“That is the basic motif of the hero journey: leaving one condition, finding the source of life to bring you forth in a richer condition.” – Joseph Campbell
From his time spent as a Boy Scout growing up in Boston, Jason Karas got an early start to becoming an explorer.
While exploring the outdoors, he developed a sense of curiosity about the small things in life, the things hidden in our daily routine that most people don’t notice. Acknowledging this curiosity led to a fascination with curiosity itself and Jason began to ask the question, Can we somehow heighten the perception of this curiosity?
Today, Jason is an explorer, entrepreneur and father. He’s also the CEO and co-founder of Trover, whose mission is to capture the traveler’s desire for curiosity and new experience — to reawaken that childlike sense of wonder — and technologically distill it into an app.
In a simpler sense, Trover is a website and app for sharing and cataloguing your travel photography by allowing you to upload and geo-tag your images to a map. What’s particularly useful about this is that you can search for visual representations of not just places but also experiences throughout over 175 countries — from zip-lining in Singapore to cocktails in Kyrgyzstan. On the surface, this can help you discover where to go or what to do when you get there. So, maybe you’re heading to the lesser known west coast islands of Greece, and you’re not sure whether or not to see Ithaca. Have a look at what other travelers have seen or done on Trover and make a more informed decision.
But to go further, it can help you connect with other travelers over shared experiences. So, let’s say you found that hidden gem on the back alleys of Brugge. Who else made the same personal discovery as you and where else might they have been?
This is just the way I see it. In this interview, I get to share how the CEO of Trover, Jason Karas, sees it and the future of Trover.
Note: Please be patient with Jason’s audio at the beginning of this interview — the connection was weak, but it gets better. 🙂
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What We Discuss
- How Jason’s early experience as a Boy Scout helped shape his perspective on travel, curiosity, and new experience
- What to do, eat, and drink in Seattle
- Why and how to create the best travel stories, and why we’re all innately programmed to want to find and share these stories
- What is Trover, why did Jason co-found it, and what does he see in its future
Words from an Explorer
“There’s a beautiful mountain range beyond the road we travel everyday.” Tweet this!
More Quotes from Jason:
- “Going out, finding something and bringing it back. It satisfies the storyteller and enriches the audience that’s listening. I think we have an innate programming to do this as a species.”
- “The further out you go, the more payback you get. The more your forced into something unfamiliar, the more you’re going to learn.”
- “We need to work harder as we get a little bit older to push the boundaries.”
- “The older we get and more risk averse we get, the more benefit we get from our travels.”
- “Don’t mistake a vacation for a travel experience… where the purpose is to get outside your comfort zone.”
- “Part of our nature says, ‘You’ve had your time to explore, now it’s time to be practical.’ I’m trying to find ways to fight that.”
Mentioned on this Show
Credits
- Music: Passion Pit – Moth’s Wings (Artec Remix), Aaron Static – Intrepid Journey
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