Stay22 co-founder and CEO Andrew Lockhead discusses the company's early go-to-market pivot from individual event organizers to major ticketing platforms.
“We started with an event at first because we needed to get a go to market and like, see if it works for them. And as soon as we saw it was working, we're like, cool, but one event a year, it's not going to work out. Like, cause you had to wait another 365 days before the next edition. So let's go for the bigger one. Ticketing platform.”
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More from Andrew Lockhead
Disclosure
Stay22 sued investors who refused to wire funds after signing investment agreements
“I actually had to start a legal system against them. So we had to openly sue them and say, you know what? You need to send their money and so on. They never send their cash. We just opened up the legal case and decided to move on after this.”
Andrew LockheadMay 13, 2024▶ 21:15COVID nearly bankrupted him. Then with AI he grew from $0 to $25M ARR in 4 years. | Andrew Lockhe... · PMF Show
Disclosure
Stay22 offered ticketing platforms $5,000 upfront to overcome API integration hesitation
“Some people, we had told them, you know what? We'll pay you 5000 dollars up front, and we're going to recoup that money as soon as you generate revenue.”
Andrew LockheadMay 13, 2024▶ 15:00COVID nearly bankrupted him. Then with AI he grew from $0 to $25M ARR in 4 years. | Andrew Lockhe... · PMF Show
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Airbnb's 2021 affiliate program shutdown wiped out 72% of Stay22's supply
“March 20, 21, we lost our biggest supplier, which was Airbnb. So Airbnb decided to drop complicated affiliation platform. They wanted to go public. So go with the S one show that 95% of people go direct to Airbnb. So they shut down everyone and Airbnb was repr…”
Andrew LockheadMay 13, 2024▶ 28:21COVID nearly bankrupted him. Then with AI he grew from $0 to $25M ARR in 4 years. | Andrew Lockhe... · PMF Show
Insight
API integrations elongate sales cycles because customers find them too complex
“No one want to integrate API. It's too complex, take too much time, and the sales cycle was really low because of that.”
Andrew LockheadMay 13, 2024▶ 2:27COVID nearly bankrupted him. Then with AI he grew from $0 to $25M ARR in 4 years. | Andrew Lockhe... · PMF Show
Insight
Building a direct B2C travel brand is nearly impossible against established incumbents
“And for us, we always came to the conclusion that they're always going to end on their direct brand. Booker.com, Airbnb, Expedia, wherever they have more loyalty points. So for us to create such a strong brand that we will be able to attract customers to us, w…”
Andrew LockheadMay 13, 2024▶ 12:20COVID nearly bankrupted him. Then with AI he grew from $0 to $25M ARR in 4 years. | Andrew Lockhe... · PMF Show
Insight
Modern travelers book event tickets first before arranging flights and hotels
“In our paycheck, one of the things that we said to investors was the way that travel changed over time. Back in the days, your parents probably just booked their flight for their bus, or they took the car, and after this, once they were at destination, they we…”
Andrew LockheadMay 13, 2024▶ 16:38COVID nearly bankrupted him. Then with AI he grew from $0 to $25M ARR in 4 years. | Andrew Lockhe... · PMF Show
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