About Hayley

Hayley Melidonis is founder and CEO of Bubble — a platform building what she calls the "connected housing layer" for travel. Where Airbnb is space-first, Bubble is people-first: travelers join or lead a "bubble" to stay together, split costs, and connect around events, conferences, and retreats. Hayley left corporate roles at Uber, Nokia, Intel, and Virgin to scale an idea rooted in years of running shared ski houses in Lake Tahoe. She is also an angel investor, advisor, and podcast host.

What we talked about

Beyond the transaction — Why rental platforms excel at bookings but miss the community travel layer Bubble is building — and how post-COVID remote work sharpened the need for real-life connection.

Events as the beachhead — How partnerships with side-event producers at SXSW, Sundance, and similar gatherings drive matchmaking, with bubbles ranging from two people to entire "bubble villages."

Selling belonging, not beds — Hayley's framing for the product: guests think they're buying a room, but the real value is belonging, connection, and socially responsible travel.

Brand DNA from Virgin, Uber, and Burning Man — Freedom and serendipity from Virgin, click-simple product from Uber, and community culture from eight years on the playa.

Growth without paid social — Unmet demand, repeat bubblers, and inbound interest outpacing what the platform can fulfill today — plus the product bets ahead.

AI and the roadmap — Deterministic logic where possible, conversational booking where users already ask in natural language, and a newly hired product lead from Meta and Match.

Sharpest moments

On what Bubble actually provides:

We get paid for the room but what we provide is belonging.

On the gap in travel platforms:

how come there's a lot of platforms I can rent a property on, but none I can share it with.

On building more than software:

We're not building like just an app. We're building a movement.

On today's bottleneck:

we have unmet demand

On who shapes the product:

The customer owns product. We're the custodians of the product.

Key takeaways

• Bubble targets experiential travelers who want something nicer than a youth hostel without going solo — average age skews 30–40, but attitude matters more than demographics.
• Matchmaking blends practical filters (budget, location, room preferences) with shared context from events — if you both attend SXSW, you already have something in common.
• The tagline is "stay together, share together" — bubbles can be hotel blocks, full houses, or multi-property "bubble villages."
• Bubble leaders can monetize groups; the platform also explores branded bubbles and sponsorships for wellness and beauty brands at events.
• Hayley would have hired a product leader a year earlier — and she wants to simplify flows that still look too much like Airbnb.
• North star: a global community of socially responsible travelers — growth through referrals and NPS, not paid social spend.