With Mitch Gross
Introducing View from the Corner with Mitch Gross, SVP of Sales and Marketing at Cornerstone.
At Cornerstone, innovation has always been at the core of everything we do. As we reflect on our journey and look ahead to the future, we’re thrilled to launch View from the Corner—a new series where we share insights, stories, and strategies from the people who have shaped our company and industry.
In this second episode, we’re joined by Mitch Gross, our SVP of Sales and Marketing. Mitch has been a driving force behind Cornerstone’s growth, and in this conversation, he discusses his career path, the shifting landscape of travel technology, and how sales and marketing intersect in an era of rapid technological change.
Mitch’s career spans decades, with an early focus on building relationships and understanding market needs—principles that continue to guide his approach today. As technology evolves and the travel industry transforms, Mitch shares how the integration of data, automation, and personalization is reshaping customer interactions and business strategies.
In this episode, Mitch reflects on the rise of self-service platforms, the role of cloud technology in modern business, and the power of marketing to drive not just growth, but genuine connections with customers. His insights provide a roadmap for navigating today’s fast-paced, digital-first environment.
Tune in as we explore the future of sales and marketing in travel, uncover emerging trends, and gain actionable takeaways to help you thrive in an increasingly complex industry. Welcome back to View from the Corner.
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Mitch Gross. I run sales and marketing here at Cornerstone. I’ve been at Cornerstone for about 2 years, been in the industry since the dawn of mankind.
0:11
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell my younger self, don’t lower your standards not a bit, but be nicer about it. Be a little kinder to yourself and to everybody else. You’ll have more fun and get better work done. The other thing I’d say is to travel more. Travel is awesome. It brings the world closer together. It rejuvenates all of us. It helps us understand what’s going on in the world and the people across the world, and more so as being inside the industry. It’s really important that we experience our products and that we experience the experience that our customers are going through.
0:49
What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in the industry?
I’m gonna start with what hasn’t changed so much in the industry. What hasn’t changed is the purpose of travel and what travel contributes to people. What hasn’t changed is the complexity. If anything, it’s gotten more complicated in terms of the technology infrastructure and the complexity of trips and so forth. What has changed is that it is all moving much, much faster. So, we have to not only be good at what we do today, we have to be looking ahead, and we have to be able to accommodate that pace of change really well in what we do and stay in front of it.
Seize on tools like AI carefully with a key focus on security, but move really, really fast. The adoption cycles keep collapsing. The other big change is that we’ve gone from an era where gathering the information, providing people lots of options, was really, really hard, and it was a big part of how we add value. Now there’s too much information. It’s coming in from all sorts of sources that are on some of which are well qualified, some are unqualified. And so the curation of information and the ability to truly understand the buyer and deliver to them a professional set of options that are going to really take things to the next level is the key focus, and it’s more doable than ever.
The third thingin what’s happening within the industry is just a broad increase in the number of commodities, the types of things that people wanna buy, and the ability to bring it all together. So from air to lodging to ground transportation, now they’re on experiences, dining, and everything that in airport experience and so forth to round out the total experience. Truly exciting time.
2:50
Where do you see Cornerstone in 5 years?
The last couple years since I’ve been here at Cornerstone of course, everyone knows Cornerstone from way back, but it’s been a really transformational couple of years. We started out with 2 main lines of business, automating travel operations and helping companies manage the flow of data from expense into HR and ERP systems and so forth. And what we’ve seen is that the prominence of data has gone skyrocketing. It’s gone to be the central piece. And so with the development of our new data management platform, we’re seeing that really come forward, grounded in our experience in helping people operate their businesses and see that data flow. We are becoming, and in 5 years, we will be a data forward company that and I think every company and every will be data forward. We will be central in helping people stay in front of it and make the most use out of all of that information out there.