He builds software that makes a hotel's website stop shouting and start showing.
FOUNDER & CEO, HOVR // PHILADELPHIA, PA
The grin of a man who replaced a 20-person video crew with one person and 45 seconds.
The Assignment
Every hotel on earth has a hard drive full of gorgeous footage. Drone shots of the rooftop. The barista pulling an espresso at 6 a.m. The suite with the panoramic view. And nearly all of it sits unused while the website shows a grid of thumbnails and a "Book Now" button doing the heavy lifting alone.
Jason Craparo built Hovr to fix exactly that. It is a patented, no-code layer that sits on top of a brand's existing website and drops the right clip at the right moment - mention a "sunrise coffee on the patio" and the video of that moment appears, in context, without a developer, a redesign, or a 45-day agency project.
The pitch is blunt and it travels well: the average guest visits 38 websites before booking a room, roughly 70% of them on a phone. Most tools chase the return visit. Hovr is built to win the visit happening right now.
One human in 45 seconds can do what used to take three to 20 people, 30 to 45 days.
- Jason Craparo, on what Hovr replaces
Content In Context
Hovr rides on top of the site a brand already has. Drag, drop, publish. No rebuild, no engineering ticket, no waiting on the agency.
Copy about a rooftop view triggers the rooftop video. The moment the guest is curious is the moment the answer appears.
A TikTok-style branching browse: guests pick room types, breakfast, nightlife, and the platform reorders the story around them.
Click-through rate: Hovr deployments vs. the industry baseline
Figures cited by Craparo across hospitality podcast interviews. Relative scale for illustration.
The Long Runway
Jason grew up in Endicott, New York, an IBM manufacturing town where the work ethic came standard. He ran a landscaping business at 12 and was washing dishes at 14. By 21 he was a managing partner running Sonic Drive-In franchises in Myrtle Beach - learning margins, labor, and the theater of service the hard way, one order window at a time.
Then the turn toward mission. He spent six years at Juma Ventures, a national social enterprise that employs inner-city youth across six US cities, rising to the executive and site-director level in San Diego. The city noticed: the Mayor appointed him to the Equal Opportunity Commission, and he picked up an ABC 10News Community Leadership award along the way.
An MBA from Babson - the school ranked first for entrepreneurship for more than two decades - came with the building's top honor, the Roger W. Babson Award, plus the Sorenson Scholar distinction. He even holds a plant-based nutrition certificate from Cornell, because standing still was never really the plan.
His first swings at software were Contap and Hio - relationship-building apps. Hovr launched in 2021 with a grand billing: "the world's first and only Networking as a Service." That version did not take off. So Craparo pointed the same patented technology at an industry that already lived and breathed on storytelling - hotels and travel - and it flew.
The Route
Landscaping business, then dishwashing in Endicott, NY - an IBM town where work ethic was the local dialect.
Managing partner of Sonic Drive-In franchises in Myrtle Beach.
Earns private pilot license; later trains in advanced aerobatics.
Executive / site-director team at Juma Ventures across six US cities. Appointed to San Diego's Equal Opportunity Commission.
MBA with the Roger W. Babson Award and Sorenson Scholar honor.
Founds Contap and Hio, relationship-building networking apps.
Launches Hovr as "Networking as a Service," then pivots into hospitality and travel marketing tech.
Leads Hovr as founder & CEO from Philadelphia; a dozen patents granted.
If it's not 10 times better than current solutions, it may be hard to penetrate this market.
- Craparo's rule for building in a crowded field
Field Notes
Craparo's read on the market is that hospitality is unusually receptive to good tools. Hotels already invest in photo shoots, influencer collaborations, and guest uploads - the content exists. They value authentic storytelling over aggressive selling. And every property is its own URL, which turns one good sale into many.
The results back the theory. National-park lodging operator Zanterra credited record-breaking Christmas and July sales in part to Hovr. Properties like London House Chicago lean on it to show off a rooftop venue and a Magnificent Mile address. Notably, more than half of clicks go to secondary calls-to-action - "learn more," "explore" - which is the sound of a browser turning into a believer.
Pricing lands between roughly $299 and $499 a month depending on traffic, and clients like to point out that a single booked night can cover it. Revenue attribution runs straight through GA4, so the founder can point at the number, not a vibe.
Off The Clock
Certified private pilot since 2008 - flies Cessna and Piper, and trained in advanced aerobatics.
Runs and races triathlons. The discipline shows up in the product philosophy.
Father of three. The "father of 3" line is right there in his own LinkedIn tagline.
History buff - if he could time-travel, he'd pick the Revolutionary period. Bucket-list city: Tokyo.
Has taught as an instructor at General Assembly, passing on the operator's playbook.
Holds a plant-based nutrition certificate from Cornell. Curiosity is a lifelong side project.
In His Words
The Rolodex
Pass It On
Sources: LinkedIn, Crunchbase, The Modern Hotelier, Entrepreneur's Enigma / Goldstein Media, Marketing Podcast Network, HioSocial on Medium, The Org, General Assembly. Facts drawn from public interviews and profiles.