Entrepreneur Bart Cant moved to the U.S. from Belgium in 2000, settling in Charlotte to work for IBM and various consulting firms. He started Rethink Labs, his own blockchain consulting firm, in 2019, and soon thereafter infused the firm’s operations with AI. In his capacity running Rethink Labs, Cant began talking to financial services professionals—many his own clients—about what kinds of products consumers want.
One pain point the blockchain specialist encountered directly surfaced during an experience at a hotel in Las Vegas. A long wait at a concierge desk made him think, “What if I just text my question to them?” Cant began to think of the possibilities of a text message service that is more convenient for guests and service employees.
“That was the genesis of [our company’s name]. We eventually began building an [AI] product, and splitting it from the consulting organization,” Cant said.
That product was an AI text-messaging assistant he later named Msg2Ai.
Launched in April 2024, Msg2AI is essentially a messaging platform that “takes all the friction away” from traditional communication, according to Cant. It provides easy guest communication for hotels, vacation rentals, and event companies, with fast responses to reduce workload for employees.
The platform is built to assist with check-ins, guest services, and networking facilitation for events. Some of its key benefits include 24/7 AI support and multilingual communication. Per Cant, the AI assistant speaks 126 languages.
Msg2Ai also doesn’t require downloads, URLs, user IDs, or passwords. Users can communicate with it through their message app or WhatsApp—a convenience the founder prioritized because more people are hesitant to download more apps on their devices.
“That’s kind of the core driver of why we think our technology is, in many cases, the right way to communicate with an AI,” the founder said.
The month of its launch, Msg2Ai had its first pilot customer: the Seed The South Capital Summit in Charlotte. After helping to facilitate communication throughout that conference, the startup delivered its product, AI Ambassador to various events and companies across North Carolina, including the Venture135 Conference and Dexit Digital Accounts & Assets. They even expanded their reach to a resort in Greece.
“That also gives a good viewpoint on how to use AI text messaging internationally,” Cant said.
Driving features
To drive Msg2AI’s mission of assisting hospitality entities, the branding and voice of the startup’s AI Ambassador are designed to fall under the full control of a certain company. For instance, at the Seed The South summit, the AI assistant was nicknamed “Sam” after the event’s founder, Sam Smith.
The AI’s sentiment analysis feature makes it intelligent enough to detect emotions from users—so if someone is frustrated with a certain service, it will understand. The platform will then connect that user with a designated employee, providing more efficient communication between the client and the company.
“The difference here now is that you really get to understand what people are thinking because of what they’re asking for,” Cant expressed. “So if they are asking for, you know, a specific agenda, it’s because they’re interested in that topic.”
Structure and the journey so far
Msg2Ai offers three plans for businesses (with a 75% discount available at the time of this writing). The $9.99 starter package allows users 250 text messages, email support, and access to agent support. The “professional plan” offers the same benefits, along with the sentiment analysis tool and enhanced web scraping capabilities. Finally, an “expert plan” allowing 5,000 messages is also available with a monthly price that depends on a business’s needs.
To date, Cant has bootstrapped the startup.
Last fall, Msg2Ai was accepted into the first Charlotte cohort of GBeta, a seven-week program that runs in multiple cities. Cant expressed how much it helped the AI gain further traction.
Another achievement Cant highlighted was the startup’s expansion to WhatsApp, which enabled current international customers to bring RCS (Rich Communications Services) back to the United States.
Alongside their current market in the U.S and Europe, he hopes to expand their services to the Middle East, specifically Gulf Cooperation Council countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Msg2AI
Founder: Bart Cant
Founded: 2024
Team size: 5
Location: Charlotte
Website: msg2ai.xyz
Funding: Bootstrapped
In the meantime, they’ll be looking out for other ways to create faster customer adoption, along with how to support industries aside from hospitality.
“That’s where we kind of spend the majority of our focus,” Cant said. “On building the platform and the technology. And now we’re at the point where, you know, we’re converting those initial customers, or the initial pilot, to actual paying customers.”
“We want to be the Twilio of AI text messaging,” he added.
For businesses interested in using Msg2Ai for their services, more information can be found at the startup’s website.
