Portland startup TrovaTrip has been putting the $15 million it raised last year to work. The company has almost doubled its headcount, is still hiring and moved into a new HQ.
“We grew through the pandemic. We had 1,000% growth from 2020 to 2022,” said co-founder and chief revenue officer Lauren Schneider.
TrovaTrip is a travel marketplace that allows online creators to book and host trips with their audiences. The startup vets in-country tour operators and connects them with creators looking to host trips. TrovaTrip handles payment processing, customer support, traveler management, communication with tour operators and host insurance. It allows creators to set the price for the trip offered. As the business model has evolved it has become another avenue of revenue for creators.
“Ad revenue for creators is down 30%. We provide creators not only a way to connect and strengthen relationships, but this gives them means to generate income,” she said. “(Creators) are entrepreneurs that have to have income to do what they love.”
TrovaTrip has grown to 105 employees with 92 of them in Oregon. The company is hiring for a variety of roles including a chief financial officer as well as on the sales, engineering and product teams.
The company started in 2017 as a way for young professionals to pursue solo travel. However, as the founders were trying to get the word out about the service they tapped into travel bloggers and creators for marketing. Then they saw even bigger potential by coordinating group travel with those creators. People could safely solo travel and communities that have been built online could meet in real life.
Once the target market was solidified the business took off.
After the initial slow-down at the start of 2020, the company has seen hyper growth from about May 2020 on, said Schneider.
Last year the company facilitated 310 trips. The team has opted to slow things down, Schneider said, so they could focus on scaling properly. To date, 1,500 trips have been booked through TrovaTrip for more than 21,000 travelers.
“Yes, we are a marketplace and we can grow quickly but we offer a human experience. We want to deliver on that experience to customers. We are focused on quality for a while,” she said.
The online creator space constitutes about 200 million creators, said Schneider. TrovaTrip is right now focused on specific subsets: travel, outdoor lifestyle, food and active movement like yoga retreats. The company has trips to more than 45 countries but the most popular destinations are Bali, Costa Rica and Iceland.
The funding raised last year has been used to build out the team to execute and improve the product, she said. The company doesn’t have any immediate plans for more fundraising, she added.
The company generates revenue through a fee to tour operators to list in the marketplace and a fee for the total trip price. For an average trip the in-country tour operator gets 60% of the price, then the creator and finally TrovaTrip takes a cut.
“The host sets the trip price so they decide how much they want to earn,” Schnieder said.
The companies new headquarters is the second floor of the Heartline building in the Pearl District.
