Culture Dock’s Travel Experiences App

This week in our travel-tech start up series we meet Kendall Hunter a member of Travel Massive and CEO and Founder of Culture Dock. Kendall helps travellers to connect with the heart of a destination and offer them a platform to share their own cultural experiences.

Who is your startup for?

Our startup is for all travellers having cultural encounters around the globe or preparing themselves to travel; armchair travellers interested in the ways and wonders of other countries; destination marketing organizations, travel bloggers, travel organizations, expats and language schools.

What inspired you to create this startup?

It’s more a matter of “who” inspired me. Travelling with my teenage daughters, I felt was an important part of their education. I wanted them to know more of the world beyond their own pristine doorstep. Taking it a step further, I realized it was about understanding people and places that are different from us and how learning about them not only builds bridges between people but it also helps us grow as individuals. Because I had already written a cultural guidebook called Culture Smart: Switzerland, I drew upon this experience but wished to make it not only relevant in today’s online travel industry, but also as a platform that would incite curiosity and promote cultural understanding for travellers.

What gap did you find in the travel industry that inspired you to create this startup?

There are booking sites, places to create itineraries, and blogs about travel experiences, but a social media app devoted to understanding the ways and wonders of the world is not something currently offered. Guidebooks are helpful but not peer based, and not continually kept up to date. Culture is about instilled norms, values and traditions in a country but is also an evolving phenomenon. Users of Culture Dock will be on top of this. It’s a hub meant to maximize the experience of travellers by lessening many of the pitfalls that can often inhibit a real connection to a place and its people.

How did you build your startup?  

As a solo entrepreneur with a journalism background I reached out to mentors and found tech partners (Marcos Molina and Emmanuel Mathew) who could help me bring my ideas to fruition. The website, recently launched, was a big step toward informing potential users and partners of the app’s features and what we’re all about. As the app is being developed, it’s been a time to plan for our launch at ITB in Berlin in March of 2016 and raise awareness of this new platform in the travel industry.

What makes your startup different from other similar startups out there?

Culture Dock is not about pitching an activity, a tourism site or accommodation. It cuts to the heart of why we travel; addresses a blind spot in the travel scene that is ironically at the heart of why we travel — to have meaningful experiences that transport us away from our daily routine with the sensibility of an explorer.

How is your startup helping to make travel better?

Our travel startup helps make travel better by facilitating and understanding people regardless of where they live in the world and how they live their lives. To make cultural awareness current, we recognize its fluidity and enable this on a social media platform that grows and brings people together like it never has before.

Do you have any tips for new entrepreneurs who want to create a successful startup?

Don’t get hung up on how others are doing it. Tap into your strengths, as well as the authentic reason you’re doing it, and just run with that. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or ask for help. Find a tribe that supports you. I’m currently a member of SheEO in Toronto, that, amongst other things, assists women entrepreneurs to find what they need to launch meaningful ventures.

What was your first travel job?

I’m not sure if a photojournalist can be considered a “travel job” but it was the first job I did in a foreign country that introduced me to a place completely new and different to what I was used to. With camera in hand, I was provided the means to be in uncommon places and even placed in the front row of history as South Africa moved toward democracy. Perhaps my first real travel job was writing a book for a worldwide travel series called Culture Smart. I wrote the Swiss edition.

What is the most important experience that you had during your travels?

Three and a half years ago I had the opportunity to return to South Africa with my teenage daughters. I was able to show them the country that had captivated me in my twenties. In the early 90’s it was a country awakening; in 2013, it was a country post-apartheid that still had its share of problems, but had undergone so much change. Through this trip, my daughters learned about South African history but also stepped off the beaten path. In contemporary South Africa (Soweto) my daughters witnessed the country and its people for themselves. For me it was a phenomenal full-circle moment to be able to provide this experience for my daughters. I had also been fortunate enough to be able to take them to South-East Asia a year prior to this trip, and I feel one of the most important aspect of my travels has been to instil this sense of adventure in my kids.

How do you think we can be better travellers?  

We can be better travellers by remaining curious about the destinations in which we find ourselves, while withholding judgement as much as possible. Like I say on our website,

“I passionately believe there is deep wisdom in knowing we are all an accumulation of our history, customs and contemporary culture; to understand differences is to bring humanity as a whole closer together.”

So by taking a real interest in what makes a country tick; by challenging our own sense of what’s normal can not only make our own experience more enjoyable, but will (hopefully) also leave a better impression on the people we come across on our travels.

The beta version of Culture Dock is set to be completed by mid-November. Feel free to visit our website to know where to download the app. It is a free app for users with an option for a premium upgrade.

Tech Startup is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel-tech start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. Connect with Kendall and Culture Dock on Travel Massive and Twitter.