tours-and-activities
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Aaron Fessler
He built booking software for the tours-and-attractions world by first living inside it - running a 100-acre racetrack in the Nevada desert. Now Aaron Fessler wants to hand every operator the tools he wished he'd had.
TripWorks
TripWorks is a New York-based, AI- and business-intelligence-driven booking, automation, and management platform built for tour, activity, and attraction operators. Founded in 2019 by Aaron Fessler and described as 'built by operators for operators,' the platform consolidates online and in-person bookings, reservations, dynamic pricing, digital waivers, staff and resource scheduling, OTA channel management, and marketing automation into a single system. It powers thousands of daily bookings worldwide and, following a $6M Series A in January 2026 led by Spring Mountain Capital, is expanding AI-driven pricing, revenue optimization, and predictive demand tools.
Xola
Xola is a San Francisco-based SaaS platform that provides enterprise-grade booking, marketing, and operations software for tour operators and activity providers. Founded in 2011, Xola helps over 1,200 businesses in the tours and activities industry manage reservations, process payments, automate marketing, and grow their operations — all from a single cloud-based platform. With integrations across Google, Groupon, Expedia, TripAdvisor, and 75+ other apps, Xola brings enterprise-caliber tools to an industry that has historically been underserved by technology.
J. Scott Zimmerman
J. Scott Zimmerman is the CEO and co-founder of Xola, a San Francisco-based SaaS platform that powers booking, back-office management, and marketing for tour and activity operators worldwide. A licensed physician who completed a neurology residency at Stanford, Zimmerman chose Stanford precisely for its proximity to Silicon Valley, coding in Python during spare hospital moments - sometimes until 2am - while simultaneously building the company that would become Xola. He founded Xola in fall 2011 after recognizing that real-time technology had transformed flight, hotel, and car rental reservations, but the $135 billion tours-and-activities market remained largely undigitized. Backed by investors including Rakuten Travel, Michael Burry (of 'The Big Short' fame), and Google Analytics co-creators Scott and Brett Crosby, Xola has grown to serve thousands of operators across North America, Western Europe, and beyond.