Interview with Ross Borden of Matador
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“Matador”:http://www.matadortravel.com is a meeting place. It’s a place for you to express yourself, tell others about your adventures, get meaningful travel advice, and take inspiration from the beautiful and remarkable things others like you have discovered all across the globe. It’s a hip, new, online community for passionate travelers and people interested in art & music, writing & photography, adventure sports and sustainability.
Ross was born and raised in California and lucky enough to get a great education and travel extensively while he was young–experiences which molded him into the complete travel junkie that he is today. It has been his lifelong dream to become an entrepreneur in a field that he is passionate about. He has found this in Matador. |
What gap were you hoping to fill when you started Matador?
We believe there are hundreds of thousands of incredible people out there, doing amazing things in the world. They are writers, photographers, musicians, film makers, adventurers, NGO workers and people who care deeply about issues that will matter to all of us in the next 50 years. We wanted to give these people a single place to call home on the Internet, and a chance to share information and advice about the things that fire them up. We wanted to give them a space to collaborate on trips, projects and adventures big and small.
How have you gotten the message out to expand your user base?
We haven’t done much marketing at all. People in the Closed Beta have the ability to invite contacts with special invite links, and these have been sent all over the world by our users. I honestly don’t know exactly how most of our users got on the site…which is really encouraging.
Which section of the Matador site is most important to you? Why?
The Articles section is most important to me because our five core categories (People, Art&Music, Sport, Element, and Evolution) define what we’re all about – and the values that make the community so special are articulated through the stories people write for this section.
Bonus: What’s your favorite spot in the world?
Favorite spot in the world…that is tough. I’d say either Buenos Aires or Rio in January…
Copyright © 2007 by Sonia Aggarwal