Why I Do What I Do: The Long Answer

I was talking to an executive at a multi-billion dollar company the other day, and he asked me a question I've gotten a lot over the past four years:

What does my startup, Localeur, look like at scale?

Short answer: We can become TripAdvisor for the Airbnb generation. Simply put, while the average TripAdvisor user is in my mother's generation, the average Airbnb user is my generation. Localeur has the potential to be the resource providing authentic content to the people who've opted out of cookie-cutter tourist experiences to experience local. [Note: Forgive me if you think this is a sales pitch; it's not. It's just me sharing my passion for what I wake up and do every day (and have done for the last four years).]

Long answer:

When I co-founded Localeur in early 2013, the plan was always to grow our community one city at a time until we were in something like 250 cities around the world that we felt mattered to the majority of millennial travelers. Cities like Austin, LA and New York (launched in 2013), London (launched this March) and Mexico City (coming this summer) and eventually global cities like Hong Kong and Sydney along with smaller travel destinations like Tahoe and Charleston. In 2017, we'll have launched in Canada, Europe, Latin America, Australia, Asia and, likely, make our way into South Africa.

In reviewing our first-ever investor deck - before the name of the company was even Localeur, and before we'd raised any funds - we projected we would scale from four cities in year one to 100 cities by year four. Fundraising took a bit longer than expected, but we're tracking to close in on 100 cities within five years, which is unprecedented in the industry considering we've yet to raise a dime from a Silicon Valley (or Austin) venture capital firm and we have just one engineer and one UX designer on staff.

My passion and ambition for Localeur remains the same today some four years later. I think we're only scratching the surface of our reach, and I think Airbnb's investments into local experiences is the biggest external validator we could have possibly gotten about how right we've been about our initial assumptions that have driven our business since its inception. Travelers want to experience local, and TripAdvisor and other companies have not yet responded to this desire because they're not responsive to the needs of millennials. This is what Localeur has nailed better than anyone in the industry. This is why I stay energized by our mission and why the value of what we're doing continues to rise with each passing year rather than peaking in years one or two as our over-funded competitors (e.g. YPlan, Sosh, GoGoBot) have in recent years.

My ego is not attached to the name Localeur or the title CEO or the idea of becoming a billionaire or the pursuit of a TechCrunch feature or backing from a big-name VC firm. My conviction for Localeur is attached solely to the fact that I know that when I was in Tokyo and Hong Kong on a solo trip back in March or in Paris last summer with my fiance Susannah or in Cuba a couple years ago with my good friend and investor Terry Lickona that I would have loved to have Localeur's authentic content at my fingertips. And the fact that millions of other travelers would to, millennial or not.

So what Localeur looks like at scale isn't necessarily some massive stand-alone company that focuses most of its energy on increasing its valuation for the benefit of its venture investors to avoid filing an I.P.O. as Uber and Airbnb appear to be doing today. What Localeur looks like at scale is a realization that travelers have as much access to authentic, localized recommendations on where to go just as much as they have access to shitty bus tours and tourist traps, if they so choose. I don't know if the majority of travelers want to experience local, just like the majority of Austinites care very little about contributing to Austin's reputation as "the Live Music Capital of the World," but I know that these local experiences and the local businesses that make them happen are integral to the kind of authentic, unforgettable travel experiences that explain why millennials would rather travel with friends than buy homes and cars, and as a person that owns neither a home nor a car, I want to be both a facilitator and beneficiary of this concept being a global reality. That's what gets me excited to continue the work I do.