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Mapo Tapo was born out of a real necessity experienced by its co-founders, Daniele Calvo Pollino and Alessia Fontanari.
Let's take a step back in time: it's 2019, and Daniele is working at Amazon in Luxembourg while Alessia is pursuing her MBA in Fontainebleau, France. Both passionate about outdoor life and climbing, they had encountered over the years two common problems faced by anyone who loves this sport.
The first issue: finding and communicating with local guides, especially when climbing at crags or spots outside their home area or abroad. The second issue: finding adventure buddies to share precious moments on the rock and a passion that thrives on a sense of community.
Mix these two ingredients with Daniele and Alessia's desire to change their lives and build something of their own, and you get Mapo Tapo, the marketplace where athletes can book experiences and adventures all around the world. But that's not all: Mapo Tapo also provides the technical, commercial, and administrative infrastructure for local guides to organise, offer, and manage their trips.
To better understand how Mapo Tapo works, how it was born, and where it's headed, we sat down for a chat with Daniele Calvo Pollino, the startup's co-founder. He shared everything there is to know about Mapo Tapo, its community, and the direction in which the sports industry is moving.
Actually, I lived this problem myself. I’m an outdoor sports enthusiast and I’ve been climbing, surfing, and ski touring around the world for the past 10 years. Every time I organized a sport trip with my wife, we mainly encountered two problems:
How to find, contact, and pay local guides
Where to find adventure buddies who were willing to share the adventure with us
And then we thought… somebody's gotta do something!
I believe that technology will greatly impact the sports industry, as it will in many other sectors, but passion will remain the heart and soul of the industry. Technology will enhance everything related to this passion, adding more value to people's experiences. It will make sports safer, increase fairness, maximize excitement, and reduce the effort required to organize events.
At Mapo Tapo, this is the direction we aim to pursue. For outdoor sports enthusiasts, we want to be the go-to platform where they can find guides and locations to practice their favorite sports. For the guides, we aim to provide a digital infrastructure to manage and connect with passionate individuals.
The whole team is incredibly passionate about outdoor sports and aims to play a major role in digitizing millions of professionals in this industry. And this is not just because we love building stuff and we see a great opportunity there, but also because we have been going on adventures with sports guides all our lives, and we want to give something back. We want to help evolve the industry for the better, with the same mix of determination and enthusiasm of climbing a steep rock wall or surfing a crystalline wave.
The answer to that is fairly simple: we talk to them a lot. We have a few face-to-face chats with travelers every month, collect public reviews (we have a 100% transparency policy, publishing every review we receive, good or bad), and maintain a WhatsApp group with the 100 most active Mapo Tapo travelers who have booked 2, 3, or 4 trips with us. We involve them in the future development of the platform through direct questions and polls. Every time we make major changes to the platform, we immediately ask for their feedback.
One of the most important events in Mapo Tapo's history was when we processed our 1000th booking. At that moment, we realized that the problem we are solving is real and that this project has the potential to go big.
One of the biggest challenges I faced as a first time founder was constantly selling my product /idea/ vision to stakeholders—customers, team members, and investors. Sales were not initially part of my background, so adopting an always-on sales mentality was tough. But when you believe in your idea, you do whatever it takes to learn and adapt.
Another initial hurdle was understanding my role as a founder. You need to figure things out and fill in the skill-gaps within your team, which can be both exciting and demanding. Every time I start something new, I always try to surround myself with hungry, funny and resourceful people, possibly much smarter than me.
However, the biggest challenge overall is thinking big. It's exhausting but essential. It’s easy to continue doing things the same way, but to grow, you need to approach decisions with a big-picture mindset. The sooner you embrace this, the better, as it can save a lot of time in the future.
Do: Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. They will help you fill gaps and learn quickly.
Don't: Don't get comfortable with the status quo; always strive to think big and push for growth.