Cofounder, SiteMinder
Founder Mike Ford on why he began SiteMinder
SiteMinder's founder and managing director, and winner of a 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year™ Eastern Region Award, Mike Ford, speaks on the company's purpose and what its technology has meant for hotel businesses around the world.
About Mike Ford
Mike Ford, cofounder of SiteMinder, stated that the company was created to help hoteliers sell rooms online. He said he recognized a gap in technology adoption after holding a shareholding in a backpacker hostel in Sydney, noting that traditional methods like motel signs were no longer effective. Ford described SiteMinder as an easy-to-set-up, easy-to-use turnkey platform that has rapidly advanced independent hoteliers' capabilities. Ford also reflected on the company's growth, observing that as a startup scales, team members begin to take initiative independently. He described this shift as a moment when one realizes the organization has become "an engine" that is working.
Transcript (1 segments)
M
Mike Ford0:10
Online I had a shareholding in a backpacker hostel, Ashley, on the northern beaches in Sydney, and saw enough to realize that hotels were years behind in technology adoption. But they were really battling to get their product to market. No longer the motel sign on the side of the highway worked. We saw an opportunity to develop an easy to set up, easy to use platform that really was a turnkey solution for hotels to sell their rooms online. With our technology, it's actually really brought the independent hoteliers' capabilities forward very, very quickly. Often when you're a startup and you're quite small, you're calling the shots and people are always looking to you to go, hey, what do we do next? I think as you start to scale, if you do it well, you start to see people picking up the ball and running with it. I think it's those moments I think that...