What Utrip’s Tragic Final Year Can Teach Other Travel Startups

Trip-planning startup Utrip, which raised $4 million from investors in 2017, shut down this May. Several employees and investors are still puzzling out what went wrong, including the mystery of why its acquisition by a larger company fell through at the 11th hour. Utrip's failure offers some important lessons for other startups in travel. These include a need to prioritize the drivers of fast revenue growth and a need to bring street smarts when seeking an acquisition by large suppliers or tech companies. Back in February 2017, Utrip's Series A round underscored investor faith that the Seattle startup had found a business model that worked. The company provided recommendations on things to see and do after collecting a few basic facts about a traveler. The more information consumers volunteered — by using its consumer and third-party tools — the more accurate its predictions became. Utrip signed up partners to use its tools, including Starwood, JetBlue, and Holland Ame