AI may provide new tools to help solve problems, but that doesn’t change what travel tech investors are looking for in startup founders.

What do travel investors really think about AI, startups, and the future of travel? In this unscripted Ask Me Anything session, three venture experts answer audience questions – no slides, no pitches, just sharp takes and presumably honest insights.

Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit moderated the conversation with Cara Whitehill (vice president, Thayer Investment Partners), Gilad Berenstein (founder, Brook Bay Capital), and Max Niederhofer (partner, Heartcore Capital) at the Skift Data+AI Summit earlier this month. Below are four takeaways from the conversation.

Listen to This Podcast

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS

1. Avoid AI Hype. Focus on Solving Real Problems

Investors are turned off by pitches that focus too much on AI but lack technical depth or market understanding. Founders need to demonstrate clear insight about the problem, and AI alone is rarely going to solve it.

“It’s a tool; it’s not a solution,” Whitehill said.

“The things that I look for are founder-market fit,” Whitehill said. “I want to know that this person is obsessed with the problem — but not necessarily the solution. Because you might have an idea of a particular way to approach this market problem, but once you get into it, you find it’s not quite right. They need to be willing to shift gears a little bit to find the right solution.”

2. There Is No ‘AI War’

Rather than a “winner-takes-all” AI war, the panel expects multiple players to emerge across niches in travel. Besides large travel players, Berenstein thinks AI creates an opportunity for specialized travel sellers to establish “clubs” with loyal members.

Berenstein: “I’m really bullish on travel clubs that really understand a specific audience and can put together complete experiences that are passion-based. Maybe the first discovery will go through Google or whatever. But people will become members of these clubs. And then you will have a direct relationship with them.”

3. Potential for Fundamental Change

AI has the potential to monumentally change the way the travel industry operates. In the meantime, companies should focus on collecting thorough, clean data.

Niederhofer: “I think there’s a chance to change the way this industry works at the infrastructure level. I really would love to see a way where we make the whole industry better, and its underpinnings. There might be a moment where in 10 years we might look back on right now and there’s a startup in this room … that actually is rethinking some of the assumptions that we’re making about the incumbents, and I include Google in that.”

4. Today’s Household Names May Become Obsolete

The biggest winners in prior industry-transforming tech revolutions often came onto the scene later in the process, building upon knowledge from the first waves of new companies.

Startups based on the future of agentic AI could disintermediate search engines like Google or online travel agencies — if they offer real value to travelers and suppliers. That’s assuming that online travel agencies don’t reimagine themselves with the times, which they aim to do.

Berenstein: “The key value of the OTA is that you don’t have to go to 37 websites to look at all the hotel websites. But if your AI assistant is willing to go to 37 websites for you, then all of a sudden the value of the OTA goes away. The commission can be used to reduce my price, to give me a benefit, to increase the margin for the hotel.”