KYC Hospitality | Bonfire Ventures

KYC is an enterprise SaaS company serving the best hotels in the industry, including Taj, Marriott, Baccarat and AYANA. Replacing 25 different legacy solutions, KYC’s comprehensive Suite encompasses multi-channel Guest Messaging, Requests Managements, Housekeeping Operations, Engineering Operations, Concierge Operations, CRM and more.

Why solve this problem?

The hotel industry is one of the world’s largest and oldest, and has been plagued with disparate legacy systems for decades that have overlapping and/or missing functionalities at sky high costs. Especially in a post-Covid recovery era, hotels around the world are more in need of KYC than ever. We deliver the singular, most comprehensive platform in the industry at a significant cost savings and bar none, the best customer service.

Hardest thing about being a founder?

Facing one’s own fears and demons and not allowing them to stand in the way of doing what needs to be done to serve the vision, serve my team, and serve my advisors and Investors with the highest integrity, constant improvement and steadfast faith in reaching our shared dreams.

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Biggest piece of advice for aspiring founders?

Please realize that this is likely to be one of (if not THE) hardest journeys you will ever undertake in your life. Even reaching the minor milestone successes along the path requires tremendous sacrifices, hours beyond normal human comprehension and the constant willingness to work on yourself as a leader. Set forth a clear vision and stick to serving that vision, your team and your investors with a high degree of integrity, transparency and genuine love for what you are doing.

Most exciting moment so far?

Being at the table with one of the biggest hotel companies in the world and hear them tell us that no one they have ever worked with (including some of our biggest competitors) have ever treated them with the kindness, respect and transparency that we have, and that we are the only ones to pass the certification process in as smooth and quick a manner as we have.

Why did you choose Bonfire?

Jim was undaunted by my gargantuan vision of conquering one of the largest, oldest industries in the world. I will never forget what he said to me the day he confirmed Bonfire’s interest in leading our seed: “Every once in a very long time, there comes a founder who doesn’t look like all the other typical founders, who doesn’t sound or talk like them, and that founder could be the one to knock it out of the ballpark. We believe that founder is you.”

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What’s it like to work with Bonfire?

In 2020 when Covid hit hard, the future of our hotel industry was terrifying to most people. On every single Board call, Jim stood by me, with a calm tone and consistency in his support for my and our team’s ongoing efforts to ensure that we not only survived the catastrophic global shutdown, but could emerge victorious through it. Instead of panicking or putting extra undue pressure on me, Jim was steadfast and looked for the bright spots wherever he/we could.

Best book you’ve read, useful tool or favorite app?

Favorite App - KYC Hospitality of course 😊

Useful tool - Clickup

Best book - Sun Tzu’s The Art of War

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In the News

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Other

Hotel Executive Magazine: Why IHG Can’t Live Without KYC

March 20, 2022

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