Our Story
Shep was founded (as Complai) in late 2016 by a founding team with a combined 11 years of experience in the travel technology space. In addition to the core team, advisors and investors include representatives from Fintech (Sofi, Visa), Travel (Expedia, Sabre, HomeAway, Kayak, American Airlines, Concur) and HR channel partnerships (Insperity).
After being embedded at a major global distribution system (GDS), working on integrating a startup’s technology into a booking tool, Shep co-founder and CEO Daniel Senyard realized that no matter how many bells and whistles a corporate booking tool has, travelers still want to book on their favorite sites.
And so Daniel, along with co-founders, Rey Garcia, and Rafael Torres, started Shep to eliminate the natural tension that exists between a company’s need for control and employees’ desire for freedom by allowing traveler autonomy and real-time manager/TMC visibility and reporting.
About Shep
Founded in 2016, Shep is an award-winning travel data, communication and digital adoption platform (DAP) that helps enterprises manage and measure travel behavior both inside corporate booking environments, like Concur, as well as on consumer travel sites, like Expedia and Airbnb. Shep uses browser extension technology to overlay messaging and user interaction elements on top of corporate and consumer travel sites. Shep also collects cross-site booking and behavioral data so that travel managers and travel management companies can understand what, where, and why employees are choosing to book their business travel. More at www.sheptravel.com.
Coverage
Recent
The Beat
Partnerships, Products Abound As Cottage Industry Grows Around Covid Restriction Tracking
The Company Dime
FCM Travel Solutions
Shep Provides Emergency Coronavirus Notifications to Corporate Travel Programs
BTN
Shep Inks Data Integration Deal with Riskline
Sustaining the Future: Booking Tools Begin to Measure Up
BTN’s 2020 Innovate Conference – Honorable Mention: Shep
Shep Plugs into Automated Safety Data from Sitata
Shep Launches Free Pop-Up Alert Service
Features
Austin Startups
Austin AI Startups Raised More Than $50 Million in 2017
Austinpreneur’s SXSW 2018 Wrap-up
The American Genius
How I pitched the CEO of Reddit onstage at SXSW with no notice by Daniel Senyard
Built In Austin
5 Austin tech teams welcome new leadership, including former execs from Netflix and Travelocity
Business Travel News
Shep Pivots to Enterprise Clients
Smaller Players That Are Finding Their Niche
The Beat
Shep Browser Extension, Which Polices Web Shopping, Starts Small, Unmanaged
The Company Dime
Startup applies policy to web buys for small businesses
Nineteenth Century Tech joins SEO, Data Mining in Business Travel Startup Marketing
FINSMES
Moonshots Capital Closes Seed-Stage Venture Capital Fund, at $20M
How I Raised It
How I raised it with Daniel Senyard of Shep
HRPartner
5 Employee Induction Best Practices from HR Experts
PhocusWire
FCM Travel Solutions invests in business travel startup Shep
Business travel, part 4: How data management can minimize trip “leakage”
Plug and Play
Plug and Play Announces 158 Startups Accepted Into Their Final Batches Of The Year (Winter 2018)
Shep in Plug and Play Winter 2018 Batch 6
PYMNTS
The Key To Changing Employee Travel Booking Behavior? Don’t Fight It
Silicon Hills News
At Capital Factory, Shep Founder Pitches Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on the Fly at SXSW
Travel Tech Con 2018
15 finalists of Travel Tech Con 2018 Pitch Competition announced!
512 Tech
Austin startup’s founder gets a surprise chance to pitch Reddit CEO Steve Huffman at SXSW
Venture Beat
Complai Raises $1.4M Seed Round to Save Growing Companies on Their Second Largest Expense Travel
Voyager HQ
5 TRENDS HAPPENING IN BUSINESS TRAVEL, AND THE STARTUPS MAXIMIZING THEM
Press Releases
Shep Provides Emergency Coronavirus/COVID-19 Notifications to Corporate Travel Programs
FCM Travel Solutions Strengthens Its Innovation Program with Investment in Shep
Shep Wins Travel Startup Competition at Plug and Play Winter Summit
Shep Accepted into Plug and Play Travel and Hospitality Accelerator
Shep Raises $1.4M Seed Round to Save Growing Companies on Their Second Largest Expense, Travel
Awards
Duty of Care Awards
Duty of Care Awards 2021 Shortlist
Shep has been shortlisted for the Duty of Care awards in the Technology category. The competition, launched by International SOS, is intended to “to recognise organisations and honour their investment and innovation in protecting the health, safety, security and wellbeing of their global workforce.”
Business Travel News
“Browser plug-in Shep was originally designed to help corporates get to grips with travel programme leakage but in the year of the pandemic successfully pivoted to integrate Covid-19 related messaging in booking tools. It aims to bring together Covid-related information in the booking flow as a browser extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge as well as compatible online booking tools.”
Innovators You Should Know 2017
“Austin-based startup Shep, formerly known as Compl.ai, is a browser plug-in that facilitates open bookings that fall within the guidelines of a company’s travel policy. CEO Daniel Senyard spoke to BTN’s Julie Sickel about how the tool can help companies boost compliance.”
Runner-up at BTN Innovate & Flight Centre partnership announcement
“Shep’s open booking policy and expense-capture tool was ‘one of the more forward-thinking business solutions’ presented during the Innovate competition…”
“Shep’s strategy of installing a layer of management on top of off-channel bookings will become increasingly important as the travel booking ecosystem evolves…”
PhocusWire
“The Shep platform connects the world of corporate travel policy with the growing need to give employees greater flexibility to book their own travel.”
Skift
The Skift 2018 Corporate Travel Innovators List
“Corporate travel is extremely resistant to innovation because a select handful of gatekeepers make it difficult for new entrants to gain access to the content and data that is needed. These players are driving the industry forward by fixing how travelers book and experience business travel.”