Wanderlust is peaking in the U.S., at least from where Summer Crenshaw is sitting. Two years of pent-up demand due the pandemic has turned the nearly $9 trillion travel industry on its head.
Crenshaw is hoping to capture some of that audience with her new travel-tech startup, Roamie. It's differentiator: The company’s on-demand marketplace curates adventures ranging from the weird to the wild to the wonderful, all sourced from the content creator community.
Roamie has experienced an accelerated launch since its August founding — it’s the first spinout of Vitamin Collective, a local startup factory founded by Emily Geiger — and is now gearing up to stretch its legs nationwide.
“Travel patterns are changing. We know people want to get out more. And in order to do that, they need information at their disposal,” Crenshaw said.
Roamie’s head start is a credit to Vitamin Collective — Crenshaw said it's months ahead of schedule — but also to the experience level of its team. Vitamin Collective is working to create a whole portfolio of new travel-related companies, and its first “themed” studio, RoadX, launched last year with backing from AAA Club Alliance.
Essentially, AAA presented a problem, and Vitamin Collective brought in experienced founders to build a company around it.
Enter Crenshaw and Dave Theus, Roamie’s co-founder and chief technology officer. Both are marketplace experts.
Crenshaw helped establish CareerBuilder and then Tilr, a startup known as the Match.com of recruiting. Most recently, she served as CEO of Blue Ash-based TalentNow, an employment marketplace that services the entire hiring ecosystem.
Theus, who joined in February, co-founded Homee, an insurtech startup based in Tampa with dozens of employees in Cincinnati. Homee, pegged as the Uber for home services, acts as a middleman of sorts between insurance companies and homeowners.
“It’s a different industry, but very similar to what we’ve done before,” Theus said. “We’ve been through what works, what doesn't work, and we know how to build products. It’s going to be a fun business that people can really get behind.”
Roamie, in this case, is focused on microtripping.
Per AAA, 700 million road trips are taken in the U.S. every year. Roughly 30% of those are considered microtrips, or quick getaways. AAA believes that will only become more commonplace. “The one-week, once-a-year epic adventures aren't just aren’t enough anymore,” Crenshaw said.
Roamie’s recommendations come from local content creators with unique, firsthand knowledge.
Crenshaw said people are less trusting of big names like Google, Tripadvisor and Yelp, and the startup offers a better alternative to crowdsourcing ideas from the likes of Facebook or Reddit, or so-called “familiar strangers.”
“We're less concerned about point of interest. Instead, it’s making that authentic connection to a local area and hearing more about areas often overlooked,” she said.
Using the Roamie platform, a traveler can select a budget of time for their excursion and how far they’re willing to go. Users can also filter options based on who they’re traveling with, whether it be friends, a significant other, kids or a pet.
Then they’ll select their vibe: “weird” could include dark tourism, or adventures more off-the-beaten path; “wild” could include nature-oriented adventures like hiking or biking; or “wonderful” could include the most unique features in a city or town.
The selections will “unlock” matching experiences, which will be curated by the host of content creators.
Theus said Roamie differs from a platform like TikTok because it focuses heavily on storytelling through video. He equates it to a video blog or podcast. Creators will also be able to attach maps, location pins and more to round out their post.
Contributors will be able earn a passive income (Roamie users will pay to use the platform, which will also serve as one of the company’s revenue streams). Crenshaw said ideal contributors are folks with a good understanding of their local area and who are passionate about sharing that with others.
“It’s like going from zero to Kardashian in terms of what is an influencer, what is a creator,” Crenshaw said. “For us, this can be a microinfluencer, a local bartender or coffee roaster. And it's not just ‘Top 10 Things to Do in Cincinnati.’ We all know those. It’s about how we unlock the U.S., or how we get people to go to locations that aren't just tourist hotspots.”
Roamie is in the midst of raising a seed round to fuel its buildout. The funds would help launch a mobile app and add to the team.
The company is also in the throes of growing its roster of content creators. Crenshaw said several tripmakers and triptakers are already active on the site.
The first major goal is to hit 1,000 creators across the U.S.
“That will give us a significant footprint as far as being within five hours of an experience created on Roamie,” she said. “From there, it's ensuring we can balance the chicken-and-egg scenario that is a marketplace.
“We know this is a viable venture that can stand on its own, but if we have a product users adopt fairly quickly, that's also a great indication.”
