Playfulness Learning: Secret City Trails
Every time we meet someone new, the never-missing question is: what do you like to do? And the never-failing answer is always: I love to travel.
Tourism is a sector that has been growing immensely in recent years all around the world. A large number of companies, governments, and brands are looking into new ideas and activities to grow their local tourism. While in a way this has benefits for everyone, it can also be a very adverse industry. From crowds of tourists, to dirty streets, to historical monuments damaged, these issues ultimately have their roots in education.
This is where Wendy van Leeuwen and her business partner, Kristina, found an opportunity to educate through play. Secret City Trails is a self-guided city discovery games app, where you solve trails to unlock a city’s authentic stories and local gems. With this app, you can find yourself, your friends, partner, or colleagues, walking around the cities, solving riddles to discover the best-hidden local spots created by locals who love sharing their city’s secrets.
By knowing the history of places, their relevance, and getting to appreciate the local culture, people can be more respectful and start thinking about doing more sustainable tourism.
- Wendy, what is the biggest challenge of being a woman leader in your sector?
“Looking at the startup world (but also still corporate and politics) there are more men than women in founding or leading roles. We attend a lot of events and it’s not unusual to be among a handful of women entrepreneurs in a group of over 40–50 humans. Frequently, being ‘the minority’ has worked in our favor. I remember attending a conference in Munich, Bits & Pretzels, and we were participating in an investor ‘speed dating’ event. 1 investor, 4 startups (around a tiny table), I was the only woman. All men, chivalrous as they are, always said, “ladies first”. Since the pitches were super short and the investor often asked a question or two, I definitely got more time! But, there are challenges too. First, there are fewer female role models. When I was recently asked who had been an inspiration in my entrepreneurial journey, I could only think of male examples. Having worked for Booking.com in the past, I do see Booking.com’s former CEO, Gillian Tans, as a role model. But, in our industry (travel/leisure), we haven’t found many others. Then, there’s raising funds as a woman. We pitched to MANY investors while raising our second round. We often found out, from speaking to male founders, that investors are much harder on us women. We get way more questions, need to prove much more traction, convince (mostly male) VCs that we are equally capable and committed (this is so often questioned!) to building a successful and impactful business.” - What is your organization doing for women’s equity?
“Being two female founders with a passion for freedom and empowerment, anyone on our team has the chance to work remotely when they want and take as many holidays as they want — or need to recharge. We empower people to grow beyond their roles and they have space to take initiative to do so. We encourage anyone on our team to take half a day a week for learning and inspiration too. Besides this, we hire for diversity. We believe diversity is key to our growth, different backgrounds mean different ideas and perspective. This is so important for us (and all other businesses) to succeed. We are currently a very balanced male/female team, from different countries and different ages (ranging from 24–60, and we’re only 7!)” - What advice will you give to women who want to become leaders in your industry?
“First, just do it! Kristina and I met at Nike, so ‘just do it’ often comes back. And then, there’s being bold. When we speak to male founders and hear the numbers/projections they share with investors, we all know they aren’t true, but they deliver their message with so much boldness. We can learn from that while remaining humble!
Lastly, find female role models in your industry. Ask them to mentor you. Follow their journey. Read what they write.”
- What advice would you give YouNoodle to help present better opportunities to the founders such as yourself?
“We’d absolutely love it if your team approaches us when there’s relevant programs or opportunities for our industry and you know your partner has an interest to see more women apply/be part of their initiatives. As a founder, we don’t allow ourselves the time to seek out these opportunities as much as we’d like. And it might not always be a program to get funding or acceleration from, even if you have partners that ask you for female entrepreneurs to interview or invite to speak at their events, that would be great to about through YouNoodle too!”
For more information write to us at info@younoodle.com
