Opinion
Kaufer: Selling TripAdvisor in 2004 was financially a crazy bad decision
“Financially, it was a crazy bad decision. But given everything I knew at the time with the risks you outlined before, the fact that it was kind of a life-changing experience for everyone at the company was absolutely the right decision.”
Assertion Contradicted
Kaufer: Fake review farms target Google but explicitly exclude TripAdvisor
“We see these review places offering to write fake reviews on Google and some other sites. And then they say, except TripAdvisor. Cause like, yeah, if like, if they try, we catch them, we shut them down.”
Assertion Supported
Kaufer: Expedia let TripAdvisor operate autonomously and sell to direct competitors
“We were moved from IAC into the public company Expedia when that was formed about a year later. And again, we were division within Expedia and to their infinite credit, they let us continue to operate on our own, you know, even though we were selling our leads…”
Insight
Kaufer: Hospitality operators who cannot handle feedback are in the wrong business
“If you are in the hospitality business this is your life. Don't be in the hospitality business if you can't take feedback. And if you can't take feedback, some of which is good and some of which is not living up to Expectations, however unreasonable they might…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
TripAdvisor's first quarterly revenue-share check from Lycos was only $500
“That first revenue check, dot, dot, dot, was 500 dollars.”
Assertion Supported
Kaufer: TripAdvisor stayed profitable every quarter from March 2002 until the pandemic
“March marked our first month of profitability. Since we didn't know how long it would take to turn things around, if we could turn things around, we had cut back on everything non-essential, and so our burn rate was about 70, and March we made it a profitable …”
Insight
Kaufer: A critical mass of user reviews builds an unassailable defensive moat
“And the faster we could get to critical mass of enough reviews everywhere, the harder it was going to be for anyone else to come in and offer reviews as a major service.”
Insight
Kaufer: Startups must secure customer commitments before building new products
“We made the absolute classic mistake of, hey, we thought this was what our customers would want, but we neglected to find customers that would say, yeah, if you build that, we will buy it before we actually built it.”
Insight
Kaufer: Vacations suffer from information asymmetry because they cannot be returned
“There was huge information asymmetry. It was an incredibly important purchase, this, a vacation. It was a big purchase in your annual budget. I, you couldn't return it like, Hey, I bought a TV. I don't like it. I'm returning it.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
TripAdvisor sold its first 20,000 clicks to Expedia for $10,000 in 2001
“And we sold our very first, you know, real revenue client, 20,000 clicks for 10,000 dollars in the month of December, 2001.”
Insight
Kaufer: Platforms must profusely thank users to drive repeat reviews
“The first thing you do is you thank them. The second thing you do is you thank them profusely. And then the third thing you do is you let them know how much other travelers really appreciate their comments. And all of that's just like, it's the dopamine. It's …”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Kaufer: TripAdvisor reached $20 million in revenue by 2003
“I think we closed 2003 with over twenty million in annual revenue.”
Assertion Supported
Kaufer: Expedia was TripAdvisor's biggest client before IAC bought it
“Expedia was our biggest client at the time. Expedia was owned by IAC.”
Assertion Supported
Kaufer: TripAdvisor reached 400 million monthly unique users
“The thing that I craved personally the most was the level of impact that the company had, and like four hundred million unique users a month, yeah, with a lot of duplication, you're still counting of impacting the lives, the vacations of
A couple of billion p…”
Disclosure
Kaufer: I have one more non-travel startup left in me at 59
“I want to do it again. I want to not travel not in software tools. But I figure I have one more startup left in me. And as I turn. As I had turned 59 years old, I look around and say, okay, better get moving. And so I am just open for another adventure that ca…”
Assertion Partly supported
Kaufer's previous startup peaked at 160 employees before near-collapse
“We grew up to a 150, maybe a 160 people. Eighteen million in revenue. And then, you know, market changed a little bit. You know, the company grew up, and then it started having growth challenges, and then it started to contract, and so it finally sold to a com…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kaufer: TripAdvisor made zero sales during its first nine months
“So, we could not get any sales for the first, like, nine months of trying.”
Steve Kaufer