While traveling around the world, Paige Brown wanted to share her experiences with friends and family, but couldn’t without paying for international access to her smartphone. To solve this problem, she decided to create Tripeezy – a web and mobile application that allows for online and offline content sharing worldwide.
Tripeezy is an Austin-based startup working to make travel sharing simpler. Upon logging on, Tripeezy tags the users’ location via GPS and allows them to upload photos, videos, and updates to document their trip and travel experiences quickly and easily. Users can then share their experiences with their friends and family both on-site and through their social networks (currently Facebook and Twitter). This way, travelers can spend their time enjoying the sites and culture while still staying connected to their loved ones back home.
Founder Paige Brown got the idea for Tripeezy while living abroad.
“While I was in Germany, I got into Couch Surfing. I was staying on people’s couches around Europe getting different perspectives and experiences, and wanted to share them online.”
Her original concept was to develop online guidebooks to replace their print counterparts. She had realized that the great local places weren’t being published online, so she began talking to travelers in hostels to find places off the beaten path and document them. After launching some guidebooks in October 2010, the idea soon proved itself unrealistic for two reasons: 1) Small, local places were constantly changing their names, ownership, and looks – ultimately making the publishing out of date, and 2) People simply weren’t ready to give up their print guidebooks and opt-in to an online product.
Then, something big happened. Paige and Tripeezy were accepted into Start-up Chile – an entrepreneurship program sponsored by the Chilean Government. For the program, Paige had to move to Chile to run her business for 6 months and interact with Chilean entrepreneurs. In exchange, she received $40,000 in funding without losing any equity in her company. There she was able to pivot her product into what it is today.
“It was excellent. Being a first time entrepreneur, it’s tough to get startup cash and get things rolling. It was an amazing opportunity to go down there and work with local tourism companies to learn more about business models and how things could work,” said Paige.
During her time there, she was able to travel throughout Chile to develop relationships with travel companies and enthusiasts. She also started a meetup for local tourism to motivate local business owners to bring tourism into the area, and interacted with the 25 other startup teams in the program who had come from all over the world including China, Ireland, and Germany to name a few.
After re-launching Tripeezy into private beta at the Chilean Lollapalooza in April, she returned to her Texas home ready to take the product to the next level. Her team is about to launch an iPhone app that will allow users to update travel feeds offline, so even without a data plan or wifi connection, travelers can still make updates that will upload as soon as they return to service. Other plans include integration with blogs, Flickr, and other platforms, as well as greater partnerships with travel companies.
“The whole idea is to make travel sharing simpler. We’re trying to give people the ability to keep track of what their doing and experiencing on the road.”
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To sign-up for Tripeezy, go to Tripeezy.com and follow them on Twitter @tripeezy
To connect with Paige, visit her LinkedIn profile or follow her at @sweetcarolinepb.