In the green room at Phocuswright with... Tedd Evers

Tedd Evers, Founder and CEO of TripTuner

Tedd Evers launched TripTuner in October 2011. He previously held roles at Site59.com where he was part of the launch team, and Travelocity where he led the hotel teams.

In a series of interviews with executives participating at the event in Florida in November, PhocusWire finds out what makes them tick.

What do you make of the current state of startup funding in travel?

We bootstrapped and are profitable so this may be more of a sideline perspective but I’ve been a part of some larger deals. 

From what I’ve seen, despite investors’ desire to back the next major disruptor, a lot of funding seems to be going towards safer bets in more crowded spaces (e.g. alternative accommodation, tours and activities) rather than more uniquely innovative approaches. 

I think that broader conservative approach allowed Airbnb and Uber to disrupt travel from the outside and I’m not convinced it’s changed. With consolidation and scale, there’s a natural tendency for larger players to emphasize optimization and iteration vs. disruption.

If you weren't in travel, what company would you like to be part of and why?

Option A

My wife’s non-profit, Inner-City Inner-Child which uses the arts to inspire and teach early childhood literacy for disadvantaged children who typically aren’t read to at home. 

It’s easy to forget that travel is a luxury, and while part of TripTuner’s mission is to inspire global understanding and economic development through travel, education is increasingly becoming a luxury as well. It shouldn’t be.

Option B

Spotify. I’m a huge music fan so ubiquitous listener-controlled on-demand music resonates with me, plus as a DJ and tech entrepreneur with a keen ear and appreciation of nuance, I’ve got a few ideas to make it even better.

Option C

Kiva.org. They provide critical capital to all kinds of entrepreneurs in remote corners of the world - the kind of places I love - in a way that I’d like my venture TripTuner to do for local travel entrepreneurs.

What are the gaps in your experience and knowledge of the industry?

While I’ve covered a lot of ground in 20 years at Site59, Travelocity, eDreams and now TripTuner I’d have to say the cruise business. Simply haven’t done enough of it. 

My first taste - a three-day trek from Bali to Ambon, Indonesia on a cruise ship converted for local transport - didn’t do it justice. The ships out there now are amazing, so I look forward to filling in that gap. After all, travel is about new experiences.

What do you consider to be the best important invention in the digital world in the last 20 years?

Napster. Introduced a whole new way of looking at the world in a disruptive, democratizing way.

It empowered individual consumers with unprecedented choice and transformed not only music distribution but also spawned aggressive new business models that set aside existing regulations in favor of scale (think OTA/online taxation, Uber, Airbnb). 

Full disclosure: Napster helped me find an “out-of-print” house track I heard at the old Nell’s on 14th Street NYC.

What assumption about travelers have you found not to be true?

Age-defined, gendered demographics are outdated. I mean, the CEO of Goldman Sachs is a club DJ!

It’s all about psychographics and behaviors. One’s self-perception, and the desire to express that ideal self has as much if not more weight than one’s age, click history on the symbol on the restroom you use.

Also, I regret to inform the “real OG travelers” and authenticity-seeking influencers out there that we are all tourists. And that’s not a bad thing. 

Getting out of your comfort zone is an intentional act, a path to personal growth regardless if its Times Square, Muang Sing or just taking a different way to work (thanks, Waze).

In a team environment, what role do you usually take on?

Contrarian first, utopian visionary second. House DJ, third. Leader who listens.

What travel industry development or brand do you wish you'd thought of first?

Apart from TripTuner? 

None.

I do love the customer-centric approach Kiwi.com is taking towards improving the entire customer journey. It echoes our mission of converting inspiration and dreaming into bookings.

The Flyke flying bicycle has been created, but my “Flee Solo” would be the world’s first pedal and solar-powered glider-tent-bike with collapsible fabric and tent-pole wings that allow solo travelers to traverse the world with a near-zero carbon footprint (may produce heavy breathing). 

Do you agree with the often-used phrase, "travel planning is broken”?

We’ve heard that opening line from 95% of travel tech startup pitches over the years.

The term “travel planning” itself is broken. It implies a monolithic, singular task when it’s actually a complex, dynamic and very personal set of processes. 

The fundamental misunderstanding of that basic premise is why so many trip planning startups have failed.

Because of the complexity and individuality of travel planning, any effort at forcing travelers into one externally-imposed process is a fool’s errand.

Even Google failed at it - before cleverly weaving it into existing behavior flows like Maps.

We focus on what I believe is most important - inspiring travelers to act (and book) by tapping into the inherent aspirational joy of travel and putting them in control of the process. 

The functional aspects will inevitably improve over time and be absorbed into ubiquitous platforms like super apps.

Was ground transportation (apart from rainy nights in Manhattan) broken before Uber? 

Was renting a home broken before airbnb? Not really, but they flipped the script with dramatically better models and customer experience.

Look at portable personal music. I LOVED my Sony Walkman (you know, the aluminum one that was barely larger than a cassette)? But then the iPod came out and blew people’s minds - just as the iPhone did for mobile phones.

To me, it’s less about fixing something that is broken than on innovating and improving upon what’s there in meaningful ways. 

Travelers absolutely do want more intuitive, personalized and automated capability in planning. But it should be on the customer’s terms and how they are feeling in the moment, which may differ greatly from their click history or derived profile.

Travel planning will change as people, technology and society evolve. As leaders in travel, our job is to stay ahead of those evolutionary curves.

Think back to five years ago. Did you envision this is where you would be?

I may not have envisioned exactly where I am right now, but what I’m doing is very intentional. Running TripTuner is the culmination of a lifetime of experiences in travel, business, basketball, music and human connection.

The vision and desire to create something unique, to create my own path, became clearer as I incorporated each of those facets into my current day to day. 

I can’t wait to see where this wonderful journey will lead to next. Stay tuned.

What’s the most interesting thing about you that we wouldn’t learn from your resume alone?

I will go to extraordinary lengths to play basketball when traveling. On a year-long trip around the world, I had a bad case of the “basketball jones” - a longing feeling from not playing in a while. So I bought a ball and small pump (so I could deflate it for easy packing) at a sports shop in Florianopolis, Brazil. 

A month later, I used it to give an impromptu clinic for some boys in Pucon, Chile. I wound up giving it to a boy who lived in the guest house where I stayed in Punta Arenas.

While touring the floating villages of Chong Khneas in Cambodia, I was surprised to find an empty floating full-court basketball court, enclosed with chicken wire. 

After some persistent persuasion, the reluctant captain took me to it. I picked up the ball and swished a few shots until a little boy peeked out the window and joined me. We couldn’t communicate but understood each other very well through basketball. Now THAT was an “authentic” experience!