Why Travel and a Software Startup?

My wife Susan and have joined the transitory band of folks sometimes called digital nomads. We’re taking from December to May and exploring parts of Central and South America. At the same time we’re starting a new startup - Wanderfeast.com. So, besides the usual travel adventures we’ll be looking for co-working spaces and trying to get some research, writing, and coding done.

One of the original inspirations for me is someone whom I’ve never met yet, but hopefully will one day, is Peter Levels of https://levels.io/. He’s very prolific writer, entrepreneur, and digital nomad and his original nomadlist.com was an Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of just a public spreadsheet with a list of cities. He knew the idea had merit when people not only added new rows (new cities good for digital nomads), but also new columns with more info about those places then he originally started with. Once the idea proved itself, then he built the website. Genius. He’s started on a self-challenge of 12 startups in 12 months and I’m impressed by his creativity and productivity.

So, I want to travel more, I have an idea that solves a problem of mine I’ve been toying with for a long time. I’d like to learn Swift, do more with Github, learn Docker, learrn to build a community and an app and web services that solves informing you about a place as you wander through it. What are the interesting bits on the internet about the place where you are but that take too many hoops currently to discover and surface? Not just what you can find straight out of a travel guide. While that is interesting info, and I’m a travel guide addict, I’m a geographer and I want more detail about the places I visit. I want a geographic super power. Luckily I have a smart phone and the internet and I can build something that gets me closer to having that super power.

See you on the road. - Tim