We just made an investment in an exciting young Boulder, Colorado company called Everlater.   They have developed a web based travel journal that enables users and travel partners (e.g. tour operators) to easily record, share and discover travel experiences. Unlike blogs, Facebook or picture sharing sites, Everlater encapsulates everything you want to share about your trips with friends and family in one, very elegant and easy to use location.

We really like web-enabled businesses - their disruptive nature, their efficient use of resources, and their ability to rapidly adapt to changes in the user and competitive environment. Everlater is well positioned, as the web has become the primary source for travel information and commerce. Users are able to geographically organize photos, stories and trip details in a beautiful online format and then easily share it with their extended social network. For tour operators and travel agents, the Everlater platform gives them the ability to market directly to their traveler’s social network.

We are also really excited to be working with the founders, Nate Abbott and Natty Zola.  Very smart guys, who have been best friends since kindergarten.  After spending a year or so on Wall Street, they decided they didn’t want to spend their career in a cubicle somewhere,  so they both quit their jobs and traveled the world together.  Everlater was born on that trip.  They have been all around the world and now they want to change it - it’s exciting to be involved with such young, smart and passionate entrepreneurs.

Nate, Natty and Everlater  are graduates of this years TechStar’s program.  If your not familiar with TechStars (Boulder, CO and Boston), you should check it out (My partner Mark wrote a post a while back on Techstars as well).  It is an amazing program that was started and is still run by David Cohen, in Boulder, CO. Only a handful of companies are selected out of more than 600 applicants each year.  Those selected move to Boulder (or Boston) for 3 months during the summer and receive mentoring from a “who’s who” of successful entrepreneurs.  They leave with a set of learnings and support network that, in my book, far exceeds any of the top MBA programs.

There is a lot to be excited about with Everlater - great people, great opportunity and a great product.  From all of us at Highway 12 Ventures - Congrats to Nate, Natty and the Everlater team. We look forward to working with you to build the company you envision.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 7:23 am and is filed under Portfolio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.