Trippy scores $3.5 million to officially relaunch as a travel Q&A platform

by Adam Calica
April 30, 2014

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Over the past year, travel startup Trippy has been toying with idea of pivoting from the “friend-sourcing” travel site it started out as into a question and answer travel community. This week, Trippy officially made the switch to become what some are calling a travel Quora.

Helping them to successfully relaunch is an additional $3.5 million announced this week from previous investors Sequoia Capital and True Ventures. Trippy has come a long way since it was first launched at TechCrunch Disrupt by founder J.R. Johnso“Quality of content is what sets us apart," Geer said. "We approve every single question and answer to make sure it meets our community standards. The knowledge our travelers share is not only meant to be functional but to inspire, too."n in September 2011.

A couple months ago, Built In LA chatted with director of user growth Jillian Geer about the new product, which was soft-launched in January. Here’s what she said:

“Quality of content is what sets us apart," Geer said. "We approve every single question and answer to make sure it meets our community standards. The knowledge our travelers share is not only meant to be functional but to inspire, too."

Trippy provides a user-friendly personal question-and-answer dialogue from authentic users who have traveled, lived or studied in the destination of interest. Because shuffling through reviews may not always speak to one’s preferences, it can be an exhausting quest to find simple, yet reliable recommendations on sightseeing, lodging, restaurants, etc. Trippy provides personal answers to customized questions posted on the website through direct notification. Currently, Trippy lives in the mobile web and desktop space.

From a utility standpoint, the site allows each question and answer to be mapped, creating ease of reference and context: “Answers are more than just a wall of text. Trippy not only provides custom answers based on user interests, budget, length of trip, etc., but also utility with our mapping feature," Geer said.

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The personalized, custom answers Trippy provides are a cornerstone of the company's strategy going forward. Personalized Q&As, which can be shared via Facebook, Twitter or with direct links, will help Trippy gain more users, while SEO will reign in more traffic in the long-run, Johnson told Techcrunch: “A lot of travel research is still done via SEO. That will be an important part for us going forward.” 

Photo: Shutterstock

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