INTEVIEW WITH iguide.traveler FOUNDER (PART I)
This is part 1 of an interview we did with the founder of iguide.traveler. He requested his identity be kept secret because when he isn’t running his site, he is doing top-secret work for the government. Just kidding. Maybe. Check out his website here: http://iguide.travel/
How did you get into this?
After I graduated college I got a government job. It was decent pay, low maintenance and I had a little more freedom than a typical 9-5.
But I didn’t like the work and saved money for 3 years. After I quit, I traveled.
After I returned to the U.S. I was an assistant teacher for a year while taking classes to become a teacher but I decided it wasn’t for me.
On starting his own website:
It takes a lot of work. You need the idea and the execution.
It’s not about creating a completely new idea, its taking an existing idea and making it better.
My first website helped organizations customize their own pages where they could engage consumers in e-commerce. I didn’t like marketing and pushing products on others though so I tossed a lot of ideas around just trying to figure out what I could do.
I enjoy travel and thought about how I could improve on existing travel sites so in April of 2007 I started iguide.
When I started, I just put up as much content as possible. Then I started filtering to increase the quality and make sure the image and brand were strong as opposed to simply putting anything and everything on the site and then choosing the best stuff later. It’s way more efficient to cull the best stuff from the beginning. Quality always trumps quantity.
What does a typical workday look like for you?
The first year was fun because I was creating and doing something new. The second and third years were hard because I was constantly working. My life was jogging, sleeping and working. I’d wake up and be thinking about the site immediately.
I made no money at first. Then after the first year I made maybe $2K. By the third year it was $30K and after that it was $100K.
In the beginning I was solely focused on making money but now I’m more interested in doing something good.
I still have to update the site, cash checks, and send invoices but for the most part it runs itself now. The biggest thing is cashing checks.
I wake up naturally and I start working. It actually isn’t that fun. Most of my time is spent on web development. It sucks when I try to force something to happen. It’s like working for someone else at that point.
If I let the innovations drive it everyday then I can make if fun again. If it’s a project with a challenge it’s much more fun and the quality of the work is much better. I just can’t force it. It’s more important to be learning than just working.
There was a point when I was in doubt and I thought I didn’t know what I was doing or what I was going to do. It was October ‘08 and the financial crisis really set in and I was losing revenue and people weren’t visiting the site.
I naturally experimented a lot and I guess it just panned out. I never planning on make a lot of money.
I mostly work at home. I did the whole coffee shop thing for a while but it’s just easier to do my work at home. It does get lonely. I don’t get to go to an office and have friends there and get the social aspect of working. That is something most people don’t think about.
I constantly wonder if I’m using the right advertisers. Is the information still valuable to people? Once people started emailing complaints about the site it was great because it meant people cared enough to comment and wanted it to improve.
You seem a bit hostile towards corporations.
The structure of work in the U.S. is more about jumping through hoops and navigating the politics of the organization. I almost went to grad school and naively thought it would be great but as I applied and went though the interview process I realized it was no different and didn’t even want to bother starting the program.
I was a marketing major in undergrad. I learned in school that it was up to the consumer to decide what they want to purchase but that isn’t true. Businesses push their products on consumers even if they are unnecessary. You wouldn’t believe some of the tactics they use to make money.
We need fewer products in the world, not more. Advertisers use ecology, psychology and marketing magic to trick consumers. For instance, why are we talking about getting cars with 60 miles a gallon? We can’t keep building roads and constantly expanding cities. If we have learned anything in the last two years it is that constant growth isn’t feasible. We should be asking what comes after the car.
What is your current focus for the site?
I’m trying to grow the site and do it responsibly and add multiple languages.
I try to pull in the top quality content. I check everything for bugs and make sure the articles and pictures are the highest quality.
I sometimes wonder if I should add employees? Probably, within a year, but I want to make sure I’m ready. I’m a visionary. I have good ideas. I’m not a leader and I’m not a perfect programmer.
I ask myself all the time how should I spend my time because its getting to the point where I might be able to spend more of it doing something else. Maybe spend half the year working and the other half traveling.
I’d like to spend my time working on a greater world problem. Maybe in a few years do something positive to make a difference in people’s lives.
Thank you for sharing some of your story with us. Stay tuned for Part II coming soon!
