How a Spotify-inspired travel tech platform got over 8,000 international users in less than 6 months

In one line, what do you do and what is your most significant achievement?

We're a Spotify-inspired travel tech platform that democratizes travel recommendations by enabling our community of travellers to easily discover, curate, and share their favourite places.

In the first 6 months of the Beta release, LFG has seen over 8,000 users from all over the world (including the US, Canada, Australia, UK, and Vietnam), 30,000 Placelists views and 8,000 locations recommended on our platform.

Who are you and what business did you start?

We're a team of three National University of Singapore (NUS) students who share a passion for travel, exploration and adventure. Despite our diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets, we seamlessly complement each other to drive our venture.

Darryl, CEO of LFG, is a Master's student specializing in Management of Technology. With an engineering background, Darryl brings valuable prior experiences in operations, strategy, and leadership from his roles at BHP Australia and Grab Singapore. His most recent role was as the Chief of Staff at Vietnamese B2B startup, Quqo.

Shi Hong, CTO of LFG, is an ASEAN scholar and final-semester undergraduate majoring in business analytics and statistics. With a background in full-stack development, Shi Hong has enhanced his skills in digital advertising solutions through his previous engagement at Knorex.

Yu Ko, the founding designer of LFG, is a recent graduate in data science and analytics. Yu Ko brings experiences from other players in the travel and experiences sector, including Singapore Airlines and Vibeji, a Vietnamese startup. In addition to her role at LFG, Yu Ko manages her fashion e-commerce brand, ThePhaseCo.

At LFG, our mission is to socialize and simplify the travel planning value chain. Our platform empowers users to save and categorize content, connect with like-minded travellers or creators, and discover new places and inspirations.

What's your backstory?

Our journey began during our NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) program in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where the three of us first crossed paths.

Our idea for LFG sprouted when we went on a last-minute, spontaneous trip to Đà Nẵng one weekend together. Like most foreign souls entering local lands seeking new adventures, we faced the common dilemma of not knowing where to start or how to plan. In the spirit of spontaneous travel, we sought the guidance of local friends or well-traveled companions who could share their insights and recommendations.

Consider this scenario you're in the midst of trip planning, exchanging a whole lot of screenshots, TikTok links, or iPhone notes filled with vague details. It's a process that lacks cohesion and the personal touch of genuine recommendations.

So we came up with the idea of LFG - the solution to your travel planning woes. Our mission is clear to democratize travel discovery and recommendations. We've crafted a platform that empowers friends and a community of travellers to effortlessly uncover, curate, and share their must-visit destinations, wishlists, and hidden gems.

What should be the first steps to take to enter your industry?

Travel is a big and broad industry. And literally global. As such, it is very important to define which market you want to focus on. If you are focusing globally, define which market(s) will be your starting point or beachhead. There are so many styles and categories of travellers out there too, so it's important to define who your target audiences are - primary, secondary, maybe even tertiary. Travel itself has many parts and steps in its essence - whether it's accommodations, flights, experiences and tours, planning, etc. Essentially, the first step is all about knowing your focus.

How did you spend your First 100 Days of launching your business?

Our initial month was dedicated to user surveys and interviews, spanning friends, family, and fellow travellers across online communities on platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, and Telegram channels. This approach aimed to uncover the pain points and worries people encountered during trip planning. The survey findings provided valuable insights that guided the development of our first MVP for an itinerary generator (our initial idea).

Before even establishing a formal website, we leveraged Google Forms to "generate" itineraries based on user preferences. The Google Forms landing page essentially captured travellers' interests in selected cities. Our team then manually curated personalized itineraries presented through a very nicely designed spreadsheet, which was promptly shared with users via email in 2-3 working days.

We did this for about 2 months, during which we engaged with each user to gain insights into their experiences with inputting preferences and how they utilised the generated itinerary during their actual travels. Eventually, we replaced Google Forms with our very first version of www.lfg.travel, which more or less generated the same result, but with a completely renewed UX and UI. Throughout this period, we managed to collect early but very useful data points and user feedback.

The activities undertaken during these crucial first 100 days provided invaluable direction, leading us to pivot and shape the current iteration of our platform.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain partnerships/customers?

Word-of-mouth sharing and the communal exchange of recommendations have proven powerful and key in both attracting and retaining our user base. Our platform's ability to facilitate the discovery of noteworthy locations via Placelists has garnered attention from early partners in Vietnam. Witnessing tourists and travellers visiting their shopfront, as discovered through our Placelists, has not only validated our mission but has also motivated these partners to actively support and promote our platform.

What has taken you from 0 to 100?

We wouldn't say we've reached the 100-mark milestone yet, but we are actively navigating the foundational stages, progressing from 0 to 1 as we seek true product-market fit. The initial signs of our journey are promising, and our ongoing efforts are dedicated to achieving this goal.

Our liftoff from ground zero was fueled by strategic initiatives such as tapping into online travel communities and adopting a "building in public" approach. A significant driver for our early traction involved recommending our website on online travel communities where people were already exchanging and seeking travel advice in existing channels on Facebook and Reddit. Additionally, we engaged with university societies and organizations, implementing student ambassador programs and sponsoring cultural events to broaden our reach.

Adopting a "building in public" approach has been powerful for our growth too. Consistently updating both the LFG platform and our personal LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook pages with new features, launches, and milestones has naturally attracted early supporters. Their willingness to test our product, provide valuable feedback, and actively share it within their networks has been a key driver of our success.

Participating in public crowd pitches, establishing a presence at startup and tech events through booths, and maintaining a regular cadence of progress updates, whether through offline or online channels, has further solidified our position within the startup ecosystem.

What is one underrated thing in your industry that business owners should start doing/using?

Harnessing the power of word-of-mouth marketing, a timeless and effective form of evangelism, has proven invaluable in our initial phases. While it may not match the rapid scalability of digital marketing tools, the authenticity and trust it cultivates are unparalleled. In such early stages of our venture, which centres around personalized recommendations, this approach has emerged as a cost-effective method to spread brand awareness.

What was one failure you had to go through that others in your industry should look out for?

In such early stages, it's easy to be swayed by superficial metrics such as total users, views, and visitors, which may appear attractive on the surface. However, we quickly realized the potential dangers of relying on these vanity metrics in the first few months, particularly when we attempted to conduct early monetization tests. The absence of a clear focus on core value metrics made it challenging for us to envision a scalable monetization strategy.

Learning from this experience, we have since realigned our priorities, placing a stronger emphasis on understanding our customer's language and identifying key metrics that truly reflect the core value of our platform.

Ultimately, the lesson learned is to concentrate on what the user genuinely gains or contributes to our platform. A sincere, engaged user is the true asset, and this user-centric approach guides our strategy as we move forward.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

Google Workspace, Telegram, Trello and Notion for communications, meetings, work organization and progress tracking.

Canva and Illustrator for marketing designs and banners. Meta ads for digital marketing initiatives. MailChimp for newsletter updates. Google Analytics for traffic metrics tracking.

React, Next.js, Typescript, Tailwind, PlanetScale for full stack development, AWS S3 and Cloudfront for media storage, Vercel for website deployment, and Google Developers for Google APIs.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

We recently launched our platform successfully on Product Hunt, which saw a great number of responses from the public. On launch day, we proudly secured a coveted position as a featured Top 15 product of the day and landed within the Top 50 of the week.

To express our gratitude for the tremendous support received, we hosted an appreciation and launch party for our early supporters and partners. At this event, we officially declared Darryl and Shi Hong's commitment to running LFG full-time this year, with Yu Ko continuing to support them part-time. It's worth noting that all our accomplishments and milestones thus far have been achieved on a part-time basis, with Darryl juggling a full-time day job, and Shi Hong and Yu Ko dedicated to their full-time studies.

As we embark on the next phase of our journey, the focus for this year is on monetization and solidifying our business model. While continuing efforts to scale our user base, we plan to introduce new products and features that enhance engagement within our user and travel community.

Excitingly, in the coming months, Darryl and Shi Hong will be participating in Antler's Vietnam Batch 6 to accelerate and scale LFG's business model. We are also actively engaged in discussions with other programs and investors to garner support for our pre-seed round, and welcome inquiries from those interested in learning more about our venture.

Looking ahead, our long-term vision is to establish ourselves as the go-to travel discovery engine, aligning with our motto to help our community "discover places, inspire travel." Our objective is to provide travellers with the best local recommendations and incentives to delve deeper into destinations, thereby championing local businesses and experiences.

Additionally, we aim to explore avenues that promote sustainable tourism and regenerative travel within the Asia Pacific region.