Our mission – Ella’s mission is to elevate the end to end travel experience by creating personal and frictionless experiences at each stage of the traveler’s journey. Today, Ella provides independent hotels with a new engagement channel to interact with their guests. Our mobile and web-based platform go beyond basic online check-in, increasing guest satisfaction and empowering partner hotels to grow their bottom line.
Meet the Founders – The company founders started Ella while attending the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Executive MBA program. Each of them represent different continents around the world and are passionate about travel, but all too familiar with the common pain around the traveler experience. They kicked off the Ella venture as part of the university’s Global New Venture Challenge and the Ella solution is actively being piloted with hotels around the world.
Michael Assante
Founder & Investor
Michael Assante holds over 15 years of executive leadership experience including 10+ years at Google. Michael has scaled high growth and globally distributed teams, he is a trusted advisor to marketing executives across industries. In addition to his app growth marketing expertise, Michael has deep and diverse sales experience ranging from high stakes tech to selling door-to-door in a sell nothing, make nothing environment.
Dr. Vasudev Kandade Rajan
Founder & Investor
Dr. Vasudev Kandade Rajan has the technical experience developing new technologies and products from concept and idea stage to launch. His current role is a technology lead for AI and algorithms at a leading sports communications company. He has secured several patents and regularly publishes technology articles.
Teddy Li
FouNder & Investor
Teddy Li has specializations in investing in global growth and technology focused companies and strong expertise in financial planning and analysis, investment analysis, capital allocations, and global accounting standards. As a global investor himself, Teddy understands deeply the importance of growing a company in capital disciplined manners. He will oversee the company’s capital raising activities, all major investments and capital allocation decisions, financial planning and analysis, and cost management to ensure the company is well-balanced between growth and profitability in the long term. Teddy has over 20 years of experience studying and working in China, the U.S., and Canada across different industries and functions including audit, venture capital, corporate development, telecommunications, and financial services.
Become a test partner
Submit application Here
If you are a hotelier interested in testing Ella at your hotel, please submit a demo and application request here. We are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and before we introduce new features broadly we are looking for the right test partners at no initial starting cost- just your feedback and collaborative partnership.
Join our team
Express interest Here
If you are passionate about revolutionizing travel, pushing the boundaries of technology, and wearing multiple hats let us know you are interested! Share your resume and provide us some brief context on why you are interested. We will be opening up future roles in business development, engineering, customer success, and marketing.
Ella 