People travel a lot. Our curiosity to explore different places and to witness a variety of cultures make the travel industry one of the leading service industries in the world. When traveling, individuals or families create a checklist of things they will pack for their journey. Clothes, passports, tickets, money, credit cards are among the necessities that one should have. For travel enthusiast and entrepreneur Atilio Spaccarotella, people often forget to secure one essential requisite to ensure care-free trips: travel safety. Having experienced the mishaps of travel insurance lax himself, Atilio created Rene, a company that provides insurance to travelers and businesses wherever they go.
Accidents are natural hazards, especially for people who love to engage in extreme activities. The harm even quadruples when one does it in a foreign country. Founding Rene, Atilio looks back to an incident that led him to form a team dedicated to offering protection and safety when traveling. In one of his travels, he was involved in a scuba diving incident, causing him hospital bills that were over the roof. He struggled and promised himself that people like him would never have to undergo the same.
“I remember the anxiety that I had because I had no clue what to do. I was in a foreign country, and I didn’t know who to call, and even though I had travel insurance, it was completely useless,” recalled Atilio. Even today, he would sometimes have anxiety attacks and feel a heavy sensation in his lungs—a trauma that the accident has inflicted on him. That is why he partnered with similar visionaries, Hugo Martinez and Gustavo Lindenberg, to create a platform that would prevent others from experiencing what he did.
Gustavo and Atilio go way back. They are long time friends and business partners, famous for their notable innovations in the Argentinian community. They founded ZDG Consulting when they were only high school students. The consulting firm they have created collaborates with other businesses to generate more income by modernizing their modes of trade through software development. Atilio was only 17 at the time.
After sitting down with many companies from various fields, the duo came to realize that the healthcare industry needed more help. After extensive research, they found out that the majority of the populace wait for long queues in clinics as there is no efficient system of appointments. To top that, almost all health establishments are understaffed, and technological resources are not accessible by many. So they invented a 24/7 telephone appointment system. The operation was such a big success that the Mexican government via the National Institute for Entrepreneurship (INADEM) requested their presence in a pitch event in Mexico. With their exceptional business model, Atilio and Gustavo bested their peers and their company, GTN Medical, went on to become one of the top startups that were disrupting the healthcare landscape in Mexico.
Now, with Rene, Atilio Spaccarotella wants to ensure that companies remain faithful to their travel duty of care obligations. They partnered with investors like Quake Capital, Lair East Labs, among others, to operationalize their vision in providing efficient travel insurance for traveling employees. With the pandemic, health services are getting paramount attention, and Rene is one that offers well-rounded, quick, and updated news, services, and assistance for clients anywhere in the world.
More than his desire to help travelers, Atilio also extends his hand to budding entrepreneurs through mentorship of social projects and active involvement in apps like Connected Heroes. “I truly believe that collaboration is key to creating better solutions for the whole world,” said Atilio.
For more information about Rene, visit their website and follow Atilio Spaccarotella on his official Linkedin and Instagram accounts.
