The Travel Scene: Startuptravels
What is Startuptravels?Startuptravels is a professional social network allowing you to meet and connect with local entrepreneurs while traveling. With Startuptravels you are able to find local entrepreneurs in the city you are traveling to. You can type in the city in the search bar, find a local entrepreneur and arrange a meet-up. Our vision is to connect entrepreneurs around the globe and add the dimension of networking while traveling. We believe this creates shared value.
Why did you decide to create Startuptravels?
We love traveling, love meeting new people (especially entrepreneurs) and have often found ourselves in new locations with no network. It is not easy to find interesting entrepreneurs to meet with, know which events you should go to, where you should work from, and get to know what the most interesting startup organizations in the city are. When we couldn’t find a platform providing us with this information, we chose to start it ourselves. Within a couple of months we received several thousands sign-ups, and we could see that we weren’t the only ones with this challenge.
What is your mission and values and why are they important to what you want to achieve?
Our goal is to make the global entrepreneurial landscape more transparent. You should be able to find local entrepreneurs no matter which city you are traveling to. Our goal is that we as entrepreneurs should never experience being a stranger in a new city.
We also know that entrepreneurs (especially early stage) do not have too much money, and therefore it is important to us to keep the platform free for entrepreneurs.
Where are some remote places around the world people are meeting?
More than 400 meet-ups have taken place since our launch in October, and people are meeting everywhere from the entrepreneurial cities as San Francisco and Tel Aviv to more lesser known and remote places as the Philippines and Costa Rica.
Where are the best travel friendly startups “hubs” around the world?
Many of our users are going to London, San Francisco, Berlin, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong. Currently we are mapping the cities we believe have something great to offer. I know that many new and interesting things are happening in the startup environment in both Latin America and Asia, and these are some of the places I dream about going to soon.
What tips do you have for entrepreneurs who are looking to move to a new city to build their business?
You don’t need to use Startuptravels, but make sure you have some contacts and people to meet in a new city. Locals know the best co-working spaces, or what incubators are worth talking to, what the most interesting events are and give recommendations as to where you can stay. I find my stay to be much more fulfilling and fun with local knowledge.
It’s helpful to make sure you have a couple of contacts in the new city that can introduce you or show you about the city.
What are the key skills and connections entrepreneurs are looking for when starting a new company?
Many from the Western part of the world are looking for great developers and technical skill is something which is in high demand. In Asia or South America I have found business and strategic skills are advantageous.
One other thing most entrepreneurs are looking for today is connections, whether it be connections to investors or local connections at a new location.
How do you see the startup ecosystem evolving globally over the next 3-5 years?
Technology. I think we will see more tech firms pop up in the next 3-5 years that will improve the travel experience and the lives of people through innovative technology.
The Travel Scene is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel brands and start-ups in our Travel Massive community around the world. You can follow Startuptravels on Travel Massive.
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