Your Virtual Travel Concierge Has Arrived : Mobissimo CEO Beatrice Tarka (Part 5)

SM: Where are you at now in terms of revenue, profitability, and traffic? BT: The Mobissimo.com site has been operating for three years. We’ve been open to the public since November 2004, and we’ve generating revenue and been profitable since June 2005.

Your Virtual Travel Concierge Has Arrived : Mobissimo CEO Beatrice Tarka (Part 4)

SM: What is your TAM and how do you calculate it? BT: According to Henry Harteveldt Forrester Research’s travel expert, the online travel market represents the highest growing proportion of the overall travel market. Online travel is also the most lucrative. PhoCusWright says that online travel spending reached nearly $100 billion in 2007.

Your Virtual Travel Concierge Has Arrived : Mobissimo CEO Beatrice Tarka (Part 3)

SM: What is the value proposition of Mobissimo? BT: We find the cheapest airfares and we find the best international fares. To synthesize, we simplify the search process by querying multiple Web sites in real time and deliver information that is highly valuable to the user. We make it easier for people to travel.

Your Virtual Travel Concierge Has Arrived : Mobissimo CEO Beatrice Tarka (Part 2)

SM: Where did you get the idea for your current venture? Did you have prior domain experience in the travel segment? BT: First and foremost at Mobissimo we are travelers ourselves. We have felt the pain of endless attempts to search and book tickets online.

Your Virtual Travel Concierge Has Arrived : Mobissimo CEO Beatrice Tarka (Part 1)

Since its launch in October of 2003, travel search engine Mobissimo.com has created a staunch following of “MobiFans”. With a sweet spot in international travel it has been very successful catering to a niche other travel sites have largely neglected. There are over 300,000 travel properties in the world yet online travel agents (OTAs) focus

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OpenSource Thought Leader and CollabNet Founder Brian Behlendorf (Part 9)

SM: What are some of the more interesting projects going on in the OpenSource space? BB: Recently I have been spending a lot of time with non-profits which are using OpenSource software in very creative ways. One example is the Grameen Foundation which runs an OpenSource project developing software to run a microfinance bank. They

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OpenSource Thought Leader and CollabNet Founder Brian Behlendorf (Part 8)

SM: Let’s focus a bit on the OpenSource universe itself. How do you see the movement changing and what do you see around you that is significant? Take WordPress for example; they just raised a ton of money. I run my website on WordPress and I don’t pay a dime. BB: What is interesting is

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OpenSource Thought Leader and CollabNet Founder Brian Behlendorf (Part 7)

SM: Do you have all of the project management capabilities as well? BB: We are definitely a lot more than just a bug database. We also show you the features customers are asking for. We can let your customers vote on potential features. When your customer base starts ranking their priorities you gain incredible visibility.

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