Two Queensland rugby mates are the brains behind one of the world's top new travel apps, which has grown to connect more than 350,000 users across 180 countries in less than four years.
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Travello was launched in early 2015 and designed by Mark Cantoni and Ryan Hanly, who had both done a significant amount of solo travel across the world.
Mr Cantoni, from the Atherton Tablelands in far north Queensland, and Mr Hanly, from Mackay, said they found there was no easy way to meet fellow travellers in foreign destinations.
They had relied on hearing familiar accents to find fellow Australians or chance meetings in hotels to rendezvous with other travellers.
Neither had any start-up experience but both were confident they were on to a winning idea and an encounter with fellow travellers on the Gold Coast in 2014 kick-started their success.
"We were sitting in North Burleigh Surf Club and heard a group of backpackers, so we discussed the idea with them. They said they were amazed the idea had not been done already," Mr Hanly said.
After the positive feedback, they launched Travello in 2015, creating the name by combining the words travel and hello.
It uses your phone's geolocation to create a feed of interesting information, help you find other travellers nearby and show you possible things to do.
"We put capital investment into building the app and had nothing left for marketing ... we had to rely on word of mouth," Mr Hanly said.
The app reached 40 countries during the first month and was being used in more than 100 countries two months after launching, he said.
The app's largest user age group is 18-32, but people over 60 use it as well.
"It provides a key point of difference to Facebook and Instagram because it provides a community feel of who’s around you," Mr Hanly said.
A consortium of private Australian investors has agreed to invest $5 million in Travello, with the money to be used for marketing and partnering with travel companies.
“This will help us with brand awareness and becoming the largest community of travellers in the world," Mr Hanly said.
"We will put it towards a lot of marketing because once users are in, we are certain they will enjoy a good experience."
"Mark and I had a strong belief in what we were doing, we jumped in all guns blazing because we believed it could be that big.
"We still think there is a long way to go, we're trying to build a global travel brand from Brisbane."
