Launch in one target market or go global? It really depends. We just added our 41st country (Mauya, Zim 🇿🇼!), but we're seeing the fastest growth in several "hubs" – 50% of all places to StayAltered are in India 🇮🇳, Mexico 🇲🇽, South Africa 🇿🇦, and Portugal 🇵🇹. None of this would be possible without an international team (shoutout Nicola 🇿🇦, David 🇺🇸🇵🇪, and Jasmine 🇨🇦) as well as international support (shoutout Madeira Startup Retreat 🇵🇹 and Amadeus #Travel4Impact 🗺️). But for anyone wishing to build a global company – especially a global company with social impact – careful what you wish for. Global payments processing and flexible catalytic funding remain our two greatest business challenges, and if I could start this adventure all over, these are the other trillion-dollar problems I would be solving. Nonetheless, we knew from day zero exactly what we wanted to do: Unite a worldwide community of independent hosts and sustainable travelers to maximize the benefits of global travel for local communities. And it's this mandate that forces us – for better and worse – to drive positive impact locally while thinking and building globally.
We know global travel thrives only when local communities flourish. This is why we're proud to share over 85% of places to StayAltered report 100% local ownership and local management. We also want to say welcome to our newest hosts in Nepal 🇳🇵, France 🇫🇷, Spain 🇪🇸, Sweden 🇸🇪, Romania 🇷🇴, Kenya 🇰🇪, Angola 🇦🇴, Lesotho 🇱🇸, and Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬 who have recently joined us, bringing our collective to over 120 independent hosts in 40 countries.
Great news Evan
Founder @ empowered.travel | Sabbaticals and solo travel empowerment expert
1wI love what you do 🙌 You got this. Keep this going 😊🌻