Building Singapore's $3M Social Travel App in 2 years (Larry Lee, Founder of Sotravel)

Larry is the Founder and CEO of SoTravel, Singapore's social travel app. In this episode, he shares how he:
👉 Turned his side hustle into a full-time venture after getting fired
👉 Built multiple failed apps before discovering the 'right' way to build
👉 Executing ideas and features from first-principles 
👉 Validated Sotravel and continuously experiments with new features 
👉 Leverages AI and tech to build a $3 million company with just 10 people
👉 Created a thriving travel community of fans

Watch with video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/XXln2Jeh4NY
Join the community on Whatsapp: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqblBveTdnYk8xZ0dEV2d5TmxUMnN6LS12SW9VQXxBQ3Jtc0trd3pkWG5kdzFwS1Z0OWZUYm1HRUJqWVFac0RJaF9nTTFGYXBmWHFmaHdmOXZLajZIcVUtZmNwbVN6UV9qQ1p0ei1uM0F5bDRyNTBzNEpZaEZ3a1lTYTRqcGN5aTlQVFo3eUQ0X0pHMWxkQk1iSUdQSQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fchat.whatsapp.com%2FCM0YQhhFZF0BfdtmAwTFKb&v=k2sBlu_v8pQ
Follow Larry on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrysotravel/?originalSubdomain=sg 
Check out SoTravel: https://sotravel.me/
Follow me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erictisme/

Shownotes:

Tarpit idea: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/Ij-tarpit-ideas-what-are-tarpit-ideas-how-to-avoid-them

Book recommendations:
Get Together: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49766350-get-together
Lee Kuan Yew: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10379147-lee-kuan-yew
Nassim Taleb: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242472.The_Black_Swan 

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:15 GMV as metric for business growth
• 5:15 Ambitions and business model
• 7:20 Personal motivation as builder
• 10:36 Birth of Sotravel
• 21:00 Whether a computer science degree is relevant
• 33:50 Achieving validation
• 35:10 Moving from Telegram to App
• 37:41 Whether he thought Sotravel was a tarpit idea
• 38:53 Achieving Product-market Fit
• 40:11 Secret to building strong community
• 43:31 Concept of Soclub
• 46:24 Constant customer discovery
• 49:24 Developing new trips and differentiation
• 56:35 De-risking trips
• 1:06:20 Pricing by first principles
• 1:07:14 Lessons from losing cofounders
• 1:11:45 AI's impact on travel and business
• 1:19:44 Rejection as opportunities
• 1:23:01 Reflections and future plans
• 1:26:23 Rapid fire round