Travel Massive started off as a fun project by serial entrepreneur Ian Cumming who wanted to connect people in travel. Over the years, it’s grown into a global community, powered by local chapters. Now, backed by a personal investment from Stephan Ekbergh of Travelstart, Cumming wants to turn Travel Massive into a serious business to make a positive impact on travel.
Ian Cumming (left) with mentor Stephan Ekbergh (second from left) at Travel Massive Capetown
Q: What was the original idea behind Travel Massive?
I found myself in Sydney at the beginning of 2010 working on my first travel startup which had been acquired by World Nomads. Nearby their office were dozens of travel companies including Wotif, Expedia, travel agents and airlines offices, which led me to believe this area of Sydney would be a hotbed of innovation and talent in the travel industry.
Instead I discovered that there was very little self-awareness or connectivity between any of these companies despite being within a 100 metre radius of each other. I remember one day going to Expedia’s office around the corner to introduce myself and being turned away by the manager who kicked me out the door and told me I should use their website’s contact form instead. So in protest I started a monthly gathering of all my friends in the travel industry in Sydney, and this is what turned into Travel Massive. The original idea still holds true today for us – to find and connect people in the travel industry.
Q: How has it evolved over the years? How massive is it now?
Last year we hosted more than 200 events around the world, and this year we’re hosting an event almost daily. Chapter wise we’ve grown to over 72 cities and 38 countries and we are twice as big as we were last year. Evolution comes from the community’s needs – we’ve built a new centralised platform for our members, and we’re also hosting more talks and presentations at our events.
Q: Most of its growth is organically right? How do you get people to grow it for you? What do they get out of it?
Travel Massive’s organic growth shows the power of “the tribe” which comes from building a community around a core set of values that empower people to make change (see our values over at www.travelmassive.org).
Travel Massive has grown through locally organised chapters, led by Chapter Leaders who apply to start a chapter in their city. We give our Chapter Leaders the autonomy to build and grow their local community, while providing them with the global network to connect with. In general, our Chapter Leaders care about their local travel industry and get involved to also build their professional network and to learn more skills.
Q: What’s the thinking behind the latest launch?
This is really our first launch – because up until this year our website was being hosted off a spreadsheet, which we obviously outgrew. The idea behind our new platform is provide a centralised place for membership, event registration, and to make our network searchable.
Q: You’ve never run it for profit right? Has that changed? Now that you’ve got investment from Travelstart? How are they involved in this?
A team now in place to take Travel Massive onwards and upwards
In the very beginning Travel Massive was a fun side project and I ambitiously wanted to see how big I could grow it. I’ve never thought about the money. Last year we reached a point where we couldn’t grow any further without full time resources to support the community, so we put in place a small global team and incorporated as a Public Benefit Corp (BCorp).
Stephan Ekbergh from Travelstart has been a friend and mentor of mine for a number of years. I actually met Stephan at WIT Singapore in 2011 after I pitched GetFlight at the startup competition. I tried to sell Stephan my business and I thought I was going to be a millionaire but the deal failed and I walked away with tough love instead.
Stephan became involved because he saw the potential of the community and network, and wanted to help. He’s also a guardian of sorts who’s willing to protect us from the sharks and cheapskates that are out there. I’ve turned down some people in the past because I felt they weren’t aligned with our values and were just in it for personal gain. I couldn’t think of a better investor and mentor than Stephan for these reasons.
Q: I know you will hate this question but how will you make money? Franchise model? Subscription?
I believe there’s monetary value in connecting companies with people within our network. The local sponsorship of our events by hundreds of the world’s leading travel companies over the past four years demonstrates Travel Massive’s value. So our goal is to provide ways for companies to do business with our members, so that it benefits everyone. Over the next six months we will be experimenting with a few revenue models including company subscriptions.
Q: Ultimately, what do you hope to achieve with TravelMassive? Five years from now, what will it look like?
I want to see how big we can grow Travel Massive and to see our community make changes to travel at a global level. Imagine if Travel Massive was in 1,000 cities around the world in five years. Just think of all the ideas and innovation that could be fostered by a free and open network.
Travel is accessible to more people in the world than ever before and this makes us responsible for the results. If you look beyond the economic opportunities, we as an industry have a huge opportunity to change the world by creating more meaningful travel experiences. If Travel Massive can help make a positive impact in all of this then I will be delighted.
