Thanks for the comment. I've met a lot of skeptics during this 2 years, but the model did work (not at a big scale though), and there is still a big room to tweak it and find a better combination. We had a lot of ideas in our heads on what we need to try to find the winner, but didn't have enough time and resources. We also focused on a lot of wrong things. Big lessons learned.
Hey Ismail, great to hear from you! We should go have coffee some time soon.
Thanks for the comment. I think there is definitely a pivot somewhere there - given we had more time, we would find a working model through trial and error. But with messy structure like that and not being in control of the company - it doesn't make you wanna pursue it anymore. I still believe in the initial idea and just wish we did everything right from the beginning - it would buy us more time.
I know what we did wrong and I learned a lot, I just wish we had more time to right the wrongs. :)
Hey Johnny. I believe it's a combination of both. I would like to refer you to my other comment to explain where we saw the potential - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9951927
Thanks for the comment. It wasn't a surprise for us that people won't fund other people vacations. We were betting more on volunteering/charitable trips, crazy adventures, honeymoons.
Also, even though we were called "crowdfunding for travelers", we were betting a lot on the sponsorship model - there are a lot of great companies willing to sponsor interesting trips. If you google around, you will find a lot of independent travelers backed by some awesome brands like Samsung, Skype, etc.
We wanted to explore the sponsorship angle more (and managed to work with over 56 brands on this), but were focusing on way too many things and didn't have enough resources to play with the idea. I still believe there a huge potential in that space of done right. We clearly didn't do everything right. Well, we're learning.
I have been sitting next to my mother when she took her last breath after fighting cancer for a year.
Yes, I agree, comparison may not be appropriate and I really am comparing apples and oranges here, but dedicating 2 years of your life and sacrificing everything else (relationships, social life, sleep, etc.) does come at a cost - you feel really attached to what you do. That's why a lot of people say "my start-up is my baby".
I didn't mean to offend anyone, I'm just emphasizing the fact that it was a really really emotional time.