HotelTonight is the world’s first made-for-mobile hotel booking app and Jared Simon, their COO and Cofounder, is coming from San Francisco to tell us how they managed to both grow and become profitable over the last few months. One year ago, HotelTonight decided to focus on profitability. They reassessed all their expenses and made a lot of hard choices. Nine months later, HotelTonight became profitable, and has been listed by Forbes as one of the 25 startups soon to be valued at $1 Bn or more. 

1. Journey To Profitability
@jaredsimon  The Family  January 2017

2. A Little Background

3. In the beginning, all that matters is growth.

4. Growth fuels fundraising.

5. ‘Endless’ resources can obscure
unsustainable decisions.

6. We had expanded our vision.
And now we had a decision to make.
OFFLINE ONLINE MOBILE

7. The Profitability Journey

8. Journey began with layoffs

9. Focused team on only the essential metrics.

10. We never stopped investing.

11. But we strictly based all decisions on ROI.

12. Included only knowns in all forecasts.

13. Ramped up transparency.

14. Some Lessons

15. Once the problem is identified,
move quickly.

16. Be honest and objective about
what is necessary.

17. Acknowledge that the
environment is different.

18. VCs aren’t perfect. Only you are
responsible for your decisions.

19. Make sure everyone is clear on the
goal and the timing.

20. Set conservative expectations.
Winning is contagious.

21. Don’t lose your soul.

22. Use promo code “THEFAMILY” for 20€ off
your first booking
@jaredsimon  The Family  January 2017