Adeo Ressi, founder of TheFunded.com and TheFunded Founder Institute, joined me and Ezra Roizen (Vator Box regular, Ackrell Capital and Strategyfx) as guest host. We took a look at Offbeat Guides, a personalized travel guide, founded by David Sifry, better known as the founder of Technorati.
Here are some our some of our observations:
- Excellent pitch by David Sifry
- Adeo would buy this product. The problem is that he may be an atypical traveler as a) he travels a lot b) he has a lot of money c) he’s interested in the details of places he’s traveling. The norm is people are cost conscious, and that makes him concerned.
- Ezra says Offbeat Guides is cheap enough relative to, say Lonely Planet, that it’s a compelling buy.
- Travelers roam around with a book. So, the printed book is a great idea.
- Ezra and Adeo believe Offbeat Guides is a “volume play.”
- Ezra says that if you fall in love with this product, you’d probably buy a few.
- I said the book's price needs to drop to appeal to the cost-conscious consumer. I'm also very frugal.
- Adeo says what’s going against Offbeat Guides is that the travel industry is in trouble, and people aren’t exactly taking a lot of trips these days.
- Distribution is key. We all like the Singapore Airlines distribution.
- Nile Guide is doing a similar thing. But we like the UI of Offbeat Guides. David did a nice job with the UI.
- We give David “two thumbs” up. Way up!
(If you'd like to be highlighted on VatorBox, please contact newsroom@vator.tv)
Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author and award-winning journalist.
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TheFunded is a place where entrepreneurs and founders can rate and opine about venture capitalists.Startup/Business
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Offbeat Guides create personalized, up-to-date travel guides that cover over 30,000 travel destinations, using a combination of search technology and curation by both amateur and professional travel experts. Our guides scour the web to find the best, most up-to-date information about your destination. You can personalize the information you want based on your travel dates, preferences, and destination. The guides come with local maps, festivals and events going on while you're there, exchange rates, key phrases in the city's language, weather forecasts and more.
Travelers need reliable, accurate, and immediate information when planning a trip. Standard guidebooks are often 12 to 18 months out of date as soon as they hit the stores. Our information is the most up-to-date because we have an enormous technology base of spiders and crawlers that find the best information out on the internet, and combine it with information from established authors and thousands of locals who are always updating the information about where they live. We also believe strongly in Creative Commons, in which users can share, create and build information that is available for mixing and remixing into unique new applications. As well as Creative Commons licensed information, we also use proprietary content and professional authors, which makes for accurate and authoritative information in our guides. With Offbeat Guides, you can get your guide in electronic format that you print yourself, or we can create and ship you a printed guide just in time for your trip, with all the latest information packed inside.
Offbeat Guides is a technology and travel startup located in San Francisco. It was founded by Dave Sifry, the founder of multiple technology companies including Linuxcare and Technorati. Leveraging his management team's extensive experience in technology development and technology marketing, Offbeat Guides is using this knowledge and experience to advance travel publishing to a whole new level.
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The recognized authority inthe blogosphere, Technorati collects, organizes, highlights and distributes theonline global conversation, surfacing this content to millions of consumers.Founded as the first blog search engine, Technorati has become the definitivesource for the top stories, opinions, photos and videos emerging across news,entertainment, technology, lifestyle, sports, politics and business. Technoratitracks not only the authority and influence of blogs, but also the mostcomprehensive and current index of who and what is most popular in the blogosphere. The Technorati Media network matches bloggers and social media creators with marketers who want to join the conversation www.technorati.com
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TheFunded Founder Institute is a new founder-centric incubator that trains new and seasoned entrepreneurs the best practices for building next generation companies. The unique 4-month program offers remote participation, the industry’s most founder-friendly terms, focused mentorship and training from renowned CEOs, resources from leading service partners, fundraising opportunities at fair market value, and shared equity upside among all participants in the companies formed. Passionate founders can apply today at www.FounderInstitute.com – registration ends on May 10th, 2009.
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Advisor-to and commenter-on emerging ventures
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