Subscription-based business models are gaining traction as more companies shift to ‘as a service’ providers. For Inspirato LLC, a young luxury vacation and hospitality company, its subscription-based service not only establishes their payment structure, it defines their business value proposition.

“The subscription allows us to forecast and scale the platform to give more to our members. On the members side, the membership is their commitment to spend time with their loved ones. Subscription is that ongoing power that helps us help them spend time with the people the love,” said Sebastian Gnagnarella, senior vice president of technology and information technology at Inspirato. 

Gnagnarella shared his company’s story on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, hosted by Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), at this year’s Zuora Subscribed event in San Francisco, California. (* Disclosure below.)

A good problem to have

Gnagnarella shared the story of how Inspirato quickly outgrew its homegrown payment system.

“We were managing our subscription charges through a homegrown system, and that worked alright when we had 5,000 members. But we knew when we grew to 50,000 members in the future we needed something else,” he said. 

When it came time to select a partner for subscription handling, Inspirato sought out like-minded organizations they could grow with together. They chose Zuora Inc. as its primary partner in the endeavor.

“We knew we wanted something cloud. We knew we wanted something with strong API’s and a strong foundation. We also knew we wanted someone that was disrupting the business because that’s how we feel about ourselves,” Gnagnarella concluded. “We feel that we are disrupting the travel business.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Zuora Subscribed 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Zuora Subscribed 2017. Neither Zuora Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE