Find Innovative Collaborations with GigRove

This week in our travel start up series we meet Marko Islamovic, founder/CEO/Product Manager at GigRove and a part of our Travel Massive London chapter. GigRove is an online marketplace where startup hosts and travelers from around the world connect in order to exchange services through innovative collaboration. Startup hosts are able to host travellers in their homes while travellers help them with certain tasks.

Who is your brand for?

We focus on the people who love to make international friendships and improve their careers. We’re connecting useful and resourceful, so the concept is already very friendly with the users of GigRove.

How is your brand disrupting the travel scene?

GigRove is helping to reinvent concepts of travel. We don’t see travel only as a leisure activity. The reality is that travelers don’t want to just sit at the beach and drink a cocktail, they want to learn and connect on the deeper level with the local culture. We just went a step further and allowed people to advance their careers through travel.

What are the biggest challenges you would like to see improved in the travel industry?

Some of the largest travel companies are not innovating enough or not innovating at all. We can often see all this amazing travel technology, yet don’t see it being implemented. Why? I don’t have an answer, but it is something that we should question. Government regulations in travel industry can be very discouraging, too. Among other things, travel visas need to be reinvented. They are ridiculously discouraging travelers from traveling and consequently impacting travel industries for many countries around the world. 

Do you have any tips for finding and securing investors or gaining traction in the industry?

Getting that seed stage investment can be hard, many people don’t realize that. But what if startups can’t get that investment? Should they fail right away? I don’t think so. Entrepreneurs are moving the world forward and we need to help them. So when you put international mobility and dynamic experimentation with the markets (it’s what Gigrove is allowing startups to do), and change the notion of what “work” looks like, you are directly helping startups as they can more easily reach milestones. Investors usually need to see the traction and milestones that the startup has reached before even considering an investment. 

Where do you see the travel industry in 2-5 years?

Technologically, we are just at the beginning. We heard about supersonic jets, space travel, amazing travel gadgets and so on, so there’s a lot to be excited about. Today, more people have access to travel, the challenge is answering the question: “Why travel when I’ve seen so many countries?” Travel companies will need to create new, unique concepts to help travelers create one-of-a-kind experiences. 

Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. Connect with Marko Islamovic and GigRove on Travel Massive.