Reflections of a travel startup that didn’t reach its final destination

Photo credit: Lee Key.

In two weeks’ time, our travel startup, Postcard & Tag, will shut down. The decision is heart-wrenching for the whole team, and I’ve been reflecting on the highs and lows of the journey and what I have learned in these past three years.

Concept

We set out to create a fun and vibrant travel app providing inspiration to our users, allowing them to share their travel experiences through visual, digital postcards. We aimed to fill the gap somewhere between Instagram and TripAdvisor by providing inspiration with fewer words and more beautiful photos in one vibrant online community. As we’re based in Asia, we thought we’d meet the needs of the fast-growing millennial travelers in the region.

Our startup journey was typical. We built a prototype website, raised seed funding, and then built a robust, functional website that attracted angel funding. Marketing and engagement drove new user acquisitions and prompted the launch of our Android and iOS apps, covering nine languages.

Our global launch was in Jakarta and we trended on Twitter across Indonesia, one the of the most active social media countries in the world. The excitement and reception were beyond our expectations.

Postcard & Tag CEO Ruth Thomason and creative director Punyo Sakharet in the startup’s Indonesia launch.

What happened

Our users loved the concept. We asked them what they liked and what we could do better. The feedback was mostly positive, and we took their suggestions as best we could. Everybody said they loved the app—the design, concept, and content. We got some great reviews not only in the app stores but also by independent app reviewers. However, we just weren’t getting enough traction. We were gaining new users every day, with some great engagement from some of them, but not really enough to take off in a classic hockey stick curve.

What could we have done differently?

Mobile first and Android first

We should have gone straight to mobile and skipped the website. Most mobile apps also have a great website, but as a travel app, our users would have been more active and engaged on the go.

Our software development approach was agile with a quick time to market; we took advantage of many online tools to build, manage, and deploy our software. However, since Android is more prevalent in many Asian countries, we should have focused all our development efforts on that one platform instead of extending our resources to iOS as well.

Finding the right resources

When we sought angel funding, we settled for two-thirds of what we were asking for and needed. We gratefully accepted the offer on the table, thinking we could skimp on a few things like offering lower salaries for some key positions.

We had a great team and everyone was an expert in their field, but we didn’t have all the expertise we knew we needed from the outset.

Support

What’s next?