There is value in Hipmunk no doubt, but I still can't get over that they are just hooked into a single affiliate offer and were able to get $1 million in angel funding, two posts (and video!) from TechCrunch on what is really only a feature but is being pitched as a complete business.
Only a feature.
I just want to shake people sometimes.
It's not just a feature. It is the feature. Buying a plane ticket is the single biggest element of making travel decisions. The experience for discovering the optimal balance of carrier, connections and price is, let's be clear, one of the most important, expensive and stressful elements of planning a trip.
What Hipmunk has demonstrated here is that they are in the business of making an important, universal process much easier. They've demonstrated a very specific insight for solving the problem.
So if they can, from day one, make money doing this while hinting at their unique insight, that shit is magic for anyone looking to make an early bet on a consumer product. Imagine what they'll be able to do with the rest of the travel space.
Who wouldn't want in on that action?
There's a pretty clear pattern of success for businesses who turn up and remove the bullshit from useful but sloppy product categories: Google, Facebook and Mint, for example.