"This is not generally known but most start-ups pivot: YouTube was a dating site, Slack was a video game, and Twitter was an enterprise platform," says Frederic Lalonde, co-founder and CEO of Hopper. "Having said that, I wouldn't wish one on my worst enemy. We went through a very scary pivot."

From Content to Data

Founded in 2007, Hopper started out aggregating content from travel-related blogs, generating recommendations for travel destinations. But it didn't grow as expected despite additional funding.

What it did have was lots of data. Hopper's engineers mined the data they collected to produce research reports for journalists. Their first media sensation was a 2014 story about Colorado airfares increasing 20% after the state legalized marijuana.

"That went nuclear. We got hundreds of pieces of national coverage on it."

The Pivot That Changed Everything

The New York Times ran a story called "Crunching the Numbers to find the Best Airfare," which featured Hopper research. Then Good Morning America ran a segment about the article.

"Our traffic increased one hundred times what we had done over the past four years. Over a million people visited our site in three weeks."

Three weeks later, Hopper shifted its entire business model. The team of 15 was cut almost in half. They pivoted to a data-driven website, then launched as a mobile-only app in 2015.

Mobile-First Strategy Pays Off

Lalonde anticipated a shift to using mobile devices to book travel. The strategy worked: over 50% of sales come from repeat bookers, and almost 90% of Hopper's sales come directly from push notifications.

Hopper has since obtained over 35 million app installs, helped travelers plan over 90 million trips, and surpassed $1 billion in sales. They raised $235 million in funding while keeping the company headquartered in Montreal.