Technology is fundamentally changing the concepts of work, play, and live. When it comes to living, as work becomes more connected, more and more people find themselves traveling for extended periods of time and do not want to deal with an impersonal hotel or traditional corporate housing situation. Enter Blueground – the startup founded in […]
Hospitality
Good Uncle Gobbled Up by Aramark
Good Uncle, the on-demand food delivery service serving college campuses, has been acquired by food service titan Aramark. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “Good Uncle strengthens our ability to offer quality and convenience through services that allow our college consumers to order restaurant-quality food and have it delivered when and where they […]
Mercato Raises Another $4M to Level the Playing Field for Independent Grocers
Independent grocery stores are facing challenges due to the rise of online grocery platforms, national grocery chains, and apps like Instacart. Mercato empowers independent grocery stores by leveraging technology into their operations to provide capabilities similar to the chains. Specifically designed to meet the needs of independent grocery stores and specialty food retailers, the platform serves […]
American Express is Acquiring Restaurant Reservation Platform Resy
Restaurant reservation and management platform Resy, which calls itself the largest private reservation service in the US, is being acquired by American Express. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “American Express is a brand that we have admired and sought to partner with from our inception. There are myriad points of synergy between Resy […]
Satisfi Labs Raises an Additional $4.6M to Bring Conversational Chatbots into a New Age
Whenever you walk through the doors at the Barclays Center or Citi Field, there is a knowledge management platform hard at work behind the scenes. Satisfi Labs is the AI-powered knowledge management platform that ensures that visitors have the best experience, managing everything from concession and lounge traffic to the VIP season ticket holder experience. […]
Thirstie Raises Another $7M to Bring Alcohol Online
While 50% of alcohol consumption is done at home in the US, less than one percent of alcohol purchases happen online for home delivery. Recognizing this significant gap in the market (a $100B+ industry in the US alone annually) is NYC startup Thirstie. Thirstie has built the industry’s most sophisticated all-in-one turnkey white-label e-commerce platform […]
This NYC Startup Ensures That Women Never Have to Waste Time Thinking About Their Next Blowout
Every woman has experienced the dread of wasted hours from wanting to look nice after a workout. That’s why Glam+Go is offering efficient, high-quality hair services that are co-located within hospitality properties and fitness centers. This revolutionary service is helping women save tons of time by letting them get their hair blown out wherever they […]
Apply Hospitality-Driven Thinking to Your New Venture
I just finished a new book by Stephen J. Cloobeck, “Checking In: Hospitality-Driven Thinking, Business, and You”. As a self-made entrepreneur and former chairman of Diamond Resorts International, he asserts that the five biggest companies by market value today, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, aren’t really tech, but hospitality companies. Tech may be the […]
Reservation Tech Platform Reserve Acquired by Competitor Resy
Hospitality technology platform Reserve has been acquired by Resy to become the largest private reservation service in the US. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “Since we started selling Reserve table management in 2015, we’ve demonstrated strong growth by expanding our product offering and geographic footprint to provide an alternative system that’s actually aligned with […]
This NYC Startup Just Raised $1.85M to Solve This Nightmare for Travelers
It’s vacation protocol: you finally get to your destination after a long journey but you can’t check into your hotel until later in the day, so you’re stuck killing time with your luggage in tow. Or you have a long layover but you don’t get to leave the airport and explore because you don’t want to […]
The New Restaurant Experience: Robot Servers, Cooks And Hostesses
Rising labor costs and rents worldwide are driving retail establishments toward a mechanical future, potentially leaving 66 million human workers in jeopardy.