I attended Travel Tech completely happy hours final month in NYC, I met a man who’s purchased 5 failed trip-planning startups. His plan is to mix all of them and one way or the other make it work. Me: “So you are shopping for…

I attended Travel Tech completely happy hours final month in NYC, I met a man who’s purchased 5 failed trip-planning startups. His plan is to mix all of them and one way or the other make it work.

Me: “So you’re buying companies that went under and think putting them together will fix it?”

Him: “They didn’t figure it out. I will.”

Malcolm Archer: “What do you have that they don’t?”

Him: “I’m combining multiple solutions.”

Me: “But what’s the actual pain point you’re solving?”

He could not reply.

I do know that you must be a bit delusional to be a founder (I undoubtedly am), so perhaps he’ll crack it. But this is what these founders maintain getting unsuitable:

Trip planning is not a burden. People love doing it. They like it as a lot because the journey itself – if no more.

I do know this sounds counterintuitive. But hear me out.

Most vacationers love spending hours researching eating places, attempting to find that hidden café, and discovering the off-the-beaten-path lodge.

It’s not a chore. They wish to trailblaze relating to journey.

My mother and father’ era was fantastic doing the identical Rome itinerary as everybody else.

But youthful generations wish to discover the bizarre, the quirky, and the actually distinctive experiences in every place they go to.

These trip-planning “solutions” fail over and over as a result of they’re fixing an issue that does not even exist.

So to those that assume journey is damaged and wishes fixing, it is not. It’s working precisely because it ought to.

What do you assume? Am I utterly off base right here?

…extra