TripCommon aims to help users find the best places and times to travel with friends in different cities. The initial idea was to combine all travel planning into one site. After moving to New York and facing greater business pressures, the company pivoted to focus on helping users find where their friends are and how to travel to or with them. The founder is now looking for beta testers, advisors, engineers, and marketers to help develop the company further.

1. TRIPCOMMON.COM GILLIAN MORRIS
@TRIPCOMMON G@TRIPCOMMON.COM

2. Do you identify with any of the following statements (check all that
apply)?
• I think travel is amazing and I travel 3+ times a year
• I have a college education
• I’m better traveled than most people I know
• I’ve been fairly successful at at least one entrepreneurial endeavor
in the past, however small scale
• Travel taught me that I can live with fewer things – I WILL SURVIVE
• I’ve done some research and have discovered travel is a HUGE
market

3. You are not the average travel consumer

4. This is what investors will look like when they hear your story
Don’t just build something for you and your friends –
know your market and its constraints

6. Side note: Vocabulary
• GDS = Global Distribution System
(Sabre, Amadeus, Travelport, ITA, Vayant, Everbread) –
centralized repositories of fare and availability data for flights, hotel
rooms, car rentals, etc. Sells this information to OTAs
and, increasingly, metasearch engines (search as a service)
• OTA = online travel agency (Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz) – online
retailer of travel products
• Metasearch engine (Kayak, Skyscanner) – aggregator of OTA
content, drives warm leads to OTAs and direct to airline websites
• VFR travel = visiting friends and relatives
• T&t = travel & tourism

7. Why it’s hard to be a startup in the
travel space
• Infrequent activity – consumers book ~3 trips/year, most VFR
• Giant market incumbents – can’t compete with their marketing
budgets
• Less than 30% of people book online
• Barriers to entry - GDS cost, complexity (excellent article by Tadhg
Pearson)
• [Irrational?] attachment to low price

9. Then again…
• Travel industry is growing faster than the world economy (3.2% yoy vs.
2.3%) and is projected to continue to do so
• More and more transactions moving online
• People are taking shorter and more frequent trips
• Just an insanely large market: $3.2tr leisure spending on t&t + $1tr business
spending
• 2012 total online spending on travel in the US alone $103bn
• Incredibly fragmented market – lots of space to carve out a niche &
potentially start a revolution
Source: World Travel & Tourism Council Handbook 2013

10. Online transactions for travel booking were estimated at $313bn worldwide in
2012, but…
Today’s prospective travelers
The average traveler visits 22 are social, mobile, and
sites prior to booking underserved by current travel
planning tools
How much more would they travel if they could evaluate options easily?

11. The TripCommon
Story

13. I identified with all these statements*
• I think travel is amazing and I travel 3+ times a year
• I have a college education
• I’m better traveled than most people I know
• I’ve been fairly successful at at least one entrepreneurial endeavor
in the past, however small scale
• Travel taught me that I can live with fewer things – I WILL SURVIVE
• I’ve done some research and have discovered travel is a HUGE
market
*And I think all founders in the travel space probably should, though college education isn’t as
important

14. Vague idea: combine all

15. Initial idea validation
… and validation that I wanted to do this

16. Recruiting cofounders

17. The TripCommon story

18. Demo time: visit TripCommon.com

19. Initial value proposition: TripCommon helps you find the best place
and time to travel with friends who live in different cities
=
4 text entries in 12+
TripCommon 20 seconds (vs.
7 clicks (vs. 26) results, depending
(compared to 8 5.5 minutes)
on departure cities
using current (vs. 3 results)
tools)
TripCommon proactively scans popular routes to discover deals you would
probably never find, and it delivers these results in 6% of the time

20. Time in California: what we encountered

21. First experience of New York: what we encountered

22. We moved to New York
• Greater pressure to develop a robust business plan
– spinning wheels in CA
• Closer to Europe, where we see a core market
• Closer to Boston, the center of travel tech
(Kayak, TripAdvisor, ITA/Google
Flights, Amadeus, etc)
• Better personal networks
• California taxes…

23. The TripCommon
Story
The twist

24. Pivot: TripCommon helps you find out where your friends are and how you can travel to them
or with them. Follow @tripcommon to learn more

25. Want to help? Looking for
• Beta testers
• Advisors
• Engineering help
• Marketing help
• Third cofounder? Looking for a CTO/CPO
Email me maybe? g@tripcommon.com

26. Thinking of starting a travel company
yourself?

27. Remember, the big travel companies are intimidating, but their power can also be
limiting. Be flexible and faster.

28. Companies to know
• News: Tnooz, Skift, Google alerts on your competitors
• Giants: TripAdvisor (just bought Jetsetter), Google
(ITA Travel, Frommer’s), Priceline, Expedia
• Research: PhoCusWright
• Conferences: PhoCusWright, ITB Berlin, World Travel
Market
• $$: General Catalyst (invested in
Kayak, Room77, Couchsurfing, Viajanet), Redpoint
(Viajanet, Gogobot)

29. Help others
And we can all get further

30. 5/5 doctors recommend TripCommon