We sat down with Mike Sager, co-founder of Ankor Software, to talk about the journey to date and plans for the future of the business.
How did you come up with the idea for the business?
Elliot and I were looking for what industry was most underserved. Sydney has a long history of sailing/yachting and after spending time researching the technology offering in the yachting space, we decided this would be our industry. The ecosystem of luxury hospitality software solved the challenge of bringing customers, luxury travel agents, and hoteliers together, and we saw a similar challenge to solve in yachting between charterers and retail brokers.
Why does the industry need the solution you're providing?
Yacht charter brokers create a curated and unique experience for their charterers. The yachting industry is unique, and unlike any other and yacht retail brokers, on their own have had to sticky tape tech solutions that are not built for yachting. We take tried and tested SaaS product & engineering principles and create a solution that is only for yachting.
What have you enjoyed most about starting your own company?
Building something from scratch our entire team truly believes in. We’ve only been in market for 9 months and it’s the tip of the iceberg, that’s for sure. Above all else though, we love working with our customers and our team. We are very lucky to have the ‘Ankor family’, and that feeling extends beyond our team to our customers. Our customers success is our success.
What challenges did you have to overcome at the beginning of your journey?
We had to learn the intricacies of the yachting industry, which we are still learning. Our expertise is in building great digital solutions and customer experiences, and there are so many opportunities we’ve had to say no to in order to keep focused.
Any bits of advice for entrepreneurs getting started in this space?
It’s a long game. Many startup founders expect things to be nailed in 1-2 years, but you need to have eyes on 3-5 years and beyond. Stay laser focused on the problem you’re solving and the unique value proposition you’re building to solve that. You need to focus on the value you create and do your very best to not get distracted…if you try to move 10 things forward, you’ll move them an inch each, but if you’re focused on one thing, you’ll move those ten inches forward.
What's the plan for the future of the business? Where do you see the company in 3-5 years?
We’ve got huge aspirations around a roadmap of solutions to help charter brokers. What we’re crystal clear on is the problem we’re solving and the gap that still exists. We believe the yachting industry is on the crest of a wave which will see increased adoption of world class technology at an accelerated rate, which we’re excited to be part of.
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