During startup weekend Groningen I participated in a team that wanted to make it easier for travelers to decide what their destination will be, and what they want to see or do during their holidays.
The hypotheses is that people are being overwhelmed by the amount of choices they are offered on the internet now-a-days. While simultaneously the offer primarily exists of hotel images rather then a look and feel of the journey they can experience. Therefor people struggle to feel comfortable/ensured that the holiday they are about to book is going to be awesome and up to their expectations (or beyond).
In comparison to hackathon’s, startup weekend is much more about finding a viable business model. Which is in fact a lot harder, especially if you have to do it in only 54 hours with people you have not met before. Bouke Nielsen, a journalist at the “Dagblad van het Noorden” followed us during the weekend. He witnessed the struggles that we gone through and was able to pin point the “Magical Moment” that occurred during the startup of a company.
Read all about it in this article featured on Noord Blog:
The solution we had in mind and tried to evolve into a business model is a solution in which other travelers can create an itinerary. Research has shown that there are many people using excel sheets to plan there holidays. They spend many hours searching the internet for awesome spots to go to. What if we would provide them with the right tools and allow them to share their itineraries? It would save others much time doing the same research. And what’s more personal then doing the trips others have prepared for themselves?