a good time-management tool. Really. I couldn't live without it.
What productivity tools do you use?
Several collaboration tools. We have a zero email policy. We're still not there yet, but we're pretty close.
What's the single best piece of business advice that has helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?
When I started my career, a superior told me something I live by even today: "talk to your team and customers as if they're five-year-old." At first, I thought it was very offensive, but later on, I understood what he meant: never overcomplicate. If you can't explain something to a kid in a way she/he will understand, it means you don't know enough about the subject.
What's ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their business to the next level?
Study philosophy. I always say that the Presocratics have already solved all the world's problems. So ignore all the motivational gurus' crap. Less Timothy Ferris and more Aristotle.
What's one thing all entrepreneurs should avoid?
Micromanagement and overcomplication. It's really that simple.