Interview with Tripmates CEO Samuel Rogoway

Last week Paul G. posted an article about Tripmates – a social network for travelers. Today I am pleased to publish an interview with Tripmates CEO Samuel Rogoway.

Svetlana: So first of all let me ask you to introduce yourself and tell us briefly about your experience and how you have come up with the Tripmates project.
Sam: I am the CEO of Tripmates. We launched the beta website on August 1. The idea emanated from my own frustrations while traveling. It is often difficult to find someone to travel with due to scheduling conflicts and financial concerns. I traveled frequently through Europe on my own and always wished there was a way to meet other travelers or locals. But, no website or other resource existed to facilitate this. So, I created Tripmates - a social travel network that allows travelers to find tripmates, connect with locals, and share travel information.

Svetlana: So you are the only founder of Tripmates?
Sam: My fiancée, Emily Dahlberg, is the co-founder.

Svetlana: Great! So it’s another Web 2.0 family-to-be project. And what about your team now?
Sam: Emily brings an extensive public relations and marketing background to the table. She has been vital in spreading the word about Tripmates and positioning us as the “go to” social travel network. Emily and I work together with designers to visualize our ideas and programmers to implement them.
I handle all business development, legal, and project management. We are a lean and mean team.

Svetlana: Sounds like a very dynamic team. My next question, then. There are thousands of various websites for travelers. What is special about Tripmates?
Sam: We are the closest thing to a pure social network. Other travel websites offer travel information, but they don’t provide or encourage the kind of interactivity that Tripmates does. Rather than read a million random reviews from people you know nothing about on other sites, you can ask members who have self-designated themselves as a “Trip Guru” (a self-proclaimed expert about a particular destination) for candid and current travel advice. You can evaluate the credibility and relevancy of the advice based on the member’s profile. Or, if you are looking for someone to meet up with on a trip - we provide the capability to find someone - whether to share travel expenses with or go out on a trip date with or to sightsee with. Plus, we are the only travel community site to offer a comprehensive travel video feature - Trip Flicks- which we recently launched.

Svetlana: I’ve seen a lot of interesting features at the site. As for me, I like the Trip Flicks feature most of all. Usually after coming back home from an exciting trip I have to spend endless hours showing every single family member and friend all the photos and videos and repeating the same comments and stories. So I definitely will use it in future. But in general what is the most widely-used feature at Tripmates? And was it the most popular feature that took the longest time for development?
Sam: The most widely-used feature is our “Trip Buddy” feature. A lot of members are posting information about their upcoming trips and seeking someone to meet up with or travel with. We have already heard great success stories. For instance, 2 members who otherwise wouldn’t travel alone to Fiji are going together so that they can share travel expenses. Another member - based in Los Angeles - has told us that she is going to be a tour guide and show around another member visiting from Paris. Plus, we are even creating a phenomenon of trip dating - where two people go out on a date during a trip.
The most popular feature that took the most time to develop is our Tripvite feature. It’s essentially Evite for travel and a great tool for planning a group trip and keeping everyone updated on the details.

Svetlana: And that brings me to two more questions. First, is Tripvite actually your exclusive feature?
Sam: There are other group travel sites that have recently emerged, but they don’t connect a social network with a group travel management feature like Tripmates does. And we are just getting started on building this feature out and making it more dynamic.

Svetlana: Is it already used by some groups of Tripmates?
Sam: We know that members have already used Tripvite to plan weekend golf trips with friends and bachelorette parties. Someone is even using it as a wedding travel planner for his guests.

Svetlana: That sounds like a good idea.
And the second question. You really made me laugh during the registration process. It was about the Status thing. You have several options to choose from. I was actually tempted to tell that it was none of your business. But what I’m really interested in is what do you use the status for: do you provide some special match-making services for those interested? And are you by any chance sometimes accused of being a dating website instead of a traveling one?
Sam: The status question is a fundamental component of a social network. Some people use social networks for dating, and indeed, some people on Tripmates use our community for that purpose. But, other people use Tripmates to obtain travel information from other members and just like age, a person’s status helps shed light on the person offering the advice so that you can better evaluate it.

Svetlana: Could you unveil some information on the number of people who have already joined Tripmates? What promotional techniques do you use to draw them to your website (of course, not the Top Secret ones)?
Sam: We have over 5000 members, which we are quite happy with given our 3 month existence. The press has been very kind to us in their reviews of the website and it has provided wonderful exposure for Tripmates. We also are working on a number of strategic partnerships to help introduce the site to travelers.

Svetlana: Yes, that really is good for such a fresh site.
Sam: Thanks!

Svetlana: And is Tripmates project your only job now? And the same question about Emily.
Sam: Tripmates is our only job. Emily and I both left our jobs to run Tripmates full-time. It’s been quite an adventure.

Svetlana: I’m sure it will be a lucky one. And my last question. Shall you please describe your plans for Tripmates future. New features, new ideas, whatever…
Sam: We are working on a variety of exciting, top secret features. Our goal is to take the core features we currently offer and make them more dynamic and flexible. We want to give our users more control in how they share and discover travel information.

Svetlana: I can’t wait to see these new top secret features. Judging from what I’ve already seen, you have a good idea and a good potential and innovation to be implemented.
So I thank you for your answers and for your time. And of course I will be happy to cover your further news here at Profy as well.