August 6th, 2019 / By: Tullio Siragusa / Published in: Blog, GBTA
A Conversation with Aviel Siman-Tov, Co-founder and CEO @ FairFly, at GBTA 2019.
Coffee is Always a Good Start
An Israeli ex-military. A Degree in Business and Law. A Zell Entrepreneurship Program participant. A coffee lover. Among these and many other traits, Aviel Siman-Tov is the successful Co-Founder and CEO of FairFly, a traveltech software platform that enables users to enjoy full transparency over their companies’ air spend, by making sure they always get the fairest deal possible.
We had a conversation with Aviel during GBTA, and asked him to elaborate on his background and company. Aviel said that the company came into existence after brainstorming on how to best create value for business travelers, among four co-founders enjoying their coffee and chatting about travel experiences. One of those co-founders is Uri Levine who co-founded Waze, acquired by Google for $1.2B. FairFly was designed and built specifically for globally active multinational corporations. We asked Aviel what FairFly did, and he said that “the platform provides clarity to Fortune 500 travel managers, finance executives and procurement professionals across the globe and delivers direct, measurable and effortless savings”.
Behind The Scenes
We also asked Aviel what sort of magic happens behind the scenes, technology and otherwise. “In order to make [any company] possible, you need to find a problem and fall in love with it” he responded. In the case of FairFly, the problem that Aviel and his team found (and fell in love with) 5 years ago, was booking travel and discovering you overspent after the fact. Then, after finding the big problem, which is 90% of the process, they went on to build a great team to produce a solution that could be marketed globall. Aviel continued by sharing the news to find the best developers, product, sales and marketing folks around. In addition, Aviel highlighted that “being fair with your clients is putting them at the center […] there’s nothing more important than the client.”
The Guiding Principles
As a tech company, Aviel very strongly stressed that running a successful company is not just about the tech, but also about the atmosphere, the air that the teammates breath in the workplace. “We believe that life is short. As such, we defined FairFly as the best working place we ever had, and the best working place there will ever be.” Aviel was very emphatic to the fact that the company exists to create value, but also to take care of its team members. “Team members are family, and we take care of them as such,” he stated.
Final Words of Wisdom
When we were about to wrap up our conversation, we asked Aviel what words of wisdom he would be willing to share with those pondering the idea of becoming tech entrepreneurs. Aviel said: “It’s all about having a mission. We are on a mission to bring transparency to the problem of airfare volatility, and redefine corporate travel with automated cost savings solutions that provide value for both buyers and suppliers.”