Claim Compass

Claim Compass was started by co-founders who had all felt the frustration of flight problems. As Tatiana Medkova put it, the team members had "personal stories of being really angry at an airline" over delayed or canceled flights and lost luggage. Their legal background, combined with the experience of a CMO who had worked on client acquisition for a top-tier airline, shaped the idea. The core insight was that passengers in Europe have a regulatory right to compensation, yet more than 90% of them don't know it, and airlines make the remaining claims difficult through endless processes and poor customer service.

The company launched in January 2016 as more of a side project, initially to test the service in Eastern Europe, where it had never been offered. The team built a web app where passengers could submit a claim online in under three minutes, after which Claim Compass handled the rest. Behind the scenes, an internal claims management system automated most of each case using legal templates, and only complicated cases needed a legal specialist. The company had built relationships with more than 50 airlines. As of the interview, it had three co-founders in Mountain View and four employees in Europe and Bulgaria.

The company initially relied on "guerrilla marketing" with little paid advertising. Once revenue started coming in, the team reinvested heavily in acquisition. Tatiana said they were advertising through Facebook and Google AdWords across many European countries and languages, with customer acquisition costs between $15 and $27. Each claim earned the company an average of about $105 (25% of a roughly $420 refund), so the spend was a small fraction of the revenue per customer. Monthly paid marketing spend was about $15,000 in December and was expected to reach $20,000 to $30,000 in January.

The growth was strong. The company reported about 75% month-over-month growth over three months and passed roughly 1,000 eligible claims in January. Paid acquisition economics worked because the commission per claim far exceeded the cost to acquire a customer. The team also saw a bigger opportunity in partnerships: an API that could screen eligible flights and file claims on the same day, integrated with booking engines and online travel agencies. The main competitor, AirHelp, operated mainly in Western Europe, and many smaller players were not automated. Some rivals offered upfront payouts of up to 50% of compensation, a model that could lose money.

Claim Compass was in the 500 Startups program in Mountain View, with its demo day set for February 15. The team planned to use demo day as a kickoff for fundraising, looking to raise $1 million on a $5 million cap, preferably as a convertible note, though European investors commonly prefer equity rounds. Before the program, the company had been bootstrapped. It had received $150,000 from 500 Startups in exchange for 6% in a convertible security, plus an additional $50,000 from a 500 Startups micro fund in Istanbul.