Simone Puorto of Travel Singularity tells us how the firm assists clients with digital disruption and technology changes.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Travel Singularity?
Simone Puorto: I started my career in hospitality back in ’99. I used to be the General Manager of an Italian boutique hotel chain, and, around ’09, I began being more interested in marketing and consulting. So I moved to Paris to join a French-American web agency as VP of Global Accounts & Quality Manager, and, over the years, I have advised hotel groups all over the world. In 2017, I founded my consultancy firm, Travel Singularity, which assists clients with digital disruption and technology changes. I am also the author of three best-selling books on marketing, an MBA lecturer, and a writer for the major blogs in the industry.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Simone Puorto: I wake up very early and start the day by reading articles about what’s happening in the industry or listening to podcasts. I love taking a couple of hours for myself when the rest of the house is asleep. It’s my personal ritual.
How does Travel Singularity market its product/services online?
Simone Puorto: It’s mainly word-of-mouth. We don’t advertise much, to be honest. Most clients discover the company through my articles or speeches.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Simone Puorto: We run some remarketing on Meta and LinkedIn ads. But, again, most of our clients come to us organically.
What is your hiring policy/process, and how do you retain your employees?
Simone Puorto: I tend to focus more on the candidates’ personalities rather than their technical skills or academic achievements. What we do can be taught, and, over the years, we have written several processes to help new employees understand our method of working. I like hiring people I like; even on an intellectual level, the “how-tos” can be learned at a later stage.
How are you funding your growth?
Simone Puorto: Consulting is difficult to scale, as you may know. We grow by selecting good partnerships, mainly and externalizing operational tasks.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Simone Puorto: We do mainly four things:
a) Consulting for the travel/hospitality industries;
b) Consulting for tech companies;
c) Content creation / ghostwriting;
d) Academic work.
We have different competitors for each service we offer, but we try to stay in the game by always being one step ahead, especially when it comes to adopting new technologies.
Tell us a customer success story of yours.
Simone Puorto: Oh, I have many, but I have many NDAs as well, so I can’t really say too much…
Your final thoughts?
Simone Puorto: The future can be a utopia or a dystopia. The difference is only in the eyes of who is looking. Our mission is to open our client’s eyes.
0 Comments