Bryan Dunn said he has always been passionate about two things: hospitality and snowboarding.
The idea of combining his passions in a job has always been there, but until November 2017 the co-founder of SnowSearch - a Boston-born website where millennials who love to ski can book a complete snow adventure - missed a key ingredient: somebody with technical skills.
The situation changed when Dunn went to a party in East Somerville and met the person who would first become his roommate in an apartment on One Canal Street and later his co-founder and CTO: Luke Zirngibl.
"He came from a software development background, so [he] happened to be incredibly complementary," Dunn said. After many conversations in their apartment, the duo came up with the concept for SnowSearch together as a team.
Dunn, who studied hospitality at Cornell University and worked at the Boston office of British hotel chain Yotel in a business development role, said that the problem SnowSearch is solving is the fact that booking a ski trip is, nowadays, a "convoluted process." First, you may want to check the weather. Then, you'll have to start thinking of lodging. And that's only the beginning.
"All these different pieces of the puzzle are each so unique that... you're stuck on a bunch of different websites."
"It could be a hotel, a condo, a vacation rental, even shared accommodation... You have gear, you can rent gear, you can have gear delivered, you can ship gear... All these different pieces of the puzzle are each so unique that... you're stuck on a bunch of different websites," Dunn explained.
Moreover, Dunn said that the online tools that are currently available are not designed to help customers explore new destinations. On top of that, customers need unbiased information about the places they'll see and they won't likely trust resorts as sources, Dunn said.
Currently, SnowSearch - which Dunn refers as "the Kayak for skiing and snowboarding" - offers the opportunity to book a ski trip among 400 destinations in the U.S., Canada and Japan. In addition, the website features reviews from around 50 ambassadors who are paid to write for SnowSearch.
For this year’s winter season, the SnowSearch team is splitting time between Boston and Salt Lake City. "Our vision is to spend each winter living in a different ski region across the globe then return home to Boston for the remainder of the year," Dunn wrote in an email. "We believe this to be strategic to forming deep rooted relationships through a old-school, geographically dispersed industry."
