For Mina Singson-Brightman, some of her favorite travel memories have been trips with large groups of family or friends. But as the owner of two destination event planning companies, she also knows the challenges that arranging such trips can entail.
That’s why she created 40hammocks.
An app designed to simplify group travel, 40hammocks helps users find hotels and facilitates communication among groups. Plus, because 40hammocks works directly with hotel partners, the company is able to offer deals for group bookings. The target market, Singson-Brightman noted, is leisure travelers who are attending events such as class reunions, food and wine festivals, or concerts.
“It can be hard to bring people together to do something fun, something meaningful. That is why I thought about creating this tool to make it easier for people to get together and make these kinds of memories,” she said.
Singson-Brightman worked with co-founders Kim Andreello and Sebastian Borys to develop the app, which launched in late 2023. So far, the co-founders have self-funded the venture, but Singson-Brightman said they have recently begun raising funds, with a goal of $1 million. The company also was a part of the most recent cohort of Blue Startups, a local accelerator — an experience Singson-Brightman said was a “turning point” in helping 40hammocks grow.
It initially launched on Oahu and has since expanded statewide. Now, they are preparing to roll out the app in cities throughout the country.
Not only is it expanding geographically, but Singson-Brightman said they plan to grow its functionality as well. In the future, she said 40hammocks will act as a one-stop shop for group travel services, allowing users to book travel and activities in addition to accommodations.
Walk me through the process of using the app from the user end. All you need to do is download the app and put in the information about the [destination gathering]. … You tell us where and when, and then you will see hotels based on the location. And then from there, we give you a list of hotels to select from, and you request a quote. That request gets sent directly to the hotel because we work with hotels directly, and you will get a response back, typically within 24 to 48 hours, with their proposal. From there, you decide which one you want, and we can easily book it through the app.
Apart from that, we go beyond just booking because it will allow you to share that booking link with the rest of your guests so they don’t miss out on the deal. You can also send messages to your group. You can send a message to everyone saying, “hey, we’re considering a stay at the Fairmont, would you be interested?” Or as you get closer to the event, you can say, “we’re having drinks at this place, do you want to join?”
It just makes it easier for [users] to logistically manage the [entire] trip — it doesn’t end with the booking. And that is just the start because we are going to be adding more features to make a group trip easier.
What has been your strategy in growing 40hammocks so far? How have you gone about growing your user base and your hotel partners? We’re partnering with event professionals. … They refer their groups to us so that we can help with the group travel part of their event. We’ve actually spent very little on marketing because we are bootstrapping. … But lately, we have been getting inbound inquiries on our website organically.
[In building hotel partnerships,] we have been reaching out to hotels telling them what 40hammocks is and how they can benefit from partnering with us. These hotels usually have other hotels within the [same company], so we ask them if the other hotels would like to be a part of 40hammocks. They can see the benefit — it’s an additional marketing tool for them to reach different groups — so just like with the customers, we are now seeing hotels reaching out to us asking how they can be part of the platform.
Tell me about your plans for future growth. Right now, we are in Hawaii but in just a few weeks, we will be launching nationwide. Our goal is to be across North America, and expand outside of North America, too — we are looking at Southeast Asia now. That is part of our long-term goal.
We are starting with hotel bookings, but our goal is to be the ultimate group booking platform, so we will eventually be offering other travel-related group services — you will be able to book group air, group experiences, group dining through our app. That’s all going to be within five years.
Do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs in the tech space? Always make sure that your product has value to the consumers. We continue to talk to customers, discover their pain points, [and ask them] how can we make this better, how can we make this valuable to you — because that is what is going to make you stick. And then secondly, try to maintain a work-life balance. … You have to find time for self-care. That is very important for founders because we fuel the startup, and we need energy to do that.
40hammocks
Mina Singson-Brightman, co-founder and CEO
Email: info@40hammocks.com
Website: 40hammocks.com
