Travel & Hospitality
Product strategy and AI from someone who's built the technology, run the businesses, and served the guests.
This isn't a consultant who read a case study about hospitality.
Most product consultants parachute into an industry, learn the vocabulary, and leave with a slide deck. I've spent years inside travel and hospitality — not just advising, but operating. Building the technology, running the restaurants, pouring the wine, and serving the guests.
That means the advice comes from someone who knows what it feels like when the POS goes down on a Friday night, what happens when a vendor's demo doesn't match reality, and why the "AI solution" that looked brilliant in a pitch deck falls apart when a line cook needs to use it.
Consulting for travel companies
My previous firm, Nine Labs, worked with travel companies on product strategy and digital experience design. This is where the industry expertise began — understanding how travelers research, book, and experience trips, and how the technology behind those moments shapes the business.
Operating a wine bar
Three years behind the bar. Moved from advising to operating and learned the realities of hospitality firsthand: margins, staffing, guest experience, and the yawning gap between what tech vendors promise and what actually works on a busy Saturday night.
Running two restaurants
I currently operate Lucky Hare Bar & Grill and Night Train Pizza in Big Canoe, Georgia. Multi-unit operations, managing teams, dealing with POS systems, supply chain, seasonality, and every operational challenge restaurant operators face daily. This isn't past tense — it's happening right now.
Building Donna
Couldn't find a restaurant management tool that gave operators the insights they needed without the complexity they didn't. So I built one. Donna is an AI-powered restaurant operations platform that turns Square POS data into clear, actionable intelligence. Proof that I don't just advise on AI — I ship AI products.
Launching Savarin & Co.
A luxury wine and food travel company targeting affluent couples for curated experiences in Spain, France, and Italy. Built on direct relationships with winery and vineyard owners. This keeps me actively embedded in the travel side of the industry — not just hospitality operations.
The point: I've been on every side of this business. Consulted for travel companies, operated hospitality businesses, built AI-powered technology for the industry, and launched a travel venture. That combination is rare — and it's what makes the advice different.
"We need a product strategy but our leadership team doesn't include a product person."
Most hospitality companies are run by operators and finance people. They buy technology but don't have someone who understands how to evaluate it, build it, or integrate it strategically. I fill the fractional CPO role with deep industry context.
"We're being sold AI from every vendor — what actually matters?"
AI concierges, AI pricing, AI scheduling, AI everything. The pitches are relentless. I've built AI products and can separate the signal from the noise. I start with the business problem, not the technology.
"Our guest experience needs to evolve but we don't know how."
Whether it's a hotel group rethinking digital touchpoints, a restaurant group standardizing operations across locations, or a travel tech company redesigning their booking flow — I bring UX expertise grounded in how hospitality guests actually behave, not how they behave in a product manager's imagination.
"We have data but aren't using it."
Hospitality generates massive amounts of transactional, operational, and behavioral data. Most of it sits in POS systems, PMS platforms, and spreadsheets doing nothing. I built Donna specifically to solve this problem — turning raw data into decisions.
"We need to modernize our technology without disrupting operations."
Hospitality can't just "move fast and break things." Guests are checking in, orders are being placed, staff is on the floor. Technology transitions need to be planned with operational reality in mind. I've lived this tension as an operator.
If you're in this list, let's talk.
- Hotel and resort management groups
- Multi-unit restaurant operators
- Travel technology platforms
- Hospitality SaaS companies
- Airline and cruise line product teams
- Destination marketing organizations
- Short-term rental platforms
- Tour and experience operators
- Food & beverage brands going D2C
Built the tool that didn't exist.
The problem: Restaurant operators drowning in data from POS systems but starving for actionable insights. No tool existed that was simple enough for busy operators and smart enough to surface what matters.
What I built: Donna — an AI-powered platform that syncs nightly with Square, delivers visual dashboards, menu engineering, recipe costing, team performance tracking, and an AI assistant that answers plain-English questions about the business.
The result: A live SaaS product with tiered pricing, used by restaurant operators to make faster, better-informed decisions. Born from operator frustration, built by someone who lives the problem every day.
Assessment
Not sure where to start? A structured diagnostic of your product, technology, or AI readiness — delivered by someone who understands hospitality operations from the inside. Starting at $3,500.
Engagement
A defined project with a defined outcome. Product strategy, AI integration, guest experience redesign, technology roadmap — scoped to your challenge. Starting at $15,000.
Partnership
Ongoing fractional CPO advisory for hospitality companies that need senior product leadership without the full-time hire. Starting at $8,000/month.
"J has helped us deliver amazing value to our customers time and time again. His ability to take nebulous concepts and drill down until they become quality products is second to none."
"For J, nothing is impossible. He knows how to get things done, even on ridiculously short notice. A great eye for small details but never forgets the high-level strategy."
"J shows you how to ask the right questions, dig into the core of the challenge, and drive towards results-based solutions."