With its app by the same name, Travelloc offers a combination of a social network, travel guide and recommendation platform. We spoke with Tim Aumüller, one of the co-founders of the Munich startup.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourself!
Travelloc was founded in Munich in 2018 by Sebastian Leonhard, Sudhanshu Vora, Aref Attar and me. Every one of us brings important practical experience to the company and we all share a common passion: discovering and sharing exciting locations from all over the world. Sebastian, 31 years old, used to work in strategy consulting. I’m also 31 years old and was involved in establishing Deliveroo in Germany for more than three years. Sud, 29 years old, is an experienced software and mobile developer. Aref, 49 years old, has a wealth of experience in management and business development.
Travelloc is the new social travel app that makes it super easy to discover, save and share locations — custom-tailored to your individual tastes and for every city in the world. We rely on experience from user-specific networks and food and travel experts to create an individual travel guide for each user. That means everything revolves around recommendations you can really trust. Our clear mission is to revolutionize the confusing market of travel recommendations and make it more accessible for users.
Tips and recommendations from friends and acquaintances
2. But that’s nothing out of the box!
On the contrary! The concept behind Travelloc is unique in the market. We solve a problem with our app that most people are familiar with from their own experience: You’re in a new city and are looking for a restaurant or the right bar for the evening. But the most reliable tips and recommendations are always from friends and acquaintances. With the relevant rating platforms, you usually have to get lucky to get a match that suits your personal taste. Getting recommendations from your own personal network meant having to send countless messages or make “calls” in social networks while rummaging through travel magazines and blogs.With Travelloc, we have a completely new approach to solving the problem and simply and easily bring our users to the places that suit their tastes exactly.
3. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
The biggest challenge in the beginning was that we had the idea for Travelloc, but didn’t have the tech expertise needed to implement it. With Sudhanshu, we finally found our fourth co-founder who, as an adept software developer, brings just the expertise we needed to our Travelloc team. What we also soon realized, however, was that programming an app takes more time than anticipated and involves some serious setbacks. But we never let that scare us off.
Another real challenge was and is accepting that you can’t always immediately and directly implement everything and that sometimes things just need more time. Nonetheless, it is still fascinating to see your own product develop and improve each day from the first wireframe to the app it is today.
The next step for Travelloc: launching the Android app
4. Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty: How is business going?
We’re quite pleased with how things have started. The app has found approval, which shows us that people really were waiting for a solution like Travelloc to hit the market. The launch of the Android version is planned for September 2019, which will significantly extend our reach once again. We’ve also been able to get the first influencers, city magazines and industry experts on board with our concept, and they’ve already started sharing their favorite locations with the Travelloc community. New useful features, like being able to book restaurants at a discount with Delinski, are also quickly establishing the platform.
“The startup scene in Munich has been developing extremely well for years”
5. What does Munich mean to you?
We are all happy to have made Munich our home. The city has become home away from home to all of us, and is one where we’ve already been able to spend a few formative years. Munich offers all the of elements of a major city but still isn’t overwhelming. That increases the feel-good factor — it’s tough to find a higher quality of living in Germany than in Munich.
The startup scene in Munich has been developing extremely well for years. Concepts like Werk1 offer founders amazing opportunities and are definitely a step in the right direction. Nevertheless, a lot can still be done — for example in terms of the extremely limited offer of affordable co-working spaces. All in all, there’s hardly another German city besides Berlin that is as attractive to motivated founders as Munich.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we be seeing you at an Epic Fail Night soon?
With Travelloc, we’re solving a problem that comes up time and again in our generation in particular when it comes to planning city trips or vacations. Individuality has never been more on trend, and it’s increasingly pushing aside the mainstream. That’s why we’ll take the risk and say that we certainly won’t be meeting up at an Epic Fail Night. But we’re also realistic enough to know that hard work and dedication are not always enough to make a startup successful. You also need to have a serious amount of luck. We’re confident that we’re on the right path with Travelloc to revolutionize the travel market and make it more accessible.
7. Steckerlfisch (fish grilled on a stick) or Schweinshaxe (knuckle of pork)?
Three knuckles of pork, please. And an extra helping of Knödel (German dumplings) for Sudhanshu, our staunch vegetarian.