Second-time founders, first-hand pain.
Nikhil Sethi and Garrett Ullom built and sold their last company to Accenture. Then they lived the group-hotel-booking problem from both sides — and started Workgrounds to fix it.
Founded in NYC · Launched summer 2024 · $2.6M pre-seed
From a classroom to a company. Twice.
The journey that led to Workgrounds spans two decades, one acquisition, and a $75B+ market still stuck on phone calls.
A Northwestern classroom
Nikhil Sethi and Garrett Ullom meet as engineering undergrads at Northwestern University — in a class called “Probability of Statistics in Random Signals.” The problem sets end; the partnership doesn’t.
Adaptly: from dorm-room concept to 200+ people
They co-found Adaptly, an advertising technology company, and spend nearly nine years scaling it from a college idea to a 200+ person business. Along the way, both are named to Forbes 30 Under 30 — twice.
Acquired by Accenture
In December 2018, Adaptly is acquired by Accenture Interactive. Nikhil goes on to a Managing Director-level role inside one of the largest companies on earth — roughly 800,000 people.
The pain they couldn’t unsee
At a 200-person startup and inside an 800,000-person enterprise, the same problem: booking one hotel room takes minutes online, but booking five or more for an offsite means weeks of calls and emails with hotel sales teams. Group blocks can save 30–40% — but they can’t be sourced online.
Workgrounds
They team up again and found Workgrounds in New York City: AI agents that source, negotiate, and coordinate hotel room blocks behind the scenes — no workflow change for bookers or hotel sales teams. After a successful pilot, Workgrounds launches in summer 2024 and announces a $2.6M pre-seed round that November.
Read the launch announcementThe founders
Nine years building Adaptly together. Now building again — this time to take the phone calls out of group travel.
Nikhil Sethi
Co-Founder & CEO
Co-founded Adaptly out of Northwestern and led it for nearly nine years through its acquisition by Accenture, then served in a Managing Director-level role at Accenture. Two-time Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. Northwestern and Dreamit Ventures alum.
Garrett Ullom
Co-Founder
Co-founded Adaptly alongside Nikhil, helping grow it from a college concept to a 200+ person company acquired by Accenture. Two-time Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. Northwestern and Dreamit Ventures alum.
One room is easy. Five rooms shouldn’t be hard.
In a $75B+ US corporate travel market, group blocks can yield 30–40% savings — but they still can’t be sourced online. Workgrounds’ AI agents handle the sourcing, negotiation, and coordination behind the scenes, so booking ten rooms feels as easy as booking one.
What we believe
Lessons from building Adaptly, sharpened inside Accenture, applied to group travel.
Speed is a feature
Waiting days for a hotel quote is unacceptable. Our agents deliver real bids in hours, not weeks.
Focus wins
Happy customers are our priority. We stay focused on what actually makes their lives easier, and we bring that discipline to solving one problem extraordinarily well: group hotel bookings.
No workflow change
Bookers keep booking. Hotel sales teams keep selling. Our AI handles the coordination in between — nobody has to learn a new tool.
Human-centric AI
We automate the drudgery, not the hospitality. Technology should free people up to be more human.