Maria Lourdes C. Capilitan

SysAnal(O0A)

July 29, 2008

Case Study

Stephen Kaufer

Cofounder, Trip Advisor

            The founder of Trip Advisor are Steve Kaufer, Langley Steinert, Nick Shanny, and Thomas Palka. The Trip Advisor is an online travel site in 2000. Their site is an online travel community in the world that and also help hotels to be honest.  The things that I learned about their idea regarding their site is when Cardine(wife of Stephen) was trying to find a vacation for them. I also learned that the standard of Trip Advisor to their company is to hire top-notch people and caliber of individuals.

            They started as a travel agent, they use internet to found a whole lot of websites that will help their business. They have their initial round of funding in February of 2000. They have their office in a attic above a pizza place. Their idea for the company was not for opinions of people, feedback on a hotel but a book site that will help book in a hotel. When they launched Trip Advisor it was only a demo site, after a year and a half they have deal with Lycos. Their first client is Expedia. Lately, they wanted to cut out their idea.

            There was no moment he wanted to quit because they are looking for ways to try something unique. They are not doing new product because the sales and marketing strategy hinders them from being success. Langley became their key in success.

             There weren’t any direct competitors to their company. Their conflict is “no one is using their site but they have to pay”. There are things that user misunderstood to their site is when people thought of charges that they made, but it is just changes in Ads to attract people.

            In monitoring their reviews they look to this reviews everyday, but sometimes they did mistakes like posting things which is not true. Those mistakes are being correct because there is a part in the site where hotel managers can respond.

            They don’t want anything they want to change because their success was about fanatical on the hiring side. Being acquires by IAC was a great experience for them because IAC just standby for a company if they need help.

            To maintain a good atmosphere in a company, Kaufer said: chapter 1, starting up the company, getting any one interested. Chapter 2, hitting a profitability mark. Chapter 3, is growing, and chapter 4 being most popular.

            Kaufer gave advice to a person who wants to have a start up. First, get to know people before joining forces and distinguish each responsibilities. Second, don’t get to attached to your vision in a startup because it might change. Third, do whatever customer wants. Fourth, know the customer is background.