A Chicago app from a pair of early Trunk Club employees wants to take on legacy travel apps like Tripadvisor and Yelp with its platform that helps you plan trips based on recommendations from your friends.
Out of Office aims to give travelers inspiration and planning tips based on where their friends have traveled in the past. The app, which launched in August 2021, recently raised $3.5 million in new seed funding led by Chicago's Hyde Park Venture Partners. Other backers include Cameo CEO Steven Galanis, former Orbitz Chief Product Officer Chris Brown, ex-Havenly COO Jessie Dixon, Spikeball founder Chris Ruder, former Bumble COO Sarah Jones Simmer, and Brand Foundry Ventures, a VC firm from Trunk Club founder Brian Spaly.
Out of Office has now raised $5 million since it launched last year.
The startup is led by Janine Seale and Coabi Kastan, who both joined Trunk Club in 2011. Kastan eventually moved on to Cameo as its VP of talent relations, while Seale served as the VP of revenue at interior design company Havenly.
Now with Out of Office, the two are working to create a better trip-planning and inspiration platform as much of the country becomes comfortable hitting the road again after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"When we started, a lot of people looked at us like we were insane," Seale said. "'You’re starting a travel company in the midst of a global pandemic when all the borders are closed? What are you guys thinking?' Coabi and I always felt really strongly that travel would rebound. It wasn’t a question of if; it was a question of when."
Early user interest has been strong, the founders said, thus the need to raise more funds and continue growing quickly. Out of Office users have made 50,000 recommendations on its app in more than 3,500 cities.
The app allows you to add your own travel history and recommendations, and to invite and follow your friends who add and review the places they've been. Out of Office has also partnered with social media influencers to help fuel its growth.
The idea is to create a travel platform that helps you plan a trip full of hotels, restaurants and other hot spots that have been vetted by people you trust.
Eventually, Out of Office wants to become a one-stop-shop for travel, where you can not only plan a trip but also book travel within its app. You can currently book restaurant reservations in the app through OpenTable, but it plans to add hotel and airline bookings in the future. It's also eyeing business travel tools as a potential revenue stream, Kastan said.
The startup currently has eight employees and expects to double that in the next year.
