Jurny's Continued Exponential Growth in STR & AI Tech

The Offer Sheet readers —

We are thrilled once again to be sitting down with Luca Zambello from Jurny, the tech platform that’s using AI to change the game for STR hosts & operators.

We last spoke a few months back. In that time, Jurny has gotten wide ranging media attention, while being recognized for the game-changing AI tech that they’re building.

Excited to hear the latest from Luca. Hope you are too. Let’s Go! 🚨

How has the experience been to start getting broader media attention for what you’re building?

Thank you! It’s great to be back speaking with you. It's been incredible and validating to receive such broad media attention, not just in the U.S. but from institutions all over the world. This recognition has also driven interest in our fundraising campaign on StartEngine and brought a lot of new business. Having our AI featured as groundbreaking and essential by trusted journalists and analysts at organizations like CNBC, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Bloomberg, Skift, and McKinsey has significantly boosted our visibility and credibility in the industry.

In addition to the media buzz, we've also been honored with a multitude of prestigious awards, including “Property Management System of the Year” and “Top Vacation Rental Software.” 

All of this recognition just reinforces our position as the market leader, and it’s pretty cool to see how much people love what we’re building.

Can you please remind our subscribers what sets you apart from others in the space?

Jurny stands utterly alone in the market due to its unique and comprehensive approach. We are not just an AI solution but a complex composition of multiple essential hospitality solutions integrated into a single platform. Jurny combines dynamic pricing, cleaning management software, a unified inbox, and integration with major booking platforms like Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, and Vrbo, all powered by our advanced, AI-centric infrastructure.

At Jurny, AI isn't an add-on; it's integrated into the core of our operations. Our system leverages cutting-edge large language models (LLMs) and other AI technologies through a centralized, cohesive framework explicitly designed for AI tasks. A key differentiator is our sophisticated multi-agent system, where AI agents are designated to perform specific functions such as guest communications, quality assurance, and upselling. This results in response times that are ten times faster and far more accurate, automating up to 70% of daily back-office operations with projections to exceed 90% by the end of the year.

Unlike our competitors, who often rely on fragmented systems, Jurny offers a unified platform that seamlessly integrates with third-party services, making management more streamlined and efficient. This holistic approach places Jurny well ahead of the curve, providing a robust, forward-thinking solution that redefines what a property management system can achieve.

Our goal is to fully automate the back-office operations of any hospitality management company, drastically reducing operational costs and increasing efficiencies by a factor of 20 while enhancing guest experience and revenue. As of today, Jurny has many indirect competitors but no direct competitors.

Last time we spoke you mentioned that you processed $35MM in bookings for 2023. Can you give us an update on the growth you’ve seen thus far in the first half of 2024?

We’ve seen remarkable growth in the first half of 2024. Our traction continues to be off the charts, driven by the increasing adoption of our management platform and the significant market need we are addressing. 

The most exciting update since the beginning of the year has been the adoption rate of our AI multi-agent solution. Being our first version of this AI multi-agent system powered by Nia, we did not expect such wide and fast adoption, especially in the fully autonomous mode. Our team built a fully autonomous mode to handle the entire guest journey, from check-in to check-out and everything in between, like scheduling cleaning, autonomously handling guest communications, knowing how to escalate to humans, and understanding guest sentiment to prioritize tasks. This was our first version, meant to be in beta and used only by early adopters. In less than six months, over 30% of our customers are using it, and it has already handled over 143,268 communications fully autonomously. This number has shocked not only the press but also us, who built it. Especially as version 2.0 of the Nia AI multi-agent system is right around the corner, and it is meant to be several magnitudes more powerful and accurate.

What’s on the roadmap for the remainder of 2024?

The biggest release for us will be the Nia AI multi-agents 2.0.

As mentioned, we intended for our first version to be in beta, but its adoption, results, and feedback have been overwhelmingly positive. With over 143,268 communications already being handled autonomously, an NPS of over 60, and several customers reporting a 25% decrease in operational costs and a considerable improvement in guest experience, it has exceeded our expectations.

The next version of multi-agents is meant to be several times more powerful, more accurate, better at cognitive functioning, and fully customizable for each unit. We believe this will be a significant turning point for the impact of AI in hospitality and will allow anyone properly using this solution to gain a massive competitive advantage by being able to automate upwards of 90% of their back-end office tasks while drastically increasing the guest experience. This will result in more revenue for much lower costs and significantly higher profits. This will soon be such a big competitive advantage that anyone not leveraging this or similar technologies will face a colossal business disadvantage.

To put things in perspective, as things are today, with Jurny and Nia, a single property manager can oversee an average of 50 properties, compared to just 8 without our tech. The big update coming later this year could increase this capacity to 200 properties per person. It’s mind-blowing to think about how that could impact the entire industry. We - and our customers - are beyond excited about the developments in our roadmap for this year.

Other relevant updates include a host mobile app, which will bring the convenience of Jurny right to your phone, integration with many more partners, a new AI-powered, fully customizable reporting and accounting experience, and much more.

How has AI tech evolved relative to your expectations and how are you adapting its usage within your product based on its rapid evolution?

Obviously, we are big believers in this technology, as we’ve bet our entire future on it. And we are not the only ones thinking that, with an unprecedented amount of capital being poured in. Nvidia surpassed Apple's market cap of $3 trillion, SoftBank targets $9 billion annually in AI investments, and Elon Musk secured $6 billion in financing for OpenAI challenger xAI. The top of the market and the people who know are moving fast! And so are we. I believe most people are totally underestimating the speed and rate of improvement for this technology, as well as its current power. Just like Mark Cuban said, "There are going to be two kinds of companies in the future: those that are great at AI and those that fail. If you’re not working hard to get your AI act together, you’re already falling behind." But that’s not just his belief; it’s shared by everyone who works closely with this technology. We believe the changes that Jurny will bring to the hospitality industry within the next 12 months will be industry-changing and entirely reshape the entire industry. And we couldn't be more excited about it.

Can The Offer Sheet subscribers still invest today? Any perks for our readers? How much longer does this round last? Why invest now vs. later?

Yes! The Offer Sheet subscribers can still invest for the next nine days. We’ve opened this round to customers and retail investors to participate alongside our top-tier VCs until June 18, 2024. Anyone interested in learning more can visit our deal page: https://www.startengine.com/offering/jurny.

Investing now offers several advantages over waiting - it allows individuals to take advantage of our current momentum, align with top-tier investors, and be on the ground floor of a company at the forefront of AI innovation in the hospitality industry.

Why is investing in private AI companies like Jurny appealing compared to traditional public tech giants?

To fully understand the opportunity, let's first look at a macro trend, which is something anyone interested in investing in AI should pay attention to. While many eyes are focused on large language models (LLMs) and big hardware companies like Nvidia, it’s clear that game will primarily be played by big tech with deep pockets. For example, Elon Musk recently secured $6 billion with xAI to compete in this space, showing the level of capital required.

In light of this, big VCs like SoftBank are looking beyond the LLMs - they know that disruption will likely come from startups focused on vertical applications of AI. SoftBank alone is allocating $9 billion a year to this trend, and many other VCs are also investing heavily in this area. 

Unfortunately, most of these startups are not yet public, limiting investment opportunities to VCs, with a few exceptions.

We wanted to be one of those exceptions, so we chose to open this round to customers and retail investors. If any of your readers are thinking about investing in AI, I hope they’ll check out our offering before it closes next week!