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How many tech startups has IHE inspired? Has IHE ever served as that virtual meeting place that enabled technology and education minded people to get together to start a company?
Maybe this will be one example!
The Inspiration:
Go back and read Eric Stoller's post Up, Up, and Away: Travel Gear for the Frequent Flyer from 3/21/12.
Next read Sam Grobart's NYTs Personal Tech column from 4/25 On the Road With the Proper Gear
I've also been thinking about What Tech Do You Bring to Conferences? (7/6/11)
The Elevator Pitch:
Triptechporn.com (which I registered this morning - love or hate the name?) is mobile app, Facebook app, and website in which people take pictures of the technology that they are bringing on trips. They then tag the technology (from a database), tag the conference they are attending (from a database), and share these photos and tags through the app. Users can critique the travel technology choices of other uses via a text box and tagging. The apps and site searching along dimensions of destinations (example..EDUCAUSE) or gear (i.e. Samsung Galaxy X), allow everyone to find other people going to the same destination or using the same travel tech. Tags are included for trip type and job classification. A photo, tech, and travel social app.
The Revenue Model:
Revenue will come from two sources, advertising and the data. Technology companies and conference destinations will be able to place relevant and dynamic ads based on user generated content (photos and tags). .
The Team:
I am looking for two partners to work with me to build out and run triptechporn.com. (Yes...you can get on the ground floor of a startup!)
Lead Developer: You will have the skills to build the mobile apps, the Facebook app, and the website. Programing will be Ruby on Rails. You will handle all technology, design, and infrastructure issues.
Head of Operations: You will handle all the operations and business aspects of the startup. This includes project management, business development, and finance.
My job will be to find the partners, keep pushing the ideas, and utilize my networks in the technology industry to push this along.
My thought is to do this on the cheap, bootstrapping as we go. But if you are intrigued enough by the idea and the potential team to fund this idea, by all means be in touch!
This is all sort of an experiment in the power of social media to start a company, and the talent pool available virtually that is willing to stand-up and take on this opportunity. Feel free to get in touch with me by comments on this post or by more traditional means of e-mail.
Assuming that this idea does not die today (it might unless people smarter than I am step-up and make contact) I will keep blogging about the experience. The goal would be to introduce the service in StartUp Alley at EDUCAUSE 2012 in November of 2012. This would give us a few months to make this real, and a real conference in which everyone could be taking pictures, tagging, sharing, and critiquing the tech carried to the conference.
Does something like this app already exist?
Should I be worried that someone will steal the idea? (Or is it not a good enough idea to bother stealing?)
Would you take pictures of the tech that you are traveling with, and then share them with the world? Would you be interested in seeing what tech others are bringing to your next conference?
Thoughts? Applicants?
