Why We Invested: TrovaTrip
Matt Compton – October 2022
While direct-to-consumer personal and business travel has been reinvented ad nauseum for the various versions of the web, group travel has relied on the same old travel desk crowd using fax machines and headsets since the beginning. Until now.
TrovaTrip reimagines international group travel organized around interests and communities. The company's group travel platform makes it possible for topic experts, creatives, influencers, and entrepreneurs to easily design and host trips around the globe for their own communities. Travelers can travel with and learn from athletes, explorers, bartenders, chefs, photographers, paleontologists, and more. Trips are operated by certified tour operators and include a local guide.
On the back end, TrovaTrip’s marketplace connects hosts (content creators) with certified tour operators, and the company’s management tools help hosts plan, manage, and deliver group travel to their communities with extremely high fill and repeat traveler rates.
TrovaTrip’s key customer insight was that travelers are often connected by interest, even if they are strangers. In fact, meeting new people can be a big part of the appeal of group travel. TrovaTrip’s key distribution insights are 1) these types of travelers are aggregated by content creators on social platforms and 2) travel is a much more meaningful (emotionally and monetarily) product to share with a community of followers than, say, running tops. A single hosted trip can be 10 to 100x more remunerative for a content creator than the other types of products they market to their audiences and a 10-day trip creates an incredibly deep and meaningful connection with their community
While travel is currently experiencing a tailwind, one of the most impressive parts of the company’s history is that the team was able to grow their business during the pandemic. This really speaks to the leadership teams’ capability, tenacity, and creativity.
We’ve also found with the very best companies it all starts with a passion and a deep understanding of an industry and problem. Co-founders Nick Poggi, Lauren Schneider, and Brandon Denham turned their passion for the travel industry and background in tech into a reinvention of group travel for the millennial generation. The team is committed to their mission of creating human connection through travel and it really comes through in their culture every day.
CEO Nick Poggi shares his advice to other entrepreneurs … "Pick an industry you're passionate about and then identify opportunities within that industry, passion is critical to stay motivated through the many ups and downs of a startup. Also, mentors & advisors are a critical part of any success story, start building your network early by going to pitch competitions, joining networking events and asking for referrals."
Part of our model at Oregon Venture Fund is to bring into diligence operators and exited entrepreneurs who are specifically from the target company’s industry. This was a big part of enabling us to understand TrovaTrip’s key insights and full potential even in the midst of the travel lockdown that was occurring during our initial investment in 2021. We are thrilled to be able to increase our investment in the company with their latest round along with our friends at Pioneer Square Labs and Madrona.
To date, 10,000+ travelers have booked one of the 600+ available TrovaTrips offered by 400+ hosts. With trips to Bali, Egypt, Costa Rica, Iceland, Patagonia and more, TrovaTrip offers diverse and unique trips all over the world. We hope to see you out there on a TrovaTrip!
Follow TrovaTrip on some amazing adventures: https://www.instagram.com/trovatrip/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/trovatrip, https://twitter.com/trovatrip
