Plan your next trip, guided by people who've actually been there

The creator-curated travel planning app

The Problem

Travel planning is broken, and getting worse

Information overload

Too many platforms, too many options, no trusted filter. Hundreds of conflicting listicles for every destination.

Fake reviews

Bot-generated and hotelier-manipulated ratings across TripAdvisor, Google, and Booking.com erode all trust.

Generic AI

ChatGPT and Gemini give the same itinerary to everyone. No taste, no context, no curation.

Fragmented workflow

Inspiration on Instagram, planning on Google Docs, booking on five different tabs. No connective tissue.

The result: decision paralysis. Most trips are over-planned or badly planned.

The Solution

Creator-curated recommendations + AI-powered itineraries

1

A trusted creator layer

Hyper-niche specialists who've actually been to 50 hotels in the Maldives. Not bots, not algorithms.

2

An AI planning engine

Organises creator inputs into personalised itineraries. Not generic LLM output, curated data only.

"Trust before scale. Curation before generation."

The AI Philosophy

AI is a tool, not the core

The AI takes creator-curated spots as its only input database, not the open internet

It does not pull from TripAdvisor, Google, or generic web sources

Every recommendation has a trusted human behind it. The AI organises human curation, it doesn't replace it

More creator content → better recommendation DB → better AI → more users → more creators want to join. The moat compounds over time

How It Works

Four steps to a personalised trip

Step 01

Save

See a travel reel on Instagram or TikTok? Share it to PlanPin and spots are automatically saved to your trip board.

Step 02

Discover

Browse creator collections by theme or destination. Each creator is a hyper-niche specialist with verified recommendations.

Step 03

Plan

AI builds a day-by-day itinerary using only creator-curated spots, with inline attribution: "recommended by [Creator]."

Step 04

Book

One-click booking for hotels, restaurants, and experiences via Booking.com and Hotels.com affiliate integration.

Potential booking partners

Who It's For

Three personas, one underserved demographic

The Frequent Traveler

Age 35–50. High income. 5–10 trips/year. Needs trusted, authentic recommendations and seamless end-to-end booking.

The Solo Female Traveler

Age 25–40. Mid-to-high income. Safety-conscious, values community-driven travel and creator-led verified recommendations.

The Group/Couple Planner

Age 25–45. Plans collaboratively. Needs shared trip boards, a single source of truth, and a way to unify group inspiration.

Across all three personas, women drive trip research, planning, and sharing. Post-trip sharing also skews heavily female, making it the strongest untapped retention and virality mechanic in travel.

Market Opportunity

A $623B market with no dominant planning layer

Online Travel Market (2025)

$623B globally

Travel Planning Apps

$14.5B, growing 11.9% CAGR

Phase 1 Geography

US + Europe

$35M revenue

Wonderlog: 21M downloads, $1M/month run rate

$200K/month

Roamy: launched Oct 2024, single-feature MVP, $700K total

Business Model

Three revenue layers, stacked over time

Primary

Subscription + Credits

$49.99–$59.99/year. Credit-based free tier lets users see value before paywall. Push annual plans to reduce churn.

Secondary

Affiliate Commissions

Hotel and experience bookings via Booking.com, Hotels.com, OpenTable. Every completed itinerary is a direct booking funnel.

Future

Premium Experiences

Creator-led trips and wellness retreats. Featured products and curated collections. B2B hotel chain partnerships.

Traction & Validation

Distribution is already built.

→

300–500 creator relationships (WhatsApp-level) + database of 10K travel creators with engagement data

→

Simon Squibb (5M+ YouTube subscribers), Affinity Labs investor, potential PlanPin marketing collaborator

→

Automated creator pipeline: Scrape Instagram/TikTok → transcribe via ElevenLabs → auto-populate creator profiles → DM to claim

→

planpins.com domain secured. Waitlist landing page launching April 2026.

Competitive Landscape

The gap between curation and AI hasn't been filled

Wanderlog

Trip organisation tool

No creator layer. Generic.

Roamy

Social import → itinerary

No curation. No booking.

MindTrip

AI-native planning

Heavy API dependency. No trust layer.

ChatGPT / Gemini

Generic AI itineraries

No taste. No trust. No booking.

PlanPin's Moat

Creator trust layer

Not replicable without the network Max has built over years

Data flywheel

Every saved reel enriches the recommendation DB → better AI → more users

Built-in audience

1M+ followers, 60% female, 35–44 core segment

Go-to-Market

Creator-led growth with a live distribution asset

Phase 1: Seed

Creator network

Max's top 100 contacts onboarded first. Social proof before cold outreach to 10K database. Invite-only: 5–10 → 100 → open.

Phase 2: Viral

Content engine

In-video CTAs embedded in regular content (not dedicated posts). Bio link compounds when posts go viral. Max's YouTube launching April 2026.

Phase 3: Amplify

Conference circuit

CIS (early June). VidCon Middle East (end June, ~1B reach). Arabian Travel Market Dubai (August 2026).

Creator incentives: Affiliate commission first → top performers convert to ~1% equity. Milestone-gated: 10K users referred, 1 post/month minimum.