Stardrift

What do they actually do

Stardrift runs a chat-based travel assistant for frequent and complex-trip travelers. It pulls live prices and availability for flights, hotels, and U.S. rail (Amtrak), reads your calendar, and applies saved preferences (airlines to favor/avoid, seat and time preferences) to assemble complete itineraries you can compare in one place (stardrift.ai, Product Hunt).

You sign up, optionally connect your calendar, and ask for trips in plain language with constraints (arrive by a time, avoid an airport, stay under a budget). Stardrift returns several end-to-end options, including multimodal combinations. If you choose to book, the app currently links out to the airline/vendor page; the team has said in‑app booking is coming soon. The assistant remembers preferences and improves results over time. It’s early-stage, with core focus on flights/rail/hotels and occasional quirks like carrier links landing on general pages rather than a seat‑specific checkout (intro blog, Product Hunt Q&A).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Frequent business travelers (founders, execs): They need fast, reliable searches that respect their airline/seat/time preferences and calendar constraints, and they want to avoid last‑minute, expensive bookings and manual cross‑site comparisons.
• Executive assistants and travel arrangers: They coordinate complex, multi‑leg trips across multiple calendars and preferences; getting end‑to‑end itineraries in one place saves back‑and‑forth and reduces errors (Product Hunt).
• Road warriors using flights + trains + hotels (consultants, sales): They need stitched itineraries with reliable timing and live pricing; fragmented tools often miss convenient multimodal options (stardrift.ai).
• Small‑company travel managers / ops: They want predictable, policy‑compliant bookings and easier approvals in one system but often lack tools that both enforce preferences and complete bookings end‑to‑end.
• Travelers with strict personal constraints (airport avoidance, accessibility, seat/type): They need searches that remember and automatically apply rules; manual filtering is error‑prone and time‑consuming (stardrift.ai).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Founder-led outreach to YC networks and Product Hunt signups; run live 1:1 demos using a sample calendar and plan 2–3 real trips per tester, offering free concierge help for their next paid trip to reduce friction and collect feedback (Product Hunt, intro blog).
• First 50: Expand via targeted outreach to executive assistants, frequent travelers, and founders in niche communities; share short demo clips and case studies from early users and offer a limited team pilot with concierge setup (stardrift.ai, YC).
• First 100: Shift to paid pilots with small teams (2–10 heavy travelers) on simple terms tied to success metrics (time saved, % trips via Stardrift), with basic admin/policy features and an SLA; partner with VCs/accelerators for bundled trials and referrals, prioritizing in‑app booking and policy features (intro blog).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Global business travel spending is projected around $1.48T in 2024; this is the broad spend pool that better planning and booking tools can influence (GBTA).

Bottom-up calculation:

Stardrift’s current categories (flights + hotels) account for roughly $575–600B of business travel spend globally per GBTA category breakdowns, and a large share of these bookings happen online; using a ~50–75% online share implies a reachable online pool of roughly $300–450B annually (GBTA BTI, Navan online booking stats).

Assumptions:

• Focus on business travel (not leisure) and on flights/hotels where Stardrift operates today.
• Online booking share for flights/hotels is high (roughly half to three‑quarters), based on industry surveys.
• Initial geography is U.S.-heavy (given Amtrak support), expanding over time.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Google Flights: Consumer flight search and price tracking with fast comparisons and alerts; overlaps on flight discovery but lacks a chat‑first, calendar‑aware assistant and multimodal itinerary construction.
• KAYAK: Meta‑search across flights/hotels/cars with an itinerary manager; strong for quick comparisons but primarily links out and doesn’t learn preferences or use calendar context in a chat workflow.
• Hopper: Mobile‑first booking app known for price prediction and price‑freeze products; competes on deals and in‑app booking rather than calendar/context‑driven, multimodal trip building.
• Navan (TripActions): End‑to‑end corporate travel and expense platform with policy enforcement, approvals, payments, and support; overlaps for business travelers but is a full TMC suite rather than a personal, chat‑first assistant.
• TravelPerk: Business travel management platform for searching/booking flights, trains, cars, and hotels with policy and reporting; positioned as a TMC for teams vs. Stardrift’s personalized, calendar‑integrated assistant focus.