Well Traveled – a social platform that collects trusted travel recommendations — Interview with Samantha Patil, founder of Well Traveled

Samantha Patil, founder of Well Traveled, helps travelers share and find trusted recommendations around the world.

Sam is the CEO and Co-Founder of Well Traveled — a members-only social platform and travel club for travelers, foodies, and adventure seekers. Sam previously held leadership positions at Pandora, Snap, and most recently Dollar Shave Club. She’s a member of Travel Massive LA and San Francisco.

Read more about Samantha’s story.

How did you get into the travel industry?

I am fortunate enough to have grown up traveling. As a kid, we moved around a lot (back and forth from the US and the UK, where I was born). We finally settled in California when I was 10 but we’d often make trips back to England to visit family, stopping off in different countries on the way there or back.

I caught the travel bug early on and went on to study marketing and international business in college. I’ve built my career in consumer technology and international travel so when I decided to launch a tech company, in the travel space, I don’t think anyone was too surprised.

What is Well Traveled all about?

Well Traveled (www.welltraveledclub.com) is the first members-only social platform designed for travelers, foodies, and adventure seekers. Think of us like a digital Soho House x TripAdvisor.

We help members find and book places they actually want to go to, vetted by people they trust with a sleek, easy-to-use platform that simplifies discovery, planning, and booking.

What is unique about Well Traveled?

Existing solutions are failing to meet the needs of today’s modern traveler.

Review sites create information overload, making it hard to find relevant recommendations or trustworthy content, and editorial sites and itinerary planners leave the trusted opinions of our own network out of the equation.

Our platform provides both an exclusive membership community focused on connection and curated content, crowd-sourced and endorsed by members.

We’re not just building a “travel company”, we want to build a trusted brand, that our members can depend on.

How is your startup changing the future of travel?

Our platform is community-driven, tech-enabled, and designed to serve the nuanced needs of today’s modern traveler.

There’s so much to consider as a traveler today and many people feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information out there. Moreover, the global pandemic has changed the travel landscape for the foreseeable future, possibly forever.

Well Traveled exists to help travelers seamlessly plan their next memorable trip and make informed travel decisions. Our primary focus is on fostering community, quality over quantity, supporting local business, and delivering premium service.

What’s another travel company you admire and why?

I really admire what Victoria and her team are building at Golightly (www.wegolightly.com), invite-only vacation rental and home-sharing platform for women. While our platform is not exclusively for women, we share many of the same philosophies (our platform skews heavily towards female members).

Women make over 80% of all travel decisions. They travel often and there’s a huge gap in the market for solutions designed with women in mind. Golightly is focused on providing a safer and better travel experience for women and we fully support that vision!

— Thanks Samantha for sharing your your story!