Exclusive: Kayak Co-Founder’s New Startup to Target Consumer Concierge Services

Paul English, the co-founder of Kayak and its former chief technology officer, is at it again — and he’s thinking big.

English’s new travel startup, which has the working title of Blade Travel, will focus on concierge services, Skift has learned. The Boston-based company has 14 employees and 20 open positions, including vice president of marketing, VP of business development, and host of engineering positions. (It is offering $10,000 for successful referrals.)

English is co-founder and CEO of the company, which has offices in Boston and Westford, Massachusetts.

The startup will blend online and offline concierge services for the mass market, and it likely would have metasearch and business-to-business features, as well.

The idea is to build off lessons learned about some of the shortcomings in Kayak’s online services and to blend online with offline features that have never been tried.

English’s noncompete with Kayak ended July 1.

Blade Travel is just a working title for the business, and officials will research a new brand name for launch.

From the looks of the open jobs, the startup will undoubtedly go heavy into mobile.

English Kayak left Kayak in 2013 after a decade and following the sale of the then-public company to the Priceline Group. He went on to become CEO and co-founder of the startup incubator Blade, which secured some $20 million in venture funding from Accel Partners and General Catalyst Partners. These two firms also backed Kayak.

While Blade mentored consumer-tech startups, the company is now single-mindedly focusing on Blade Travel.

The startup could conceivably offer the gamut of concierge services to travelers at hotels and in-destination, ranging from tours and tickets to transportation.

The American Express Centurion card, commonly called the Black Card, which comes with a $7,500 initial fee as well as $2,500 annual fees, offers an array of concierge services from personal shopping to airport lounge access to its affluent clientele.

The vision for Blade Travel goes way beyond offering elite services and will trying to earn the loyalties of hundreds of millions of consumers.