Pilot, born from founder Connor Wilson’s contemplative ATV ride on a Greek mountain in 2019, was initially registered as HappyHour.
The nascent company originally planned to tackle social connection through a Personal Relationship Management tool. However, this idea was soon dismissed as too mechanical for authentic social engagement.
Wilson’s resolve saw him join NEXT Canada, a startup accelerator, that November.
The next month, tides turned for HappyHour as Wilson reunited with former colleague Reine Donnestad. The duo, reconnecting during another of Wilson’s European backpacking excursions, brainstormed about a “local experience marketplace.”
However, plans were brought to a grinding halt by the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced a shutdown of local experiences worldwide.
Covid-19 saw Donnestad exit the company while Wilson, undeterred, refocused the venture around travel in anticipation of pent-up post-pandemic demand. He zeroed in on the Social Trip Planner as the optimal tool for sharing social experiences and planning discoveries. HappyHour rebranded to Pilot toward the end of 2020.
In 2022, Pilot opened up its beta to the public, joined the Creative Destruction Lab accelerator, and raised capital. By last year, the firm was a finalist in the New Ventures BC Competition and a startup-to-watch in BC.
Startup-to-watch indeed: This year, Pilot is vying for “Startup of the Year” at the BC Tech Association’s annual Technology Impact Awards.
What makes Pilot so hot? The technology underpinning the platform, for starters.
Pilot harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to create hyper-personalized travel experiences for users. Proprietary AI technology for data collection enables Pilot to capture the entire user experience and lifecycle—data which serves as the foundation for training their algorithms, resulting in tailored travel itineraries. And those itineraries can be adjusted on the fly with Pilot adapting to changes as they appear.
On the lower-tech end of things, the platform can be accessed from the web and downloaded offline, while collaboration features allows friends to plan trips together.
Overall, Pilot offers a tech-forward approach to trip planning for the modern traveller.
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