With the app market booming right now, we all come across that one app we become attached to. The travel app Trover was no different when we first took a dive into its features. When you first open the app you get a feel of Instagram & Pinterest but what you don’t get is a bunch of worthless selfies along with a bunch of photos of cats. We sat with Co-Founder Jason Karas and spoke about how his photo travel app differentiates from any other photo app around.
Def Pen Radio: Hey Jason thanks for taking the timeout to speak with us For those who aren’t quite familiar, what is the concept behind Trover?
Jason Karas: Trover is an amazing travel app and community dedicated to fueling a love for adventure by bringing together people and bonding them through beautiful photos, memorable destinations, and shared stories. Built from the ground up for explorers, the site is designed to help people go on an instant adventure and explore the best ofeverywhere, whether around the corner or around the world. You can create lists of places you want to explore, showcase your photos in a vibrant community and meet all kinds of interesting people.
What led you to creating the Trover app?
My co-founder Rich Barton and I saw how difficult it was for adventurous explorers to visually capture and share stories about favorite hotels, restaurants, surf spots, and other cool places with friends. As travel warriors ourselves, we wanted to create something special for other travelers to connect, inspire each other and explore incredible places all over the world together.
Around that time, we saw an emergence of location-aware smartphones. There was an explosion of social photo apps like Instagram and Pinterest, which were visually elegant, but didn’t cater to the specific needs for connecting a community of like-minded travelers. So, we set out to converge location-tagging and social-photo sharing experiences in a new way–one that could digitally fuel people’s passion for exploration and connect them through beautiful travel photos, memorable destinations, and shared stories. And Trover was born.
How did you and Rich Barton link up?
We originally met through our wives, who are sisters. Over the years we’ve been lucky to have vacationed, fished, surfed, and skied together around the world. We’re also both tech ntrepreneurs, so we decided to create something together.
What do you tell those people who might say, “this is just another Instagram app”?
You know, people frequently call us a Pinterest for travel or an Instagram for travel. I take that as
as a huge compliment. The simplicity of Instagram has always been an inspiration for our design. But when it comes down to it, Trover is really quite different in a few key ways. First, Trover has been built specifically around the needs and use-cases of explorers.
All content is geo-located as accurately as possible whether at a restaurant in a city center or a swimming hole at the base of hidden waterfall somewhere off the grid. So people can find the places on Trover and go experience them. Second, the content is useful for explorers – pictures and tips of great places to visit and things to do. Although they are adorable, you won’t see kittens and babies on Trover.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there is a very vibrant and social community alive right behind the photos. You can socialize directly with the folks who actually took the photo – you can get advice, share tips & inspirations. With Pinterest, the original photographers and travelers can be hard to reach. Inside Trover, we’ve pulled together a committed and adventurous team who are inspired daily by our passionate community of explorers. Together, we aim to create an extraordinary social photo travel experience that is elegant yet continues to push the boundaries in ways that explorers can appreciate.
For me the Trover app itself is pushing users to create more useful content and less selfies
(laughs) right?
I’ll tell you what, we have an amazing list of “selfies with substance” that you should check out, but you are absolutely right. Trover is more about sharing the gems and wisdom that you find along your journey. We believe that everyone has an inner explorer with a story to tell and a discovery others will appreciate. Since we launched, the Trover community has posted hundreds of thousands of personal photos, memorable tips, and unique stories from
around the world about cool places they’ve visited—from local restaurants and art galleries to hiking trails and tiny beach bungalows.
Many of our Trover members have also hand-selected various locations to create visually stunning lists that showcase location-tagged photos, making it simple to find and enjoy hidden gems nearby or abroad. We’re really focused on building something special.
How many active users do you guys have?
We have about 250,000 people in the community. At this stage its all about attracting explorers
that like to share great places and stories. The amount of monthly content posted to Trover has
grown 500% this year.
What’s the current hot spot you see a lot of users sharing at the moment on the platform?
Our What’s Hot page happens to be one of my favorite places to visit everyday, it makes it so
easy to see trends. If you go there right now, you’ll see some great shots of spring flower tours,
end-of-season skiing, and (surprisingly) a lot of Trovers posting around Venice, Italy.
Are there any features you are looking to roll out in the coming months?
We will soon announce our first version for Android, which I am so excited about.
Photo Credit: Passport Affairs
Currently there is no form of monetizing the app, what are plans moving forward in that area of the business?
Fortunately, we’re honored to be funded and guided by some of the brightest people in Silicon Valley, Seattle and Boston. Our investors include Concur, Benchmark Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Ignition Partners. They’ve given us the flexibility to figure that out, but right now, we are committed to creating a new media channel for travel and we feel confident that monetization will come.
Now I’m guessing you travel a lot, where is one place you think everyone should experience at least once?
Burningman.
Why?
It will change your life!
Apps are being created at an all-time high these days, what advice would you give someone who’s pondering on launching an app?
Don’t just build an app, build something that will ultimately be a sustainable business.
In 3 years where do you see Trover?
As the most powerful online and mobile travel channel that fuels people’s adventurous spirit
everyday.
Jason it’s been a pleasure, congrats on the current success and good luck with the future of Trover.
You too!
