Hardly a year goes by that industry veteran Johnny Thorsen
doesn’t make himself known in a big way. Sometimes through self promotion. I mean,
everybody’s got to do that occasionally. But much more often he makes himself
known through the promotion of others—you know, the little guys.
He was on the ground floor with Spotnana and Troop before
they linked up with Steve Singh; he was pushing blockchain innovation at
Winding Tree (now defunct) before PWC rolled out what every day looks more like
a commercial enterprise travel solution with partners Kayak and BlockSkye. Thorsen
put his bets on Thrust Carbon before that travel carbon calculator made serious
hay in corporate travel—and now is signed with a roster of mega clients and
TMCs. He knows an innovator when he sees one. After all, it’s in his DNA.
When his passion projects become successful, however, Thorsen
said he sometimes has to take a step back in terms of being a vocal booster. “I
can’t talk up Thrust at this point because it starts to look like a conflict of
interest,” he said. “The same thing happened with Troop.”
But even with his day job at Spotnana, he’s always got his
hands in the next big thing.
Thorsen’s own startup, he is the co-founder of Australia-based air emissions data tracker Envest Global, has taken on the
mantle of dissecting global air carrier claims about their own environmental
and carbon reduction credentials, and now issues annual ratings on carriers’ emissions
trajectories and investments in mitigation. An online portal now features an automated
daily AI-based content capture from around the world about sustainable aviation.
It’s accessible to airlines and corporate buyers for a fee—and some are paying
up. Envest signed its first airline customer to buy back its own consolidated
data in an API that also compares its data to its competitive set. The carrier
is among the world’s most environmentally forward—and they still see the value
in getting Envest’s third-party data.
Thorsen is also advising a Danish startup called Tryp.com that
focuses on combining air with last-mile transportation via bus and rail to that
next-city destination that may be just outside the logical radius of an
airport. He says it’s a leisure play, but a corporate travel and environmental
angle becomes clear very quickly, especially as more airlines in Europe embark
on air-rail partnerships to reduce travel emissions. The AI-powered travel tech
company is poised for international expansion in 2025. Another environmental
venture for Thorsen is Creturner, a carbon offsetting provider that focuses on
fast emissions reduction returns through creation and disposal of biochar. With
Thorsen’s help, the company has signed with three TMCs to offer a fast-return
offset to corporate travel programs.
Thorsen may have kept a low profile in these involvements
this year, and that’s fine. There’s a time to shout from the rooftops and a
time to leverage influence that stays under the radar. But there’s one aspect
of Thorsen’s newfound quietude that seems uncharacteristically subdued—at a
time when, it seems so obvious, there is much to be said.
That is regarding Thorsen’s 10-year pursuit of Traveltopia—that
smooth, environmentally aware business trip where the traveler’s needs are
anticipated by service providers sharing access to the traveler’s real-time
trip data. The concept is analogous to Madrona Ventures managing director and
Spotnana CEO Steve Singh’s long-pursued Perfect Trip. In an age of artificial
intelligence, both the concepts of Traveltopia and the Perfect Trip must be
bursting with new ideas, data connections and platforms. The fact that Traveltopia’s
originator has said close to nothing on the topic is just begging someone to ask
what the heck is going on?
Perhaps in a Spotnana context, Traveltopia will be merged
into Singh’s Perfect Trip concept. Or, perhaps, the silence is setting the
stage for rowdy new competition. One can only guess because it is a question Thorsen
won’t answer.