With a $25 million investment, Inspirato names a new CEO
- Luxury Club SDABAC
- Oct 18, 2023
- 2 min read
Inspirato, a luxury vacation subscription service, has named current board member Eric Grosse as its next CEO to succeed founder and outgoing CEO Brent Handler.
After 13 years as CEO, Handler retires, and Grosse, a co-founder and current president of the Expedia Group-owned travel website Hotwire, was formerly president of Expedia worldwide.
It is the second significant reorganization in Inspirato's management in the past three months after the firm parted ways with Webster Neighbor, its former CFO and chief strategy officer, in July.
At the same time, Capital One Ventures announced that it had invested $25 million in Inspirato through a convertible note investment. Although the announcement of the investment was made in early August, Inspirato stakeholders did not vote to approve the transaction until September 26.
Inspirato will benefit from "broad operating flexibility" from the investment as it strives to offer distinctive luxury vacations to its members and visitors.
Grosse said: “We’re incredibly excited to commence this strategic partnership with Capital One Ventures. The investment supports Inspirato’s long-term profitability goals while ensuring our existing and future members continue to benefit from our first-class service and certainty while experiencing the ultimate luxury vacations.”
The subscription brand revealed its second round of employment cuts this year a few weeks before the investment news initially went public, having fired about 50 team members [about 6% of its staff] in July after a 12% team reduction in January. Technology, business intelligence, and human resources divisions were among the affected departments. Jeff Hartman, senior vice president of marketing at Inspirato, described the reductions as a "right-sizing" of the company.
Inspirato revealed a net loss of $7.3 million in December during its Q3 quarterly earnings call. The company blamed the losses on rising operating costs and slower than expected signups for Pass, its subscription-based service that launched in 2019 and is intended to give users more flexibility, added value, and over one million trip options in more than 100 locations worldwide.
A net loss of $5.9 million was then recorded in the first quarter of this year, which was a major improvement over the loss of $24 million registered in the previous quarter.
The private travel club completed its business combination with Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company [SPAC], in February 2022, at which point it started trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, generating more than $100 million in net proceeds and achieving an initial valuation of about $1.1 billion.
Since then, the share price of Inspirato on the Nasdaq has fallen precipitously, from a high of $3.60 at the beginning of March 2022 to the current value of $0.026 at the time of writing.
With rooms at five-star hotels and resort partners, unique travel experiences, and branded, regulated luxury vacation houses available only to members and guests, Inspirato administers a portfolio of carefully chosen vacation choices.
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