“I’ve learned around the start-up community that MBA tends to be a bad word … but knowing that I have those skills is really important for the next level of the business.”

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Who says climbing an ice glacier, whitewater rafting, or trekking through the jungle isn’t part of the job?  It’s all field research for Paige Brown, CEO and founder of Tripeezy, a web start-up that sprang from her intense passion for travel.

Ms. Brown though born and raised in Austin Texas has spent time all over the world,  most recently in Santiago where she spent the past six months under a pilot program called Start-up Chile. While there, she and a select group of other entrepreneurs from around the globe were each given $40,000 in equity as part of a new initiative by the Chilean government to attract new talent and kick-start the local start-up community there.

In today’s video interview Ms. Brown shares some insights from her own start-up (ad)venture, as well as an insider’s look at the new Start-up Chile program. She also talks about what’s up her sleeve now that she’s back in Austin and her plans for growing the business.

MO:
Paige, thank you for joining us. Can you first give us some background on your company. What is Tripeezy?

Paige:
Tripeezy as it stands today is a travel sharing tool for travelers on the road, allowing them to make simple updates with photo or video, and share with all their social networks. And the aim is to start to integrate other travel tools so it becomes a one stop shop for travel sharing, and simple and easy. But the new iteration of the site started out originally as local e-guidebooks. We were hiring locals around the world to write articles about their favorite places and aggregating those into guidebooks we were selling online. So it was the first pivot of the business model.

MO:
You were involved in a pilot program called Start-up Chile. Can you tell us a bit about that.

Paige:
Start-up Chile is recruiting international entrepreneurs to come down to Chile and to work on their businesses there. I was part of the original pilot. I think it was 22 companies, who were down in Chile for the last six months. The government is giving the entrepreneurs $40,000 and taking no equity from the company. And the only requirement is that you go down there and help contribute to the entrepreneurial vibe and community in Santiago and around Chile, and to work on your business, hire local, and build it up.

For me it was an incredible experience. I was able to launch our first concept, test that, and then launch our new concept. I got really involved in the local tourism community and travel community down there. It was a lot of fun. I got to travel and see a lot of the country and South America. It’s a really beautiful place to be.

MO:
What is the climate like for entrepreneurs and small business owners in Chile, compared to here in the U.S.?

Paige:
Down there they’re really improving the climate of entrepreneurial ventures. It’s something that is the aim of the program and other programs where they are actually sending Chilean entrepreneurs up to Silicon Valley and they have great investment programs for Chileans through the government. The aim is to improve that climate and to make it easier for people to start up a business in Chile. But the people are very receptive to it and they’re very excited about starting businesses.

There’s a lot of start-ups doing very well. One was just funded by the 500 Start-ups by Dave McClure. Geeks On a Plane was just down in Santiago I guess a couple weeks ago or three weeks ago, and they were able to meet the president. So they’re really welcoming to the whole environment, they’re excited about it and its building very very quickly. And with the new Start-up Chile entrepreneurs they have 110 start-ups arriving between June and July and hopefully 200 more by the end of the year. So they are really importing this community which is helping build the community down there.

MO:
You’re now working out of TechRanch in Austin. What’s your relationship there, and how are they helping you?

Paige:
I’ve been involved in TechRanch off and on since as I’ve been in Austin over the last year. And its been great for me. They have classes each week where you can meet with other entrepreneurs and talk about your progress and your goals and ask for requests. It’s a really great community to be able to ask other entrepreneurs for help. For me not being a technical founder, its really nice to have a lot of other technical founders around to throw ideas off of and and questions. And they do the same for me from a business perspective. So its a great community. They have open events every other Friday and its just a nice place to work, get involved and meet other Austin entrepreneurs that are up and coming.

MO:
What is your educational background, and how has it served you in your business ventures?

Paige:
I have an undergrad degree from SMU in marketing. I went into advertising after school and worked in marketing promotions for Coors for a couple years which was a lot of fun, out in Denver, and then decided to go over to Germany for a year. That’s really where the whole idea for the business started, from my year abroad in Germany.

But after that I decided to go back to do my MBA at Vanderbilt. And that was a great experience for me, it really helped to launch my whole entrepreneurial career, because it gave me the confidence to know that it was okay to step off the ledge and take the jump. And after school I got very involved in the lean start-up methodology. So that’s been really valuable. In addition to my MBA it gives me a really good, solid, and leveraged background. And I’ve learned around the start-up community that MBA tends to be a bad word so to say, so I don’t really talk about I much. But knowing that I have those skills is really important for the next level of the business.

MO:
How have you matured as an entrepreneur since founding Tripeezy, and what lessons have you learned?

Paige:
Oh, gosh! What lessons have I learned? I’ve been working on this business for two years and have learned more than I’ve ever learned in my life from school or anything else. My biggest piece of advice for people that are thinking about starting a company is to just go start, because its gonna take you … the learning curve is going to take you a while to really get your feet on the ground an understand what you’re doing, and learn all the processes. It’s going to take you a long time to figure that out. It’s a hands on kind of thing.

For me, in the last two years I can’t even begin to fathom all the things I’ve learned. Especially being in a technical world and not having a technical background. I’ve worked with lots of different people and asked a ton of questions. It’s just been a really good experience. I know coming out of this no matter what happens, I’ve grown a lot as a person and my skill set and everything else. But you really just kind of have to step way out of your comfort zone. I think every week I dabble in something new that I don’t know. I’ll look up a ton of stuff and learn enough to get along, find an expert on it, and move on to the next subject. I guess to me being an entrepreneur is just being very knowledgeable in a lot of different subjects. That’s something in the last two years that’s been quite an adventure in learning all that.

MO:
What’s on the horizon right now for Tripeezy and for yourself?

Paige:
We’re still working on getting Tripeezy fully launched. It’s in beta. We’re testing a lot of things, getting bugs out of the system, and working on some new revenue models that are kind of in the works. Our iPhone app is coming out soon which is going to be really cool. You’ll be able to make updates offline. So even when you’re out in the jungle you can still make an update that will upload later, which will be nice. A lot of our travelers are major international and off the beaten path so it’s really important to them.

On the side I’ve been getting involved with a lot of the Austin networks, and I’ve started a side-project for women’s travel. That’s something I’ve always had a passion for. Me being a very comfortable solo traveler is not the norm. My idea is to take young women on trips and teach them safety and how to plan so they feel comfortable doing that the next time or planning for their friends. And doing a lot of custom trip planning for friends and family as I’ve done for a long time. But now through a solid structure. But yea, just really excited to be back in Austin. I was born and raised here. I’ve been trying to get back for 10 years. It’s a tough city to get back into and its changed a lot, so I’m just learning Austin again.