When Covid-19 swept the nation in 2020, it also brought a wave of cancellations for celebratory events, including weddings, bachelor parties and birthday parties.
The following year, those came back in full force for Chase Harris — who kept coming across a recurring issue.
“2021 ended up being a crazy year with double the amount of bachelor parties and group trips that are normally split up,” he said. “And I kept finding issues with payment at the end of planning the trip. Even just booking it — booking outings for a big group above eight people is pretty tough the week of [the event].”
Harris, then a real estate agent, decided to launch Takeoff to simplify splitting big-ticket items and reservations. The company officially took off on Feb. 17.
“I’ve been on the tail end of a party where I cover a dinner or night out, and then at the end of the trip, things get lost in translation, so it’s super hard to settle up, especially when multiple people pay,” the 30-year-old said. “We’re putting big stuff at the front end and split it among the group before you even get to the trip. There will still be things here and there, like ‘Oh, you bought me a coffee,’ but it’s taking the big event like a $600 dinner out of the equation.”
Takeoff works as a sort of middleman with concierges: The app sends the large groups to the concierges, who otherwise would not have gotten that business, and then builds the itinerary for the customer.
“We want to democratize the concierge; leading up to this, I would have never thought to call one,” Harris said. “And it’s not as easy to work with a concierge from your couch; you go back and forth with them, then send the itinerary, then figure out how much you have to pay. Versus adding your friend to the app, picking what’s available and making incremental payments leading up to your trip.”
The app is currently functional in Miami and Las Vegas, with plans to expand to Scottsdale, Arizona, Tulum, Mexico and London in the works.
“[Miami and Las Vegas] are giants in group travel, and that’s a sustainable model to run it as long as we really lock and hone in on the correct way to maximize the user experience,” Harris said. “As a business leader, I’m not going to jump at the first site to scale.”
There are eventual plans to add a group chat function within the app, available to both iOS and Android users. The company is building its first pre-seed round of $500,000 and has seven employees. A majority of those are local, despite the company being entirely remote.
“St. Petersburg added to the reason I decided to take the plunge [in launching the startup],” he said. “Because of the atmosphere and all the resources available, from funding to incubators to local entrepreneurs to chat with, it’s one of the reasons I did it.”
