CEO of Flightfox here. We still absolutely use both technology and humans (that will always underpin our value prop), but we moved from the previous competitive crowdsourced model to a one-on-one model. The short story is that travel search benefits more from depth rather than breadth (at least at the expert level). With multiple travel hackers working at once, they can only invest $fee/n-hackers worth of time and there is a ton of overlap. With a single hacker, they receive all of the $fee and can dig deeper and deeper to uncover better results. The crowdsourced approach was definitely more interesting to consumers, but the results were inferior, especially on the customer service side. Now, we’re actually transitioning behind the scenes from a one-on-one to a collaborative model, which is bringing us new benefits, but requires more systemization.
Today, we target corporate travel, but we still work with individuals; you just need to click the Get Started button and we ask if you’re an individual after that. This pivot of sorts came from the fact we can deliver significantly more value to corporate customers (more customer value = more conversions, retention, referrals = better business & happier team). Consumer travelers typically only want the lowest price. If their “price to beat” is on a low-cost-carrier, we can rarely help. That becomes a dissatisfied customer despite us explaining “we’re here to help with your next trip”. Corporate travelers have greater requirements such as convenience, comfort, miles, hotels, perks, expertise, emergency response, off-site planning, large groups… the list goes on. With consumer travel, we were using a small subset of our tech and expertise; with corporate travel, we use everything and constantly need to expand our tech and expertise.
Hope that explains everything. Happy to answer any specifics about finding travel deals, since that’s what we do every day for 1000s of customers.
There are certainly downsides to living in Finland, but you picked a poor comparison in taxes. Taxes in the US are NOT low. Income tax is only one of many taxes in the US. In some states/cities, your property tax can exceed income tax. My state has extremely high taxes on cars too. It all adds up to a lot of money and a relatively high total tax rate. I wouldn't be surprised it a significant number of people in the US have a higher total tax rate than the Finnish average. Of course you can choose low-tax states, but the US as a whole certainly isn't some sort of tax haven.
I'm a paying customer of Trustle, for a few months now, and absolutely love the service. I don't know the founders, I just work with one coach and couldn't recommend her highly enough. I proselytize to friends and family, but they never seem to understand and just give me blank stares as I explain how much she helps. Maybe I do a poor job pitching, but I don't think that's it.
If I had to guess, I think most people prefer to be reactive, not just with children, but in every facet of life. Whereas other people (especially on HN) are instinctively proactive and are always looking for new ways to invest in the future. The reactive people don't seem to understand why I need the help of a professional when my infant child seems calm and grounded. Proactive people understand immediately; they get that it's an investment.
When I signed up, I didn't even know what Trustle was planning to offer. They said they do "parent coaching". Huh? I just knew for $x/month if I could bounce ideas off a professional it would be more than worth it. Fast forward a few weeks and I quickly learned to trust my coach's advice more than any pediatrician, day care worker or family member. The reasons are long and detailed, but suffice to say I'm a serious fan.
I've spoken to my coach a couple of times about tough situations, like sleep problems (she was impossibly helpful), but mostly I see value in our discussions about learning, discipline, philosophy, independence, etc. I've come to love her pragmatic, balanced and evidenced-based approach.
Today, we target corporate travel, but we still work with individuals; you just need to click the Get Started button and we ask if you’re an individual after that. This pivot of sorts came from the fact we can deliver significantly more value to corporate customers (more customer value = more conversions, retention, referrals = better business & happier team). Consumer travelers typically only want the lowest price. If their “price to beat” is on a low-cost-carrier, we can rarely help. That becomes a dissatisfied customer despite us explaining “we’re here to help with your next trip”. Corporate travelers have greater requirements such as convenience, comfort, miles, hotels, perks, expertise, emergency response, off-site planning, large groups… the list goes on. With consumer travel, we were using a small subset of our tech and expertise; with corporate travel, we use everything and constantly need to expand our tech and expertise.
Hope that explains everything. Happy to answer any specifics about finding travel deals, since that’s what we do every day for 1000s of customers.