Founder stories
$1K MRRin 1 year
2 milestones
Twin Brothers Build Top-Ranked Travel Planning App
Founder
Peter Xu
Co-Founders•Technical•USA
Commitment
Full-timeExperience
ExperiencedProduct
Travel planner app for researching, organizing, and mapping trips with collaborative itinerary features.
Type
SaaSIndustry
TravelModel
FreemiumMarketing Strategy
How Peter acquired customers
Primary Channel
SEO / Content
Also Used
CommunitiesWord of Mouth
Tech Stack
Tools used to build Wanderlog
React NativeNode.jsPostgreSQLGoogle Maps API
The Full Story
TL;DR
Peter Xu and Harry Yu (twin brothers) leveraged their Stripe and Google experience to build Wanderlog, now top-ranked for travel planning.
Founded in 2019 by twin brothers Peter Xu and Harry Yu, Wanderlog has become the go-to travel planning app for millions of travelers.
The Founders
Peter worked at Stripe and McKinsey, while Harry was a PM at Google. Both studied Computer Science at Yale. They had previously bootstrapped travel companies like BookWithMatrix and All the Flight Deals.
The Problem
Travel planning is fragmented across Google Docs, spreadsheets, and dozens of apps. Wanderlog aimed to create one collaborative workspace for researching, organizing, and mapping trips.
Y Combinator
Wanderlog went through Y Combinator but started as a bootstrapped project. The combination of technical founders with prior startup experience helped them move fast.
SEO-First Strategy
The team invested heavily in SEO from day one. Peter regularly publishes travel guides and tips on the Wanderlog blog, creating content that ranks for valuable travel keywords.
The Results
Wanderlog is now the top-ranked app on Android for keywords like "itinerary" and "trip planner." The freemium model offers collaborative trip planning with premium features for power users.
Key Takeaways
1
Prior startup experience helps - they had built travel companies before
2
SEO compounds over time - invest early and consistently
3
Big tech experience (Stripe, Google) provides valuable skills
4
Collaborative features create natural viral loops
Originally published onWanderlog Blog
Inspired by Peter's journey? Generate a business idea in the Travel space using AI and real founder data.
Milestone Journey
Peter achieved 2 milestones on the path to $1K MRR
First Customer
1 month
August 2019
69% faster
vs avg 3 months+11 months to next milestone
$1K MRR
$1,000
1 year
July 2020
Avg: 11 months
1 year
Total journey time
2
Milestones achieved
Peter's Path to $1K MRRPremium
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
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