Buzzhopper is a tool for you to find tips and tricks about cities you’d like to visit from people that share your lifestyle – people that could be your friend… or maybe more! Buzzhopper is not a travel reviews website, it is not a magazine, it is not a social network of “impartial and unbiased” reviews, it is never about the bad but always about the good, and you won’t find stars and rating heres. Just tips.

Let’s face it, there’s always a few people you fall back to – people you trust, because hey, they’re like you in some way – when it comes to recommendations for places to eat out, have a drink, shop and the like. But even your most well-travelled buddies haven’t been everywhere, and you can’t expect them to know the ins and outs of every place they’ve visited briefly either.

Buzzhopper is the friend we didn’t have in all the places we want to go to. Forget “impartial” reviews from people you share nothing with and know nothing of, and get into the thick of it with absolutely subjective tips from people you’d hang out with, people you’d trust to tell you where to go for… whatever it is that makes you happy.

i-genius met with Daniel De Filippis to find out more about how it’s all getting started.

i-genius: What’s the Buzzhopper logo all about?
Daniel De Filippis: The B_zZ is a symbol based on sound that revolves around a gesture, a dash that marks something you would underline because it’s important to you. It’s a container for people to fill as they see fit.

i-genius: In what way is Buzz Hopper a social enterprise?
Daniel: We’re not really. We don’t even have a social mission. We are, however, strong believers  in “business for good” principles. It’s my experience that many social entrepreneurs tend to identify their social impact mostly through their mission and product, we believe that’s a bit limited and that how you do things is equally important. Where do you source your materials? What do you do with your revenues and profits? What partners do you work with? For example we plan to white label the platform Buzzhopper is built on, and it’s our intention to adopt a split-pricing model so we can give our tech to Social Enterprises and Non-Profits that could benefit from it but wouldn’t be able to afford it. On the other end of the spectrum, “BuzzShopper” which will sell travel accessories with a Buzzhopper flair, will stock items that are sustainably sourced, locally-crafted, etc. A percentage of profits from the shop will also be devolved to organizations involved in saving the bees… an issue we’re very concerned about and sits coherently in our brand. These are just two examples;  we try to weave in sustainable and good business principles across all we do. The way we see it, if we build a successful, financially sound company, then we can support other organizations in doing what they do best while we do what we do best.

i-genius: What difficulties so far did you experience setting up Buzzhopper?
Daniel: All of the usual, no exceptions! That said, I think the two biggest issues for us were finding the right development team – pretty key for a tech business and pretty obvious, but so many companies launch with sub-par products that are not even viable and then really struggle. The other was agreeing on what functions we would launch with, on one hand we wanted to launch very focused – and couldn’t afford everything in our concept anyway – on the other we didn’t want to compromise amongst ourselves: we wanted to unanimously decide what was the absolute best route to take. Unanimous decisions take time, but I think they build value in the long run.

i-genius: Why did you get started with Buzzhopper?
Daniel: As often happens, from a point of personal pain. Over the years, my co-founder Melinda Chan Butts and I became really frustrated with trying to find travel tips that were right for us when none of our trusted friends had been to the city we were looking to visit. Tripadvisor, Yelp and all of those just didn’t cut it… who are these people writing and why do I never agree with the average rating of a place I know- or most of the comments about it? Trying to find an answer to that question is how it all started.

i-genius: What makes a good Co-Founder?
Daniel: I’m might annoy lots of people now… a wide breadth of experience – from corporates to small businesses and startups – compatible expertise in your respective fields – assuming there’s more than one of you -, but perhaps more importantly having failed before. Ideas and youthful enthusiasm are great, but ideas are highly perishable and enthusiasm is a fuel that burns quickly under high pressure. You need a founding team that can make things happen, is resilient, and has learnt from past mistakes, both their own and those made by others. In some ways, it’s even more important to know what you absolutely don’t want, than knowing what you do.

i-genius: What are the most crucial things you have done to grow Buzzhopper?
Daniel: On the money side of things, we bootstrapped the first year ourselves, and we’ll probably raise more money internally or through FFF – friends, families and fools – before we move on to a seed funding round. It’s a case of putting your money where your mouth is. On the support aspect, Melinda – my co-founder – is 100% dedicated to liasing daily with out growing network of Buzzhoppers. Content is king, and we need to make sure we have the right people on board!

i-genius: What has been the biggest sacrifice you have made for Buzzhopper?
Daniel: Both my co-founder and I basically took a sabbatical from our paying jobs – we were both consultants – so that we could focus 100% on launching Buzzhopper. I literally worked 100 hour weeks for months to put the money aside so I could do this. I didn’t want to have personal financial worries on top of the stress of building a product and launching a business.

i-genius: Why is Buzzhopper needed?
Daniel: Personally, I need it for the following reasons: the “unbiased” review websites out there are pools of people with an ax to grind, competitors masquerading as common users, or just people that quite frankly take it all a bit too seriously – and of whom I know nothing of.  I want a place where I can get great tips I can trust, in a language people would use with their friends and without all the negativity you find in the review websites currently available. It’s all just a bit depressing. When I’m visiting a new city I want to know what places I absolutely must go to, not spend hours trawling through a cosmo of stars, ratings and rants. I hope enough people have this same need.

i-genius: What’s your favourite hobby right now?
Daniel: Sleeping. 

i-genius: What is your favourite motto in life?
Daniel: “Beware of what you wish for, cause you might just get it.”

i-genius: hat’s been your most exciting travel to date?
Daniel: Perhaps ironically, I’m not much of a traveller anymore, I’ve made a choice of reducing air travel as much as I can – the world really doesn’t need us zipping around planes as much as we do. When I do travel, I’m not usually out for excitement, I’m out for tuning the world out for a few days – I want to get back to work more rested than when I left not less so, if you know what I mean. However, I do have a few special places I head out to when I need to recharge; Isola del Giglio off the coast of Tuscany being my absolute favourite.

i-genius: What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?
Daniel: It’s really hard to pick one out of the bunch… Generally, anyone that gives advice without looking at the specifics of your business is probably not giving you great advice. There is no cookie-cutter success formula.

i-genius: What advice would you give to those starting up a social business?
Daniel: I’m not sure I’m the right person to give advice, but I will say this. Make sure you really, really know yourself. Be honest about what you’re good at and what your strengths are, but more importantly know what you’re just not good at. Launching a business will really put the best parts of you to the test, imagine what it does to those bits that are not so great. 

i-genius: What’s the future for Buzzhopper?
Daniel De Filippis: Well, hopefully launching our finished product somewhat on schedule in the very near future. We have lot’s of plans for features and other cool stuff, but I’ll keep those under wraps a little longer. We’re  also very interested in spinning-off different products and brands based on our platform. I guess we just have to wait an see! To keep up to date with our news – and get early-bird perks – visit buzzhopper.com and sign-up now!

www.buzzhopper.com
Twitter: @buzzhopper_
Email: daniel@buzzhopper.com

This interview was conducted as part of the i-genius Getting Started interview series. If you would like to learn how to get started in your social business, then why not take our ‘Getting Started – Social Business Start Up’ online course with i-genius Academy. To find out more, click here!