I’ve been going about this the wrong way. It seems that everyone* agrees that travel web experiences are mired in old-think; and even after a rush on social+travel in 2009, the industry is still pretty much where it long has been: complicated and not all that fun. Travel is a hard nut to crack and will require a paradigm shift of some sort to seriously evolve.
TripTrace aims to be that. But a simple and useful site takes time to sculpt; and getting a million users to a new site is notoriously hard to do. I learned that investors often prefer to pay more for a piece of a company that already had users and “traction” than to get in early on what seemed like a good idea. (And honestly, who can blame them?) Our efforts in building the TripTrace website, and our subsequent efforts to raise money, has borne that out. I failed to close on our round of funding such that we had no option but to close PublicEarth, Inc. and send our most excellent team into the diaspora. [Already our teammates have landed at fine organizations such as CBS Interactive and Badgeville.]
But I’ve decided to take another approach to prove my case. I’ve just formed a new company — TripTrace, Inc.; I’m presently acquiring the TripTrace website, but more importantly, Rahmal and I are building a new [connected] mobile application that I hope will be exceptionally useful– and by being part of your daily arsenal for getting around in the world, will be a better stepping stone back into the TripTrace website and our vision for travel. I’ll release the new app in limited beta at SXSW next month, and do a public launch at the EG Conference in April. It’s called mapOmatic:
That’s all I’ll say for now. I think you’re really going to like it. It ties the whole room together.
* “Everyone” = the vast majority of top tier VCs and industry insiders I’ve spoken with over the past few years.
The moment you can sign up for the mapOmatic beta at our LaunchRock page — I’ll post it here. [PS: sign up here – http://www.map-omatic.com)
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