Nov 1, 2021
Alex Simon is the Co-Founder and CEO of Elude, a budget based travel company getting you out of your office and around the world. Alex previously worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, a career he left in 2018 to turn travel hacking into his full-time gig as an entrepreneur with his co-founder, Frankie Scerbo. Elude is a travel search engine & app that allows people to discover and book unique travel packages based only on your budget and date. Think "Where can you go next month for $700." They are internationally venture backed in LA and Singapore with angel investors throughout NY, SF, LA & UK.
What Elude is and who it serves
How the backend of the app functions
How Alex and his co-founder Frankie’s personal experiences led to the founding of Elude
The early days of Elude and getting their first users
Jumping from two thousand to tens of thousands of customers via partnerships
Transitioning out of an investment banking career into full time entrepreneurship
How they approached fundraising by focusing on warm intros and direct leads
Transitioning from fundraising from angel investors to raising a seed round from a fund
How they allocated their seed round funding
The challenges of innovating in a very established industry
The consumer experience with the Elude app
Organic versus paid growth and the value of partnerships
Elude’s business model
Building and growing a remote team
Launching a travel industry startup during a global pandemic
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