CINCINNATI, OH / AGILITYPR.NEWS / August 26, 2021 / “Microtripping” venture RoadX Lab emerges as first Vitamin Collective studio, with backing from AAA Club Alliance
Vitamin Collective, a female-run venture building studio focused on healthcare, mobility and fintech, has launched its first official studio, RoadX Lab.
Founded by Emily Geiger in 2020 and backed by AAA Club Alliance (ACA), the third largest AAA club in the national AAA federation, RoadX Lab is designed to create hyper local travel-related solutions for pandemic-weary consumers who have a new-found desire to take to the roads.
Unlike traditional incubators and accelerators, Vitamin Collective’s approach is to collaborate with founders, corporate partners and investors to identify emerging market problems and develop market-focused venture companies to solve those problems. Once market opportunities are distilled, Vitamin establishes a themed studio, plugs in a network of experienced entrepreneurial talent, and builds the infrastructure for new company formation.
By streamlining the company-building process, engaged startup founders benefit because venture studios provide a wide range of services to fast-track the development of new companies. According to Global Startup Studio Network, startups that launch from studios experience 30% higher company success rates.
“We’re flipping a traditional innovation model on its head,” said Geiger. “We’re focused entirely on creating conditions for builders to do what they do, with funders already assembled who have a keen interest in solving the market problems we’ve identified.”
RoadX Lab: where travel meets mobility meets the future of work
In late 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, Geiger approached ACA about backing a Vitamin Collective studio focused on addressing and solving the numerous challenges and opportunities that have arisen around travel and mobility.
Both Geiger and ACA believed that the $8.9 trillion travel industry would come back from COVID and be reinvigorated as something new. For most U.S. travelers, road travel has become the preferred way to travel in uncertain times. A summer 2021 poll by AAA revealed that road travel was expected to increase over 52% compared to 2020, with a majority of it in their (respondents’) own home region.
In turn, Vitamin is following the growing trends of “travel working,” which enables people to work remotely while vacationing, and “microtripping,” for those who want to take smaller trips more frequently.
“The idea behind RoadX Lab is to create solutions for where travel meets mobility meets the future of work, giving ACA alternative pathways to serve its members and maintain its leadership position in travel innovation,” Geiger said. “The travel industry was severely disrupted during the pandemic. How is it being rebuilt? That’s what we want to influence. That’s the problem we’re trying to solve. And we believe RoadX Lab can be the blueprint for solving other big, disruptive market problems.”
Since beginning to recruit talent for the lab, over 100 candidates have applied to work on the lab project, and Vitamin has employed over 20 people on different projects. Vitamin believes it can create 10 companies in the next three years, creating hundreds of jobs. Its stretch goal is to build, back, support, or fund 100 companies in the next five years.
To learn more about Vitamin Collective, visit https://vitamincollective.com.
About Us
Vitamin Collective is a woman-owned, Midwest-based venture studio. Vitamin’s dynamic/revolutionary/fresh company-building model leverages a network of passionate entrepreneurs and company builders to construct the next generation of healthcare, mobility and fintech companies. Partnering with investors and corporations, Vitamin assembles the right community, capabilities, and capital to build, back, and fund new ventures. To learn more about or get involved in Vitamin Collective, visit www.VitaminCollective.com.
AAA Club Alliance, Inc. (ACA) is the third largest AAA club in the national AAA federation, and provides automotive, travel, and insurance services to more than six million members in Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, DC.
AAA provides automotive, travel, and insurance services to more than 62 million members nationwide and nearly two and a half million members in Ohio. AAA advocates for the safety and mobility of its members and has been committed to outstanding road service for more than 100 years. AAA is a non-stock, membership corporation working on behalf of motorists, who can map a route, access a COVID travel restriction map, find local gas prices and electric vehicle charging stations, discover discounts, book a hotel, and track their roadside assistance service with the AAA Mobile app (AAA.com/mobile) for iPhone, iPad and Android. For more information on joining or renewing a Membership, visit www.AAA.com.
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