I'm very much against writing about my friends - I'll only act as a reference when I know a friend will live up to the raves. After all, it's my reputation on the line as well :) One friend has met the mark, and I'm writing about his efforts since his business is the result of a lot of sweat and blood, and a low quality lifestyle as he bootstrapped his way up (and that's the way it should be done :) 

Several months ago, Steve left his day job and decided to build his vision into a business.  Leveraging his network from his university and his experience working in the hotel industry, he sought out to create a place where prospective travelers could really experience and learn about where they wanted to go before they made the big investment.

He started out like everyone else - not enough cash to live on or time to sleep, but plenty of good friends to help!  When I first saw his site several months back, I though he was a little off his rocker - his words were bigger than his product (as is usually the case when you're just starting development); not much content and lots of links to sites that left me scratching my head.

Only now do I get what he meant so long ago when he told me "[he's] trying to create a truly valuable experience for travelers."   Check out his site - Epic Trip - and hit the box titled "customize." It's a totally unique traveler search experience and really helps you discover where you want to go. Since I've seen the "secure" parts of the site (and you haven't  - hehe) all I have to say is stay tuned because the experience is only going to get so much better!

My goal is to get Steve to write about some of the lessons he learned starting Epic Trip, so if you have any questions (such as, "how did you convince your friend to help you?", etc.) send them to me and I'll be sure to squeeze them out of him! Trust me, the only dumb question/comment is "I have a stupid question..."