Was macht eigentlich das Travel Start-up lialo?

Can you describe your startup in one sentence?

lialo offers guided city tours that can be accessed flexibly and on your own schedule via smartphone, allowing you to get to know the city in an authentic way—just as if a good friend were showing you around.

In your opinion, what sets lialo apart and makes you stand out from the competition?

lialo is short for “like a local.” The tours are a great way to explore a city and experience it like a local, because they’re created by people who know the area well and love to share their personal stories and tips. This is how the lialo community of authors has built up a diverse and ever-growing selection of new themes and locations, which we’re already able to offer throughout Germany.

When did the idea for the business come about?

We’ve been taking vacations together with our families for many years now—for example, spending two weeks with the kids in a vacation home in Sweden. That’s where we started creating really elaborate scavenger hunts. First for the kids, and later the other way around. It’s just a shame that we didn’t have a way to share the tours with other guests at the vacation home. While looking for a way to do that, we quickly came up with a technical solution. And since we adults always had fun with the tours too, it was clear that this would be a solution for all explorers. That’s why anyone can use lialo to create tours similar to a scavenger hunt—it’s child’s play and free of charge.

What was the best advice you received when starting your business?

Make sure there's always enough money.

What has been your greatest sense of accomplishment so far, and what has been your biggest challenge?

We often go out with users to test new lialo tours and themes. It’s always a joy to see just how much fun kids can have on a city tour. On a lialo tour, they get to read the directions and lead the adults. And at each stop, there are fun, varied activities that everyone has to solve together.

Yes, we, too, are struggling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s almost impossible to get things done quickly anymore. There are staff shortages everywhere. Everything takes forever. Our challenge is having to keep at it.

What are your plans for the next few months?

This is going to be exciting, because we’ll be offering tours in other languages, giving many international guests the chance to explore German cities flexibly and at their own pace in their own language.

Suppose you receive a loan of 500,000 euros. What would you do with the money?

We would put our marketing ideas into action and speed up the development of the web app.

Wo seht Ihr noch Innovationspotenzial in der Touristik?

Tourists want everything to be authentic. “Immersing themselves in local life” and finding joy in the little things is becoming increasingly important to many travelers. Recommendations from locals and off-the-beaten-path offerings are becoming increasingly popular. This trend could also be leveraged in regions without tourism infrastructure or visibility by providing local experts—who don’t necessarily have to be tourism providers—with low-barrier digital solutions to create new experiences for their guests.

What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?

Focus on the most essential features, test your product in a real-world setting with strangers, listen, and learn along the way.