Startup Stage: VanityPass aims to redesign loyalty rewards for younger travelers

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

VanityPass is a credit card alternative for modern travelers. We’re democratizing premium credit card-style travel perks for a younger, debt-averse generation. We want to redesign the concept of loyalty and rewards, but for a disloyal demographic: Gen Zs and younger millennials. 

VanityPass works as an enhancement layer for non-reward credit cards and those without one, delivering instant, tangible perks and experiences—not just points you might use one day but benefits that feel good right now. VanityPass uses artificial intelligence (AI) to serve as a personal guide to how, when and where to use your points, removing much of the complexity that plagues traditional reward systems. 

On the tech side, we’ve just launched a seamless web-based platform featuring dynamic reward tracking, a powerful perks redemption engine and an AI-driven personalization layer. In the coming months, we’ll deepen our AI integration, transforming it into a multimodal, personal travel concierge that helps users understand how, when and where to use their points per location of travel. By removing the complexity that plagues traditional reward systems, we’ll be able to recommend experiences, automate reward distribution and deliver timely, relevant offers based on user behavior and travel patterns.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.

Strengths:

• Fresh insight and positioning targeting Gen Z and millennials who are weary of credit cards
• Low-friction product model: subscription-based access, not spend-to-earn hoops

Weaknesses:

• Limited brand recognition in a crowded market
• We’re building a partnership-heavy business. Unfortunately, we’re still early in the stage, so we may not have the same negotiating power as established players yet. 

Opportunities:

• Scalable rewards model with community and social features planned
• AI-powered loyalty interoperability to help users manage and maximize rewards across platforms
• Potential to integrate with fintech and lifestyle ecosystems through partnerships

Threats:

• Incumbents like American Express or Capital One replicating the model
• Travel downturns impacting perceived membership value

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective?

From the customer side: Modern travelers, especially Gen Zs and younger millennials, want access to premium travel perks like lounge access, upgrades and exclusive hotel deals but without needing to take on credit card debt or meet high annual spending thresholds. Traditional loyalty programs are often tied to financial products that many in this demographic actively avoid.

Additionally, the current rewards landscape is confusing and inaccessible. Points systems are often opaque, rewards take too long to accumulate and valuable benefits are typically reserved for top-tier members or frequent flyers. As a result, many travelers feel excluded from the very perks designed to build loyalty.

This is particularly frustrating for young, digitally-savvy travelers who are willing to spend on experiences but feel overlooked by legacy systems that prioritize creditworthiness over intent and engagement. We’re solving this by offering a more inclusive, transparent and flexible alternative to traditional rewards—giving people access based on membership, not spending power.

From the industry side: Hotels and travel brands are constantly looking for new ways to attract younger, experience-driven travelers, but many of their loyalty systems and marketing strategies are outdated. Legacy programs often fail to resonate with Gen Z and millennials, leading to missed opportunities for engagement and long-term loyalty.

At the same time, many boutique hotels and midsize travel brands lack the tools or scale to create their own perks or loyalty programs. VanityPass provides a ready-made ecosystem for them to tap into, giving them access to a growing base of high-intent travelers who value perks and experiences over points.

By acting as a bridge between underutilized travel perks and underserved traveler segments, we’re helping the industry rethink how loyalty is built, measured and rewarded.

So you’ve got the product, now, how will you get lots of customers?

We’ve designed growth into the product itself. VanityPass isn’t just a travel membership—it’s a shareable experience. We’re taking a multi-channel approach to growth, blending product-led loops with content-driven and experiential marketing to build momentum from day one.

Features like group rewards, friend passes, flash perks and milestone-based bonuses make VanityPass inherently social, incentivizing members to invite others and travel together. These built-in mechanics create natural viral loops, while perks like hotel stays, lounge access and upgrades generate moments members want to share, turning every trip into a micro-marketing moment.

Beyond product design, we’re building a strong content engine focused on aspirational, visually-led storytelling across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts—platforms where our Gen Z and millennial audiences live and engage. We’re also investing in event-led marketing, from pop-ups in key travel hubs to co-hosted experiences with boutique hotels and travel creators, designed to build offline trust and brand equity.

We’re currently building our own online media channel, which will serve as a discovery platform for perks, destinations and hotel partners, fueling SEO, discoverability and direct acquisition. Together, these efforts form a growth flywheel rooted in community, shareability and real-world moments worth talking about.

Tell us what process you’ve gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

In a previous iteration of this project, we failed because we didn’t take the time to gather customer insights before building. We learned from that mistake and made it a priority to engage potential users before writing a single line of code.

We visited airports and train stations across London, Manchester and Birmingham in the United Kingdom, New York, Berlin and Vancouver, conducting interviews with travelers about their habits and their relationship with credit cards. We spoke with over a 150 people aged 18 to 40. Their feedback played a central role in shaping our product strategy.

Key insight from these interviews was that younger users are under-indexed on premium credit cards but over-indexed on spending on experiences.

Our initial TAM (debt-averse, mid-range international travelers) is roughly $20 billion across North America and Europe alone.

How and when will you make money?

We operate on a subscription model with three tiers: Free, Lite ($150/year) and Pro ($460/year). Our business is designed for healthy unit economics, with lifetime value projected to exceed customer acquisition cost within the first year. Looking ahead, we have a compelling product roadmap that includes expanding into B2B offerings-allowing boutique hotels, travel brands and other partners to plug into the VanityPass ecosystem. This will open up new revenue streams, including platform fees and branded experiences, while creating value for both users and partners.

In short, we’re building a business that can scale across both consumer and partner segments, with monetization built into the core experience.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team?

I bring over a decade of experience at the intersection of product, brand and growth strategy, with a deep focus on Gen Z and millennial audiences. Most of my career in marketing and advertising has been spent building campaigns and launching products for this generation, whether it was helping global brands resonate with Gen Zs or working inside venture capital-backed startups to launch financial products like cards, savings tools and lending services tailored for young, digital-native users.

Before VanityPass, I founded Satice, a tech-enabled luxury short-term rental and home-hotel platform designed for business travelers seeking flexibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite launching during a volatile time, we reached 87% average monthly occupancy before sunsetting the platform. That experience gave me a front-row seat to the challenges—and opportunities—in the hospitality space, particularly when it comes to designing around evolving traveler expectations.

My co-founder is a leading AI engineer and former senior engineer at Pinterest. Together, we combine deep domain knowledge, technical firepower and go-to-market expertise to reimagine the future of loyalty and rewards in an AI-first world.

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?

Diversity is not a checkbox; it’s core to how and why we’re building VanityPass. Our team reflects a range of backgrounds across gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic origin. We’re also committed to working with diverse creators and travel voices to shape the product, brand and community from day one.

What’s been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

Balancing the boldness of the vision with the pragmatism required in early-stage startup execution. VanityPass sits at the intersection of travel, fintech and lifestyle, so designing a simple minimum viable product that conveys long-term potential without overcomplicating things has been both a challenge and a focus.

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact—so why are you going to be one of the lucky ones?

We’re not competing head-on with online travel agencies or legacy travel apps. We’re carving out a new category—credit card-style perks without the card—and doing it with a clear generational insight. By starting lean and obsessing over customer experience, we’re building a brand people want to talk about and share.

A year from now, what state do you think your startup will be in?

We expect to have:

• 15,000+ paying members
• Partnerships with 100+ hotels globally for our collections product
• $1 million+ in annual recurring revenue
• Rolled out social and community features, making travel planning and reward-sharing collaborative

We’ll be expanding our team, solidifying hotel and lifestyle partnerships and preparing to raise our next round of funding.

What is your end-game? (Going public, acquisition, growing and staying private, etc.)

Right now, we’re focused on building a profitable, beloved product. If the right acquisition opportunity helps us scale the vision faster, especially with a fintech or travel giant, we’d explore it. But we’re equally open to staying independent and growing into a category-defining lifestyle company.