Hello Travel Massive community, I recently had the pleasure of connecting with another founder through Travel Massive, stemming from my previous post on defining product-market-fit. Our conversation delved into the exhilarating yet challenging journey of being first-time founders building startups in the travel industry. One topic that particularly resonated with us was the exploration of Maps APIs. As we all know, the visual aspect and functionality of maps play a crucial role in travel tools. However, for early-stage startups navigating the MVP or first iteration phase, deciding on the right Maps API can be daunting. Balancing the desire for functionality with budget constraints and the fear of surpassing trial thresholds or entering into costlier plans can be a real dilemma. I'm sure many of you in the community have faced similar challenges. That's why I'm reaching out to gather insights and perspectives from fellow founders. What Maps APIs did you consider in the early sta...

Hey Travel Massive Community, My name is Martin, and I'm navigating the exciting yet challenging journey of being a first-time cofounder and product leader. We're currently in the process of refining the second iteration of our MVP. As we prepare for our beta launch, our primary goal is to nail down product-market fit. From what I've gathered, product-market fit seems to encompass two major areas: our vision (our definition of success and the unique value we aim to deliver to our users) as founders and the empirical data or benchmarks set by others who've successfully launched in similar markets. Here's where I like to gain more perspective from the Travel Massive Community: 1. Is this dual-sided approach to product-market fit consistent with your experiences? 2. For those who've journeyed through the startup landscape, in the travel space, how did you define and achieve product-market fit for your projects? 3. What metrics, feedback strategies, or milestones have you found crit...

Sharing a short essay that arrived in my inbox today, courtesy of Dense Discovery — a newsletter about design, tech, sustainability and urbanism curated by Kai Brach, based in Melbourne, Australia. Do we travel for transformation or validation? It's always interesting to hear what thought leaders "outside" the travel industry have to say about the state of tourism, so I'm sharing Kai's article with his permission. There's a few good points in this piece, including how touristic travel (e.g. mass tourism) can import more culture to a destination than it exports. I also agree that seeking validation on social media is drowning out good quality travel content. There's some truth to Kai's point about escapism. Consider this: the biggest competitor to a travel agent is the electronics shop, where consumers can instead buy a new 50" flatscreen TV. In this scenario, which "escapism" is worse? Buying a new TV or booking a trip on a cruise ship? 😅 However, I don't believe that all trave...