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DiggSilicon Valley's venture capitalists are, by their own admission, wary about funding any more companies in the already crowded social networking space. But it was a social networking site, TangoDiva.com, that won an informal competition Thursday evening in which a group of tech startups were invited to present a brief elevator pitch.
TangoDiva is an online magazine and social networking site geared toward women travelers. It was founded by Teresa Williamson, a San Francisco entrepreneur who started traveling on her own years ago while nursing a painful separation, and who has covered much of the world since then. Williamson, who also authored the book "Fly Solo", picked up a lot of tips and general insight into what she considers the underexplored world of women's travel during her own adventures.
During her presentation Thursday at the competition sponsored by VC Taskforce, Williamson emphasized that women usually are the ones to make the travel plans and related purchases, whether they are traveling solo, as a couple or with a family. She quoted one statistic suggesting that some 92% (!) of all travel spending is controlled by women.
While that estimate may be debatable, what's clear is that the travel industry at large has not done enough to cater to women's sensibilities. Asked why large travel companies had not started their own sites for women, Williamson responded that they could, but either simply hadn't yet or had put together sites that were not compelling.
TangoDiva is designed as a place where women can come together and share travel stories. It features a lot of user-generated content on topics such as style, wellness and culture, with the company planning to generate revenue through advertising and promotions. Comparing her concept to that of lesbian lifestyle site Olivia.com, Williamson said that it should not be too challenging to build a larger site for heterosexual women.
VCs on the judging panel stressed that acquiring substantial traffic was an expensive proposition, and one that might be difficult to achieve with the modest $1.2 million in funding that Williamson is seeking. But at the end of the night, TangoDiva had scored the highest rating from those somewhat skeptical VCs, suggesting they still see some untapped markets for user-generated content. - Andrea Orr
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I couldn't agree more with Ms Williamson that there are not enough sites focused on women & travel. While she and the commenter above are focused mostly on women traveling solo, at Holiday Golightly we're building a site focused on helping women plan unique girlfriend getaway travel experiences. Plan to be live with some early offerings later in Q1. Go girls go!
In New Zealand my women travel site provides resources for both lesbian and heterosexual women. At our women's lodge we have about 30% lesbian guests and the rest are not. All get on well. Perhaps this is because we are a small country...
Well, if people are passing around money for solo travel sites, I'm willing to put my hand out. My niche is active travel for solo travelers. Not necessarily women, although people tend to view it that way because of the word "boldly."
I set out alone but join groups for biking, kayaking, language study, etc. Mine's not a social networking site. Yet. It's a goldmine of ideas for people who want to do active travel but can't convince friends to come along.
I'm a travel writer with stories published in The Washington Post, the Miami Herald, the Boston Globe, the St. Petersburg Times, the Denver Post, National Geographic's new book on dream journeys, and more.