El Al extends hand to start-ups
May 10, 2015, 8:55 pm
#1
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El Al extends hand to start-ups
From Times of Israel:
El Al has established its own accelerator – called Cockpit – to, according to the company, “expose El Al to new technologies that it can join with as strategic partners, investing resources and knowledge in technology development.
“El Al is one of the first airlines in the world to initiate a wide-ranging program to support start-ups,” the company said.
Like other accelerators, Cockpit plans to offer space and resources to start-ups to enable them to develop apps, with an emphasis on making air travel easier for passengers and enabling airlines to make more money. El Al has pledged to allow itself to be a “test site” for apps and software, utilizing the products that are created by start-ups in the accelerator so entrepreneurs can see what works and what needs improvement.
The accelerator officially kicked off on Tuesday at ThinkNext, a start-up event sponsored by Microsoft Israel, but El Al announced that it has already enrolled its first two start-ups: Shopnfly, which allows travelers to browse and pre-purchase items that can be picked up at a duty-free shop, delivered inflight or to a destination hotel, and BidFlyer, which provides an online space for airlines to sell off their hard-to-sell seats on flights via a bidding process, enabling airlines to fill seats that would otherwise have remained empty.
More here:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hope-fo...-to-start-ups/
More from Globes:
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-e...ram-1001032658
El Al has established its own accelerator – called Cockpit – to, according to the company, “expose El Al to new technologies that it can join with as strategic partners, investing resources and knowledge in technology development.
“El Al is one of the first airlines in the world to initiate a wide-ranging program to support start-ups,” the company said.
Like other accelerators, Cockpit plans to offer space and resources to start-ups to enable them to develop apps, with an emphasis on making air travel easier for passengers and enabling airlines to make more money. El Al has pledged to allow itself to be a “test site” for apps and software, utilizing the products that are created by start-ups in the accelerator so entrepreneurs can see what works and what needs improvement.
The accelerator officially kicked off on Tuesday at ThinkNext, a start-up event sponsored by Microsoft Israel, but El Al announced that it has already enrolled its first two start-ups: Shopnfly, which allows travelers to browse and pre-purchase items that can be picked up at a duty-free shop, delivered inflight or to a destination hotel, and BidFlyer, which provides an online space for airlines to sell off their hard-to-sell seats on flights via a bidding process, enabling airlines to fill seats that would otherwise have remained empty.
More here:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hope-fo...-to-start-ups/
More from Globes:
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-e...ram-1001032658
May 10, 2015, 9:20 pm
#2
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This idea was part of the business plan I circulated to the EL AL board a few years ago. However, not surprisingly they inverted the idea and have, in essence, become a quasi venture capital fund for start ups, which is ridiculous given that the company lacks the technical and the financial expertise to dispense funds like a VC does.
May 11, 2015, 4:39 am
#4
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May 18, 2015, 2:09 pm
#6
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If they really want to help startups they'd put a program in place like American's AAirpass for business instead of forcing them to pay insane fares for business trips to Europe. They'd also get 90% of my business instead of 10% of it like they get now.