Hello there,

Nice to see you reading my update about GloboLoko. In this monthly news update, I share the last developments on GloboLoko and what the plans for the future are.

New version live

This week we have launched a new version of GloboLoko, yay! Finally! After working on the new version for a year, this is the first time I can confidently call this our MVP. In start-up terms, the MVP, or Minimum Viable Product, is the version with just enough features to be useful for an early group of users.

The new version has two parts: the traveller portal and the creator portal.

The traveller portal is everything you normally see when you visit the website. We have integrated travel guides, spots, reviews and photos as content types, which can be sorted by destination and topic. In the future, we will also add videos as a content type and add functionality so that travellers can talk directly with the content creators.

The creator portal is only accessible for travel content creators. It’s a dashboard where the creators can write travel guides, upload photographs and collaborate with other creators to make content together. In the dashboard, creators can also see how much they earned with their content. We share 75 percent of our advertising income with the creators.

Where are we going?

Our mission is to create a fair social travel platform, where travellers can get local, independent insights about their destination that go beyond the usual tourist attractions. When I talk with travellers, most people agree that review systems on the major online travel platforms are flawed. Reviews often do not have enough content to make them useful for travel planning and also the independence of the reviews are often questionable.

On GloboLoko, we want to go back to what travel is actually about, instead of excessively focussing on selling, the foundation on GloboLoko is on discovery and travel inspiration. We also add price comparisons and booking options, but see that more as a supportive service, to also make the bridge between travel inspiration and travel planning and bookings.

To achieve this, on GloboLoko, only experienced travel bloggers, writers and photographers can publish their travel content. We also want to be fair to travel content creators, so the creators get paid a share of 75 percent of the advertising income generated.

So in this way we want to be fair for travellers and fair for content creators.

Y Combinator Build Sprint

In the last weeks, I have participated in Y Combinator’s Build Sprint, a 4-week sprint that I’m doing with more than 1,000 other start-up founders. This program is giving me a lot of insights into the practical process of running and developing a startup, which I will share with you as well in these monthly updates.

I have learnt the importance of working in short sprints as a way to keep myself focussed on the most essential tasks and set the right priorities. There are always so many features that would be cool to add but for a start-up, it’s paramount to stay focussed on the main goal, which is to create a platform that is used by many travellers and creators.

Another thing I have learnt about developing a startup is that it is essential to involve end-users in developing your product and to base further product development on the feedback of the users. A common mistake start-up founders make is to focus too much on product development, and not enough on checking in with users to see if the product that they are building is actually useful for them. So, instead of only focussing on product development, I will also start to engage more with end-users, travellers and content creators.

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That’s it for now!

Stay cool,

Sebastiaan