Porte — a startup that is building a technological ecosystem for hotels.

We met with Aidana Aytuarova, CEO of the startup Porte. She shared how their system helps hotels and discussed plans for scaling the company.

About the startup launch

I worked at Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers for five years. I also served as the Chief Operating Officer at Smart Point and as CEO of the startup Parqour. When I left my last position, I received various offers—from companies and for creating startups. One of them came from my previous team. I enjoyed working with them, so I agreed.

Porte is a digital concierge for hotels. The program includes a digital key that can be used instead of a physical card. The service also allows guests to order food and necessary amenities in the hotel online.

In the initial stage, we wanted to create door controllers, but our Tech Advisor, Kairat Akhmetov, proposed integrating the service with existing solutions.

Usually, companies do not create integrations with locks. However, we established partnerships with some organizations where I had previously worked. Thanks to their familiarity with me, we were able to implement this product.

It was easy to assemble the development team. We looked for specialists willing to accept post-payment terms, where employees received payment after the product started generating revenue. From them, we selected the strongest candidates who create world-class applications.

After creating the product, we wanted to work with residential complexes and held negotiations. Real estate developers were interested, but we realized that bureaucracy would hinder our scaling efforts.

We then explored shopping malls, but the profits would not have been as significant. Therefore, we focused on hotels. Hotel guests are demanding and expect their requests to be fulfilled technically. Additionally, hotels have many doors, allowing us to increase overall revenue through commissions on orders.

Target audience

Currently, we have launched in the Kazakhstan Hotel. Simultaneously, we are negotiating with other organizations for future launches.

A similar solution was already created by Hilton and Marriott. These companies understood that there was customer demand for such services and the budget to develop them. Hilton spent $100,000,000 in the first year of development.

After analysis, I realized that thanks to the ability to place online orders via the app, the Marriott hotel chain increased its order volume by 15%.

Oracle conducted a study last year showing that 73% of people expect hotels to provide them with technical solutions. Guests do not want to communicate with other people, including staff. Therefore, we understood that this project is relevant and has market demand.

We are a B2B2C product designed for mid-tier companies. Our clients are large hotel chains that want to implement such systems into their operations but lack the budget to create their own IT teams. This is where we come in, offering a ready-to-use solution.

Beyond business, we help clients improve their stay at the hotel by moving many processes to an online format.

Accelerators

We have participated in several accelerators:

1. IRA from MOST hub

2. 500 Startups from 500 Global.

Among upcoming competitions, we plan to participate in the Astana Hub Battle, which will take place at Digital Bridge 2023. Here, we aim to increase brand awareness.

We received funding from 500 Global and angel investors. Investors focused more on the team than the product, as everyone understood that we already had experience in creating successful projects.

Challenges

Funds from investors could take a long time to arrive, which sometimes required us to reallocate the budget.

We work in a remote format. This is a challenge, but it sometimes brings benefits. For example, when I was in Georgia, work proceeded smoothly. However, offline interaction is sometimes more convenient. In such cases, tasks can be transferred quickly, and results can be tracked efficiently.

Achievements

One of the key achievements is becoming part of the global accelerator 500 Startups.

We also made sales in the hotel industry. I know few companies that work with hotels, as the real estate sector is a traditional and conservative business where signing contracts is difficult. Nevertheless, we signed our first two contracts within a week and a half, even with an unfinished product.

Future plans

Soon, we will enter the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) market; we already have soft commitments from clients. We are scaling into Riyadh and Dubai.

There are proposals for launching in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. As a fully SaaS product, we can do this remotely. Therefore, we will launch with clients who reach out to us directly.

We want to enter the US market, but we are not yet sure how to do it. We were accepted into the Draper University accelerator. Starting October 21, we will be there and will be able to analyze the market and develop scaling plans.