robwebb2k

My good friend Evan Reece started the innovative company Liftopia a few years back with his friend and then co-worker Ron Schneidermann. Both previously worked at Hotwire and decided to take the idea of liquid prices and markets to the ski world and create a web-based market for discount lift tickets. Liftopia had 7 resorts on board last year and are heading into this season with 50 resorts signed up…solid growth by any measure. I know skiers across the country will love this service, especially in regions like Northern California, Utah, Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, and the Northeast where weekend skiers have a variety of resorts to choose from. Logic and market theory dictate that fixed prices don’t make any sense in situations like these. Skiers should get cheaper tickets the further out in advance that they buy them (time value of money + risk they incur from not knowing conditions in advance) and resorts should slash prices when conditions are poor and they want to get people to the resort. One challenge the guys are going to face is getting resorts to constantly jigger their prices, although it seems that need for revenue (and maybe even off the shelf pricing algorithms) would take care of this…

Liftopia got some great press in the Boston Globe yesterday.