Stamp Your Way Through Travel Tips

Today we welcome Sidonia Rose Swarm, co-founder of Stamp Travel, as she shares her story about helping friends share location-based travel tips across the globe.

Sidonia is part of our Miami and Chicago Travel Massive communities and has agreed to share how Stamp Travel is innovating the travel space.

Who is your startup for?

Any traveller who shares travel tips or location-based recommendations with their friends or fellow travellers. You can search on a map and see all their “Stamps” (recommendations, tips, insight, etc.)

What inspired you to create this startup? 

As a group of travel-crazed friends, we had no easy way to share travel tips of specific locations we have been to. We found ourselves often sending texts to our close friends saying “hey, I am going to be in Barcelona for the week, what should I do, see, eat?” We wanted to automate this process so you can see what your friends recommend all over the globe.

How did you get your startup off the ground and gaining traction?

We started an Instagram account to see if travelers wanted to share their travel tips. Turns out they did! We then created a very simple beta and tested it with our friends. We learned so much! Ever since our public launch, we have been growing by having energized enthusiastic travelers use the platform and share with their friends.

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

Test all your assumptions! Don’t build off your assumptions, but rather create a test to validate your assumptions. Then build.

What was your first travel job?

Our team did not have jobs in the travel industry, but we were all study abroad students or had backpacked our way through Europe. This experience sparked our desire to build the platform because we had no easy way to share our tips about the places we had been.

How do you think we can be better travellers?

Less planning and more serendipity. Less comfort and more uncertainty.

Finally, why do you travel?

To remain energized and creative.

As a startup, what benefits have you seen from being a part of Travel Massive meet-ups?

At the pre-TBEX party in Ft Lauderdale, we met with many travel bloggers and put the Stamp Travel app in the hand of travel influencers and observed their initial reactions and feedback.

Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. Connect with Stamp Travel on Travel Massive, Facebook or Twitter.