Daytrippi, Find an activity at your destination

This article is part of In Conversation with Contemporary Web Startups at the Web Summit

Daytrippi.com is a free online platform designed for holiday destination specialists to promote their products and for travellers to more easily discover new activities and sights in a certain area. Currently, travellers can use the platform to choose between more than 72 activities provided by verified organizers in ten countries. Daytrippi aims to offer the lowest prices, and their website has been nominated for the 2015 Accenture Innovation Awards. Its founder Bas Hof shared with us his point of view on the support availible in his home country, the Netherlands, and his future expectations for the company.

Helena: What are your biggest current ambitions?

Bas: The objective is to grow to 15,000 activities in the world within 3 years. We contact the supplier directly and enrich content manually.

Helena: Does your government offer any economic incentives that could be of benefit to startups? If so, have you evaluated the possibility of asking for some governmental support in the future, should you need it?

Bas: Yes, we are looking for a small investment now to help grow our activities and proof the concept with a pilot partner; however, although they have just started, they are trying mainly to attract foreign startups to set up in Amsterdam (http://www.startupdelta.org/).

Helena: Are you satisfied with the level of support from your government, and what are your main reasons for this?

Bas : We don’t expect any funding, but they do deliver a platform to see which investors there are in the market. This offers networking possibilities.

Helena: You mentioned the high quality of the representation of businesses abroad, which can be seen by your embassy’s presence at the event, and help with business networking. Are there any other benefits – for instance, transparent and quick bureaucracy, subsidies, tax rebates, easy work processes, or other financial advantages?

Bas: No, you already mentioned them. They are not really proactive. As a startup, you need to do it on your own. They offer no better tax rates, no better possibilities to rent office space, borrow money, etc. Even if you have gone bankrupt before, they will ask a lot from you as an individual.

Helena: Which city in your country do you consider the best for startups?

Bas: Amsterdam, because it has the most young people and the most events for startups.

Helena: Our last question is with regard to your preferences between permanent employees, freelancers, or subcontractors. What type of cooperation are you currently applying in your company, and what are your future objectives?

Bas: Our preference is to work with freelancers or platforms like Upwork. In the future, we aim to keep this up for as long as possible, but for the core positions, we need to hire some permanent employees. We also have a Czech programmer, who is also a stakeholder in the company, because we need him to stay connected. It depends on each position individually.

Euspert would like to thank Bas for his time and to wish him and his partners every future success with Daytrippi.