Web Masters

Steve Kaufer shares the story of building TripAdvisor, the world's most popular travel information website.

Show Notes

Chances are, before you take a vacation, you do lots of research figuring out where to go and what to do when you get there. Today, that's as easy as a Google search, but that wasn't always the case. In the early days of the Web, vacation research required hours of tedious detective work as you pieced together little bits of information about the places you wanted to visit from questionable sources.

That all began to change when Steve Kaufer launched TripAdvisor. His travel review website completely revolutionized the travel industry and changed the way people took vacations.

On this episode of Web Masters, Steve shares the story of not just building TripAdvisor, but running it for two decades through both an acquisition and going public.

For a complete transcript of the episode, click here.

What is Web Masters?

Web Masters is an original podcast that explores the history of the Internet through the stories of some of its most important innovators. In each episode, host Aaron Dinin, a serial entrepreneur and digital media scholar, talks with Internet entrepreneurs who created important websites, tools, services, and features. Some are hugely popular, some you’ve never heard of, and all of them have impacted everything you do online. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how the Internet has enabled -- and continues to create -- some of the greatest business opportunities in history from the people who have proven they know how to build successful Internet businesses.