After Sonder’s Collapse, Francis Davidson Returns With an AI Travel Agent
Photo Credit: Francis Davidson on stage with Skift Director of Research Seth Borko at the Skift Short-Term Rental Summit on June 7, 2023. Skift / Ryan Bourque
Skift Take
Another AI travel agent might not be news. One built by the founder of Sonder, with something to prove, is.
Francis Davidson built Sonder into one of the most ambitious but ultimately cautionary tales about hospitality startups. Now he's back with another venture that couldn't be more different from Sonder: There are no long-term apartment leases and hardly any physical footprint.
The company is called Odessia — meant to conjure a "Greek goddess of travel" — and it offers an AI-powered travel planning tool and booking agent.
Davidson, who saw Sonder collapse just six months ago, spent the interim building the product with a team of eight in San Francisco.
"I'm so happy to be moving on to something like just a blank new slate," Davidson said in a Skift interview Tuesday.
The idea for Odessia came partly out of conversations with Sequoia Capital, where a close friend is a partner. Davidson had gone to them to think through what his next move should be.
"They mentioned, you're an expert at travel, you built a consumer brand befor
