24. What a first 12 months for this travel startup

Imagine you're the founder of a travel startup, say around September 2019, with a big idea that sits on the correct side of the sustainability narrative.

Things are going fairly smoothly and then, at the turn of the year, you hire your first chief technology officer.

But then, almost immediately, China goes into lockdown, quickly followed suit within a few weeks by other countries in Asia, then Europe, etc.

This is the story of TripDoodler, a Danish travel startup fronted by a former-CWT director, Josephine Piplits.

Nine months on from the outbreak and the company is taking its first tentative steps back to normality - attempting to capture some of the smalls signs of travel recovery for leisure travelers around Europe and, of equal importance, hoping that the awareness around sustainability from last year will continue.

In this week's episode of InPhocus, host Kevin May talks to Piplits about the last 12 months as a travel startup founder, her thoughts on sustainability as an important part of the recovery agenda and why the company is going down the crowdfunding route to raise capital.

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