Lessons From the Demise of Another Failed Travel Startup
Skift Take
Desti's demise was a no-brainer to predict. It is no accident that Uber and Airbnb are grabbing headlines while me-too trip-planning startups are finding it impossible to compete against TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet and Kayak.
Another trip-planning startup, Desti, impacted by the harsh, cruel realities of trying to compete against much-bigger brands in the travel-consumer marketplace, has flamed out.
In late May, seven of Desti's nine employees joined Nokia, and its Here maps and location-based services brand plans to use the startup's semantic search technology to make Nokia maps more responsive and personal. Terms of the acquihire and technology grab were not disclosed. But they're likely not what the founders were looking for.
The odds were heavily stacked against Desti from its beginnings in late 2011. A spinoff from SRI International, and with total funding of "more than $2 million," according to Desti co-founder and CEO Nadav Gur, investors included C
