Krystin Hargrove, Founder of CoTripper
Although being a solo non-technical founder is challenging, I’ve learned to think outside the box around how to power forward, persevere through obstacles, and grow the company.
Founder Visibility is an interview series that highlights founders that inspire us and share how they found their firsts: co-founder, customer, capital, and confidence.
Meet Krystin Hargrove, the CEO and Founder at CoTripper, a self-service itinerary creation platform where families customize, review, share, and book family travel. Previously, Krystin was an early employee and accounting manager at a DC-based SaaS startup. She founded CoTripper in 2019 to solve for making family travel easier, as she’d experienced a lot of friction traveling as a single mom with her two children. Krystin envisions CoTripper as the premier destination for booking family travel. Read about her journey founding CoTripper.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey leading up to starting your company.
I’m Krystin, mom of two amazing little humans and Founder and CEO of CoTripper. I previously worked as an Accounting Manager at a SaaS startup in DC, I was an early employee there. That was my first introduction to the startup world and it was there that I learned that I’d always been entrepreneurial. I didn’t have a set path when I initially separated from that company, but I knew after leaving that I was inspired to build my own company.
My goal was to build an empowering space to advocate for single moms, which stemmed from a problem I was solving for myself — traveling with my kids as a single mom. I initially created a platform on Instagram called Single Moms Travel to figure out how other moms were solving this problem. I realized the community had a lot of the same pain points, so I used those pain points to solidify my idea which is now CoTripper.
CoTripper is a self-service itinerary creation platform where families customize, review, share, and book family travel itineraries. As a single mom who travels solo often with my kids. Many moms ask what I did, where I stayed, and how kid-friendly destinations and accommodations are. Planning family travel can be overwhelming, I feel there’s a hole in the market for making booking and planning easier.
What was the biggest challenge you faced early in your startup journey?
The biggest challenge was being a solo founder, it continues to challenge me as I build a team and grow the company. However, I’m confident I’m on my way to building an amazing team. I’m also non-technical, building a tech-enabled product, which is another mountain to climb. I guess you can say I like a challenge. In my experience, it’s been difficult to onboard technical talent, especially before having investment dollars given that tech is expensive to build.
Our first product was on WhatsApp. An idea given to me by investor Michael Hyatt on a call-in show for The Pitch podcast I recorded, thanks, Michael! I pulled a couple of our early adopters into a WhatsApp group to validate my idea as a cost-effective option while bootstrapping.
One thing to note, although being a solo non-technical founder is challenging, I’ve learned to think outside the box around how to power forward, persevere through obstacles, and grow the company.
Thankfully we recently received $100K in non-dilutive funding from TEDCO, a Maryland-based early-stage fund, I’m using to hire UI/UX and development talent.
What was the process of building your founding team? And what were you looking for, particularly in the team that you were going to be taking on?
I want to build a team that’s invested in what we’re building. That’s how I’m approaching hiring. Early on I know the first couple hires are critical — whether they’re full-time or part-time — I want to ensure they’re excited about building the product, I want them to enjoy their job!
There is a ton of talent out there but I think you’ll go far if you’re able to rally people around you and what you’re building.
I reached out to my network to say, “Hey, we worked so well together at the previous company, can you help me?” or “Do you know anyone that will be interested in this, and can you make an intro?” That’s how I’m building my founding team, and how I’ll continue to approach hiring as we grow. It’s critically important to leverage social capital to champion finding team members who are in alignment for the long haul ideally.
How did you find your first customer?
We’ve recently narrowed our scope and are in talks with our first customer, more on that soon. However, this is a funny story — I met our initial first customer serendipitously. Intrepid Travel was the first customer who agreed to fulfill small group itineraries through CoTripper. They offered the customization we were looking for in our original scope and the team there was supportive of us being a startup.
I was chatting with an online Intrepid rep asking a million questions. She and I had the greatest energy so I asked if getting on the phone was an option. I ended up calling her and, unbeknownst to myself, I basically pitched CoTripper to her. It’s hilarious and very me that a cold message led to a phone call and eventually to building relationships within Intrepid to land our first customer.
What is one piece of advice you would give your younger self before starting your company?
To start sooner! To be more vocal about my plans to start a company so I would’ve built relationships sooner. Being a female founder, a woman of color, and a single mother, there are many reasons why I held my dream in longer than I should’ve. I would have asked for help or leaned into support sooner, so I’d be further along. But everything happens for a reason and I truly believe the time is now for CoTripper.
Along this startup journey and as a founder, build those relationships out of the gate, ask for help, and don’t try to figure everything out on your own, especially when you’re just starting out.
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Krystin.
