Learn How to Connect With Travellers On the Go

Peter de Vries, Founder and CEO of A Travel Companion, helps travellers to connect with like-minded travellers, while on the road.

Peter is part of our Travel Massive London chapter and has created A Travel Companion to market to travellers and holidaymakers who want to meet up with a like-minded individual to share the next part of the journey. It is not a tourist guide, but someone that speaks your language. The app is there to connect you to people at the destination and people that are around you.

Eager to learn more? We asked Peter a couple questions about how he’s building his business from the ground up.

What inspired you to create this startup?

I’ve been travelling a large part of my life; the largest stretch was four years in a row. There were certain journeys I did not feel comfortable doing on my own. Sometimes I met people to travel with, like when I was travelling in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that was great. Other times I didn’t and had to skip parts of the trip. Six years ago I was in Venezuela, wanted to hike the Roraima (‘lost world’), but didn’t find anyone to share the trip and cost of a guide (was required). This experience is behind the idea to develop A Travel Companion with integrated chat capabilities.

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

I hope that being in a (large) niche market and being a traveller myself makes a difference in understanding a travellers mind and therefore shape the app in a direction that appeals to other travellers. I am a solo traveller myself and love it, but sometimes you just want to talk to someone who speaks your language and doesn’t want something in return (sell you something).

There are plenty of apps hooking you up with locals, but myself, I would much rather meet someone that speaks English or Dutch, so I can go for a beer and have a chat.

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

I launched it with an MVP and got some really good feedback. I’ve adjusted the app accordingly and actually just launched version 1.2, a complete overhaul with new features and other features taken out. Still getting traction, hopefully even more after this interview.

How is your startup changing the future of the industry or helping to make travel better?

I hope that it will change the perception of solo travel. I believe more people that wouldn’t travel solo (or go on a holiday on their own), will do so now. It is much easier now to meet other travellers on the way or even before you go. You shouldn’t be afraid of what friends and family might think about you travelling on your own. You will always meet other people and now, it is even easier.

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

Just do it.

There will always be people who are negative or don’t believe you can do it. Hey, I’m 51 years old, started coding 2 years ago and have my product on the app store. If I can do it, so can you.

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

I think they are awesome; you meet great people, get to throw some ideas around, get immediate feedback and have actually been very useful to me.

The last time I spoke to a guy from Japan, who downloaded my app on the spot, opened the app and stopped right on the sign-in page. Too much trouble? Didn’t want to give out his details to yet another app? Would do it later? Maybe… Maybe never… Anyways, I now have implemented an anonymous (try it first) mode. Directly from feedback, I got at a Travel Massive event. Brilliant!

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 Peter and Travel Companion on Travel Massive, Facebook and Twitter.