I don’t think my friend and fellow mesh conference organizer Stuart MacDonald will mind me saying this about him: He’s a travel geek. Not only has he been in the business a long time — from his days at Signature Vacations, to starting Expedia.ca, all the way to becoming director of marketing for Expedia.com before he pulled the ripcord — but he also likes to go out by the airport and watch the airplanes land. That’s hardcore.
I can’t think of a better guy to start a company like TripHarbor.com, which soft-launched this week. Stuart is passionate not just about the mechanics of travel — the bookings, the hotels, the ships, the planes and so on — but also about the enjoyment of travel, and helping people do it right. As he explained it to me, there are lots of travel sites that are designed to help people with regular trips, but for some reason the cruise market is still stuck in the dark ages. TripHarbor.com is designed to bring some Web 2.0 light to that market, and Stuart is just the man to do it.
For more details, there’s a post on the TripHarbor blog about how Stuart came to start the company. On a somewhat related note, Stuart is also making his debut tonight on the new CBC show Fortune Hunters, as one of the experts who dispense advice to young startups. Tonight’s episode takes a look at ChickAdvisor.com.