Startup story #11 - Aility

The solution developed by Aility enables hoteliers to make sophisticated data-driven decisions based on people flow analytics through artificial intelligence. In this brief interview, Christian Altrichter, co-founder and CEO, talks about his entrepreneurial journey.

When did the project start?
The idea behind Aility came to me at the beginning of my studies at USI, although I was already thinking of starting my own company before coming to Lugano. The opportunity to meet the right tech talent played a role in my choice of the master's programme. I then continued working on the idea during the Business Concept course, and by the end of it, I had a solid document that helped me assess the feasibility of the idea. When I look back, it was the perfect timing and everything just fell into place.

What does Aility do?
Aility provides highly accurate people detection and people counting data to hotel managers, simplifying back-of-house operations, removing redundant procedures, and enhancing guests’ experience to drive improved business results.

How did the project evolve since the beginning?
We started with a clear idea of how the final version of the product should look, combining our proprietary sensor and in-house trained model to measure the occupancy of hotel rooms. When we started talking to hotels, we noticed that, at the moment, the hardware part would be a potential obstacle for many. To address this, we decided to develop a second solution that does not involve hardware and allows potential clients to test it with just a few rooms to facilitate adoption as much as possible.  

What have you achieved so far, and what are the next steps?
A year ago, we raised our first funds which were instrumental in accelerating product development and implementing our first pilot project. Currently, we are raising the pre-seed round, which will allow us to work full-time on the startup. 

3 quick questions to wrap it up:

• How do you see your future? -– Developing new products and building companies. Becoming an investor would be a great thing.
• What is the hardest part of your entrepreneurial journey? – Doing startup and studies at the same time.
• What advice would you give to other students who are considering launching a startup? – Do not jump into financial insecurity too early. Make sure you have other sources of income until you reach solid proof of traction and have enough funds in your company bank account.