Joey Travel Connects Travellers with Locals Over Coffee

Jessemin Sheyda-Losick and Ashley Lohmann, Co-founders of Joey Travel, help connect travelers and locals over coffee and casual drinks. Here’s their story. 

Jessemin and Ashley are part of the Travel Massive San Francisco chapter and seek to help travelers better connect with their destination through trusted locals. For locals, they are able to provide an opportunity to join a community, meet travelers from around the world, and share their unique perspectives on their home cities.

We asked Jessemin and Ashley a few questions about what it’s been like to build Joey from the ground up.

What inspired you to create this startup?

In our own travels, we’ve found that our most memorable experiences were in places where we had a local friend. Whether it was finding the best mezcalerias in Mexico City or tea shops in Cairo, our local friends have consistently made our travels richer. All travelers crave this authenticity—a sense that you’re experiencing life as locals know it. However, meeting a local is often ‘hit or miss.’ You might strike up a conversation with your Airbnb host or with a stranger in a café, or you might just pass locals in the streets and never get a chance to engage. We launched Joey to make it easy for travelers to meet locals who are engaging and passionate about their hometowns—every time, everywhere.

How did you build Joey Travels?

Hard work, multiple pivots, and a focus on low-cost solutions. We conducted hundreds of customer interviews, ran pilots, tested marketing channels, hacked together prototypes, graduated from the GSVlabs Pioneer Accelerator, and are now launching our beta product in San Francisco.

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

We are at the forefront of a movement to connect people across continents and cultures. Travelers are seeking more personalized, authentic experiences in their destinations, and we believe that local connections are at the heart. We aim to become an essential component of a traveler’s journey, where booking a connection with a local becomes as commonplace as booking a flight, an accommodation or an activity.

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

The GSVlabs Pioneer Accelerator provided us access to resources and mentors, and pushed us to test, test, test! We are continuously testing every aspect of our startup and doing so as quickly and efficiently as possible. We’ve also been fortunate to have the support of some amazing mentors, investors, and even interns.

Travel Massive is about empowering change in travel. How is your startup changing the future of the industry or helping to make travel better?

We are part of a community of like-minded organizations working to increase global understanding through travel. Our platform provides travelers with unique opportunities to deepen their understanding of their destinations and build new friendships. By facilitating local connections, we believe that we are not only helping travelers discover more rewarding experiences, but also encouraging global compassion and appreciation for diversity.

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

Work to find a product-market fit as quickly as possible, test and iterate rapidly, and always network – you never know where you might meet the next investor, client or, in our case, co-founder.

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

We have connected with new Joey locals through Travel Massive meetups and built a greater understanding of industry trends.

Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. You can connect with Jessemin Sheyda-Losick, Ashley Lohmann and Joey on Travel Massive, Facebook, and Twitter.