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We're Steve and Tom (YC S18), the co-founders of Duffel (https://duffel.com/), an API-based travel platform. Think of Stripe, but for searching and booking flights.
We built Duffel after running head first into the problem of accessing airline inventory for a side-project that we had. All the providers out there (ever heard of a GDS? Amadeus? Sabre?) felt antiquated, expensive and quite frankly didn't even want to work with us. To top it up, once we started digging the only things we could hear were "PNR", "IATA", "ARC", "RBD" and other wonderful acronyms.
It’s difficult to innovate in travel today. The process is intimidating, time-consuming, and often cost-prohibitive for new startups. The antiquated tech stacks and expensive accreditation processes are enough to keep great travel sellers locked out of the industry.
We built Duffel to remove all the barriers to innovation in travel. With our new self-serve platform, we're making it possible for anyone to sign-up, activate their account, and start selling flights in just minutes – without having to interact with anyone on our team. You also won't need to worry about applying for an IATA - or ARC - accreditation, building relationships with airlines or deciphering the documentation of an EDIFACT (1) service
The Duffel platform is built for the modern developer, offering simple, composable APIs, comprehensive documentation, and a robust testing environment. Check this video to see it in action:
=> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMPFL7x0uko
Since our founding, we have grown to an international team of 40+ spread across the UK and US. We're on a mission to make travel effortless by rebuilding the software backbone of the travel industry layer by layer.
We would love any feedback you have on the product and are always keen to discuss with people with deep knowledge of the industry. Looking forward to reading you in the thread below!
Thank you for reading!