Tripl Socializes Travel

By Anna Bessonova, June 09, 2011, 1 Comments

Summer is the best time to travel and social interactions with different people is a great part of that experience. But how do you get hold of cool folks with similar interests to party with in Tel Aviv or take a biking tour around New York City? These are the questions Tripl, a Swedish start-up, is trying to answer. Their solution is yet undisclosed but one thing is clear: they are building a platform that would connect travellers with each other, locals and friends of friends. Tripl has recently closed $300,000 funding round, finalized their team of six and will launch their product to the public within a matter of weeks. We talked with David Los, a co-founder, to find out what the start-up has been doing behind the scenes.

Tripl is essentially a Vacation Relation's pivot. David Los and Peter Sullivan launched Vacation Relation last year as a website where users could connect with people who are travelling to the same destination as them. A few months after the launch, the website attracted over 3000 users but was lacking a critical mass to make it truly popular. The founders also realized that they need to expand their focus since not everyone has vacation plans and if they do, they'd use the website only a few times a year. Thus, David and Peter decided to build a similar service that would engage users 365 days a year.

As a result Tripl was created. 'We wanted to make travel more social and make the world feel like a smaller place', says David. Tripl's main goal is the same as Vacation Relation's - to connect travellers. This time, however, the website would make it possible to get in touch with locals and friends of friends by hand-picking your Facebook friends and recommending them to other users.

Once launched, the service would be free to use. The revenue is expected to come from acitivity bookings done through the website and campaigns with partners that would offer extra deals for users. 'Acquiring users is the biggest challenge', comments David. 'That is why we are thinking through every detail to build an awesome product that people would want to use all the time. We are also going to promote Tripl through partners by means of a widget', shares David.

Parallel to the website's launch, Tripl is raising funds through Kickstarter to send a 3D camera around the world and let users film their holidays. The resulting clips would be put together and used as Tripl's promotion video.

If the product delivers on its promises, Tripl would be an attractive tool to use for socializing while abroad. Who would not want a local to show them around hidden gems of a city or get to meet a new professional contact through your LinkedIn friend while travelling? The real question is how well Tripl executes their solution and monetizes their service.

Below are the screenshots of Tripl's internal Facebook app: