Today, one person used Joya instead of Airbnb — and it’s the greatest success I’ve ever had. Here’s why:

The best part of all? We made someone happy

Today, Airbnb has a market cap of $92 billion, and an estimated 25,000 hosts used Airbnb to take bookings… while I ate my breakfast. But also today, a cash-strapped 4-person start-up from Ontario, Canada, with a market cap of zero, who were crazy enough to launch a tourism start-up during a pandemic, had one person decide that Joya is the best solution for their business. Despite the endless solutions by big tech, and despite all the little hacks someone can piece together to run their business, one person didn’t default to the biggest travel tech company in the world… they decided to use Joya

To me, it’s not “just one”. To me, it is a symbol that hard work, dedication, and relentlessly putting other people before yourself pays off.

3 years ago, we saw an opportunity in the tourism industry to make something better, cheaper, and simpler — something to help hard working tourism business owners and entrepreneurs spend more time doing what they love, and less time and money dealing with all the complex digital tools required to run their business. Running a tourism business is really hard — but despite challenge after challenge, barrier after barrier, and mid-way through a global pandemic that’s devastated the entire industry, we just made life a little easier for one person — and that makes it all worth while.

To me, it’s not “just one”. To me, it is a symbol that hard work, dedication, and relentlessly putting other people before yourself pays off. The biggest win an entrepreneur can ever have, is making someone else happy. Today that happened. And we are really looking forward to tomorrow.