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Michelle
Peluso
Title: Currently, Chief
Operating Officer of Travelocity; formerly CEO of Site59
(Travelocity bought Site59 for $43 million in cash on March 27, 2002,
just 2 years after we launched the site. Site59 achieved profitability
just prior to the purchase, and continues to grow at a very fast pace)
Personal
Information
Company name: Site59 and Travelocity
Company
description:
Site59 is the leading online travel company for last-minute travelers,
powering
the last minute deals section of over
24 major travel websites. Site59 creates packages from heavily discounted
air and hotel inventory, puts a margin on the package — and then
sells through our own website and our 24 partner websites to consumers
around the country. Travelocity is the world's most popular online
travel company.
Education: BS Wharton; MA in Philosophy,
Politics, Economics at Oxford University
Primary place of residence: New York,
New York and Dallas TX (I split my time)
It would surprise people that I….: have
often taken the road less traveled — coming out of Wharton, I turned
down all my job offers to go study philosophy on a scholarship at Oxford
University in England. Similarly, after receiving several promotions
at the Boston Consulting Group, I left the business world to go to Washington,
D.C. to serve as a White House Fellow and Sr. Advisor to the Secretary
of Labor.
P.O.V.
(Point of View)
I
became an entrepreneur because…:
Growing up, I watched my dad successfully build an environmental engineering
company from a handful of friends to having hundreds of employees. I
loved watching him at company picnics, because I could tell how enormously
proud he was of the company's success and the jobs it provided
for the community. I knew then that I wanted to build a business myself.
Best way to respond to criticism and doubters…: Take
the nugget of wisdom that often comes with most criticism; improve your
business model because of it; and then move on and don't waste
another moment thinking about it.
Best definition of a successful entrepreneur: Someone who
has the audacity to dream big and the courage to go after that vision;
someone who is always prepared to make tough decisions; and most importantly,
someone who always puts the interests of the team and the company first.
Most challenging part of your job: Sleep! When you are an
entrepreneur, it's hard to find any "down time". You
can leave work, but if you are really passionate about what you do (and
you need to be!), you'll often take the challenges / opportunities
of the day with you into the evening hours. Far too many times, I found
myself waking up in the middle of the night, and jumping back on email
because I had figured something out and just couldn't sleep until
I had articulated it. So, "I'll sleep when I'm dead" becomes
a favorite motto!
Biggest impact of the Wharton School: Wharton taught me all
the basic frameworks for successful entrepreneurship. More importantly,
I made some wonderful friends at Wharton — many of whom still serve
as a sounding board when I want to test new ideas.
Best memory of your Wharton days: While at Wharton, I ran
a program called BRIDGES which matched up Wharton undergrads with West
Philadelphia middle school students for mentoring relationships. I remember
many wonderful days with my peers and the children, and to this day,
I'm still very close to a family in West Philadelphia whose son
participated in the program. Now he's married and in the ARMY,
and I'm godmother to all three of his children.
Close
calls
How
you started your business: While I was down
in the White House, I received a call from BCG (the Boston Consulting
Group). They had a few business ideas, and suggested that if I liked
any one of them enough, I could come back and start the company. A few
people in the NY office had started working on the notion of a last-minute
lifestyle website that catered to all last-minute needs (site59 — for
the 59th minute of planning). While I thought the concept was too broad,
I loved the last-minute travel nugget embedded in the overall idea.
I left the White House, moved to NY, and started the company — all
within about 48 hours! BCG put in the initial seed money, and within
6 months, we had launched the beta version of our website and shortly
thereafter, secured our first significant round of funding from iFormation
(a partnership of Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic, and BCG) and several
leading hotel companies.
Pivotal moment in growing your business: While all entrepreneurial
experiences are almost by definition roller-coasters, our most pivotal
moment occurred after 9/11. Our office was located just two blocks from
the Towers, so the emotional upheaval was enormous. Making matters worse,
while we had been growing at a very fast pace prior to the event, after
9/11, revenues dropped off by more than 70% for the month of September.
Of course, that meant that our burn rate increased significantly as well.
We had been in acquisition conversations leading up to that day, but
given the state of our business, we decided to call off all acquisition
conversations, and to double down and re-grow the business. In many ways,
it was like starting from scratch again. However, our investors kept
the faith, put in additional capital and took my direction in focusing
on growth rather than cost-cutting. Our employees worked harder than
they ever had to re-grow the business; and we all spent Monday nights
cooking with the local firehouse for the next year to help ensure we
could be a positive part of the community rebuilding efforts. In the
end, I'm very proud to say, by January, we had achieved August
revenues; by February, our revenues were 50% more than January, and by
March, we were double where we had been in August, profitable, and were
acquired by Travelocity, earning all of our employees and investors a
terrific return.
Most interesting non-entrepreneurial job offer you've declined:
Taking a policy role on the Gore campaign.
Biggest surprise you encountered growing your business: How
much fun it is to be a female entrepreneur and mentor to other women!
Most difficult decision you're glad you
made: To fight off all attempts at reducing headcount after
9/11. While reducing our burn made sense, in the end, given how quickly
we were able to rebound, it would have been a disaster to morale and
to our progress had we made deep cuts. Instead, we used the wonderful
team we had and their enormous dedication to grow our way out of the
crisis quickly.
Entrepreneur
to Entrepreneur
Favorite
Web site:
www.site59.com and www.travelocity.com,
of course! Being an entrepreneur, how could I say otherwise?
Book
that most influenced your thinking: A Room
of One's Own has always reminded me how critical it is to believe
in yourself
Favorite activity outside of business: Traveling, skiing,
reading, and serving on several non-profit boards
Goal still pursuing: Returning Travelocity to the leadership
position in online travel; and finding my way back to the political arena
when I've done all I've wanted to do in the business world.
Person most influential to your success: The management team
of Site59 — particularly Tracey Weber, our COO.
Person you most admire: Hmm...lots of people: my father
and mother, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela — I admire people
who see how the world can be and have the conviction and the courage
to fight for change despite all obstacles.
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