09 Aug
|
Pilot (pilotplans.com)
|
Vancouver
09 Aug
Pilot (pilotplans.com)
Vancouver
Hey, Hi, Hello! ?
My name is Connor Wilson. I’m the Founder and CEO of Pilot.
We’re a travel tech company with the mission of helping people like you around the world discover and share memorable experiences in the real world, so you and others can live a happier, more fulfilling life.
But before I talk about us, I want to talk about you.
If you’re reading this , you’re probably either unemployed and need a job…
…or you’re already employed, but for some reason or another…
…you’re here…
…because whether you realize it or not, you’re not as happy as you could be.
There could be a lot of reasons for this. Here’s a few:
? You’re overworked and/or underappreciated
? You lack faith, trust or closeness to your colleagues or leaders
? Your company is bureaucratic, lacks transparency, or makes siloed top-down decisions
? You lack autonomy, freedom, or potential for growth
? You’re bored, aren’t learning or being challenged, or don’t care about what you’re working on or what your company does or who it serves
? Your company has an unhealthy or undesirable culture
We’ve been there.
I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way. Why you should work at Pilot ?♀️
If you think you’d like working at a company whose very purpose is to give you and others the absolute best life possible, in the most fun way possible, working on cool things with cool people, to help people have an awesome time and make memories…
…well then Pilot might just be the place for you.
It’s embedded into who we are. That’s why we have a public 23-page culture code.
Read it here to see if we vibe: https://bit.ly/3KmavZF
At Pilot you’ll get…
? A flexible schedule that works around your class schedule, with unlimited paid vacation (with manager approval/coordination) and competitive pay for an internship, plus stock options so you own a piece of your work.
? Near total autonomy and freedom. You pick your own projects, set your own goals, and work the hours you want, with who you want. Other than the days we get together in person, you work wherever you like. Our team travels all over the world, and you can too.
? Work with people who all want to be your friend (we actually hang out). Our team is incredibly talented, but we value humility.
? Leaders who own their mistakes (yes, that includes me), actively seek feedback to identify and solve them, and are pretty experienced. You can learn more about me at connorjwilson.com. TL’DR: this isn’t my first startup. My last one, NiceJob, sold for $30M in 2021 after we grew it for 3 years without investors, reaching $3.5M in annual recurring revenue.
? Decisions based on data, not based on that LinkedIn post your manager saw that one time. Everyone at every level is empowered to make decisions because we share everything and have a culture of transparency, trust, and experimentation.
✈️ It’s travel, so it’s super fun. It’s a startup, so it’s super challenging with a huge upside. And it’s social impact focused, so you’ll actually be helping people, not just maximizing profits.
? Paid travel on occasion, for training and research. So far we’ve paid for team trips to and around Thailand, Taiwan, Colombia, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, India, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, and more. These have been very valuable for the team and we’ll keep doing them.
? We’re proud to have a diverse team, with plans to become a B-Corp eventually.
⭐ We also have some great employer reviews here: glassdoor.ca/Reviews/Pilot-Reviews-E3311415.htm
Reviews and culture code: Glassdoor | Culture code | About Connor
“Okay, but what even is Pilot?” ?
Great question. Glad you asked.
Pilot is multiplayer consumer AI for travel: the free web & mobile app where groups plan, decide, & book trips together.
Think Notion or Google Docs, but purpose-built for travel, and simple enough that anyone can use it. More visual and interactive than a chatbot. It stays free because we make our money on the booking, not on paywalling the planning.
? We’ve been featured by The Washington Post, WIRED, Forbes, and TechCrunch. We’re Next Canada and Creative Destruction Lab alumni, were selected for TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200, were a New Ventures BC top 10 startup in 2023, and a BC Tech top 3 startup of the year in 2024.
? We’ve raised about CA$2.2M to date, from funds and from angels including the founders of Moment Energy, Nexonia, Farewill, and DayOne, plus an AI engineering leader at Meta.
? Today we’re a team of about 10, led by people who all ship code daily and talk to customers weekly. Check out the team at pilotplans.com/careers
? Our product is live (try it at pilotplans.com). We started with the free trip planner, and now we book too, as merchant of record across 3.2 million stays.
? Over 120,000 travelers have used Pilot to help book and plan their trips
⌚ And it seems to be working. After 10 minutes of planning, 60% of users say they’d be very disappointed to lose Pilot, against a 40% benchmark for product-market fit. People who book come back at 50% after 90 days, close to 3x the travel industry average. We’re rated 4.4 on Trustpilot. Most big OTAs sit under 2.
? We’re growing rapid. We went from near-zero to a $1.2M gross-booking run rate in six months, on $10,500 of ad spend. We’re live on Google Travel, which is distribution usually reserved for much later-stage companies, and we’ve signed Skyscanner, Viator, GetYourGuide, Tiqets, Omio, Enterprise, and Faye.
? We’re also unusually efficient. Net burn averaged about $14,600 a month in the first half of 2026, roughly 80% below typical for our stage, with a burn multiple of 0.83. Under 1 is top decile. That means new money goes to growth, not survival.
So that’s us.
Feel free to learn more about us at: pilotplans.com/careers The role. The goal. ?️
Here’s what we’re looking for from you:
It is very simple. We want someone to help us build our creator marketing strategy from scratch. We have never done it. The idea is to get Pilot in front of travel creators’ audiences, paid where it works and organic where we can, and to find out what actually moves the needle. Beyond that it is not defined, which is rather the point.
This is a blank page with a budget behind it, not a list of tasks. If you want a role where you find out whether something works,
rather than execute someone else’s plan, this is that one.
What you’ll be doing and learning ??
You don’t necessarily need to already have experience doing these (but it helps), and they are entirely subject to change based on what gets the most results. But here goes. The job duties are:
Building the Strategy
Work out which creators, platforms, and formats are worth our money and our attention
Build the case for what to test first, then go and test it
Figure out what a good deal with a creator looks like for us, and what a bad one looks like
Bring a point of view. Nobody here has done this before either
Running Creator Campaigns
Find and reach out to travel creators whose audience looks like our users
Negotiate and manage paid placements, sponsorships, and collaborations
Brief creators well enough that what they make actually works
Chase organic and earned coverage wherever we can get it without paying for it
Measuring What Works
Track what each creator and each campaign actually brings in
Be honest about what did not work, and say so early
Report back regularly with numbers rather than vibes
Double down on the formats and the creators that perform
Feeding the Rest of the Funnel
Repurpose creator content across our own channels
Work with the growth team so creator activity feeds everything else we are doing
Use AI tools to move faster without letting quality slip
Anything else as needed. We are a startup, so this is subject to change!
Treat everything above as a starting point, not a job spec carved in stone. It is not exhaustive, and it will change. “Should I apply??!??!?” ?
First of all, obviously.
It’s easy, and you can do it here: https://forms.gle/D1HrBVbDteJqXwZYA
Second of all, as long as you think you have either the necessary skills, or the ability to learn them very quickly to do this role, you’re good. We care about your ability to execute, not your experience, though it certainly can be an indicator.
That said, the ideal candidate probably has these traits…
Commercial Instinct
Curious about what makes people buy, not just what makes them watch
Comfortable with numbers, and can work out whether a campaign paid for itself
Willing to call something a failure quickly rather than defending it
Has opinions about which creators are worth it and which are inflated
Outreach and Negotiation
Not afraid to send the cold email, or the follow-up after it
Handles rejection well. Most creators will say no
Organised enough to run outreach without being chased
Can hold a position on price without burning the relationship
Craft and Taste
Has made content of their own, and can show it
Writes clearly and quickly, in a human voice
Comfortable in CapCut, Canva, Figma, or similar
Can tell the difference between content that performs and content that just looks nice
Professional Fit
Currently studying or recently finished, in marketing, communications, business, or something adjacent, or self-taught and able to prove it
Comfortable with a role that is genuinely undefined and will change as we learn
Based in or near Vancouver, and able to be with us in person 1 to 3 times a week
Comfortable with intern pay but excited by equity, training, autonomy, and rapid growth if you prove yourself
Loves travel and has done some of it
If you meet even 50-70% of these you could be a great fit!
📌 Content Intern, Creators (Vancouver)
🏢 Pilot (pilotplans.com)
📍 Vancouver