How I Got Here, episode 15 - Steve Kaufer of TripAdvisor

Steve Kaufer, CEO and co-founder

How I Got Here is a weekly podcast from PhocusWire and Mozio, getting the inside stories behind innovation and startups in travel and transportation.

TripAdvisor pioneered travel reviews on the internet. CEO Steve Kaufer gives the inside story - the ups and the downs - to David Litwak of Mozio and PhocusWire's Kevin May.

 

The phrase "humble beginnings" is often used to describe the backstory of famous brands in the world of business before they hit the jackpot.

But TripAdvisor, with some of its formative years spent in rooms above a pizza parlor, is one such company in the modern travel business that deserves the phrase to illustrate just how far it's come.

It is now a publicly listed company, of course, with offices around the world and user figures in the hundreds of millions each month.

Yet few people will know or remember how close the company was to going out of business, or how the roles between co-founders Steve Kaufer and Langley Steinert were divided, amongst many other stories.

In a special edition of How I Got Here, Kaufer joined us in the PhocusWire Studio at The Phocuswright Conference in November this year to give us the history and a lot more for one of the industry's most well-known brands.

HIGH is a weekly show produced by PhocusWire and Mozio, aimed at getting the inside stories behind startups and innovation in travel and transportation.

It's hosted by our editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.

A full transcript and additional analysis in 5+ languages is available on Mozio.com/move.

Here is the video version via PhocusWire's YouTube channel: