Traveling to a new destination sounds like an exciting idea but researching about that place before hitting it is as important, and more of a herculean task. Here, Unanchor can be of a great help for that. It provides self guided tour itineraries for over 50 cities. Also, they come with directions and instructions for traveling from one place to other in a specific city.

Unanchor is founded by California born Jason Demant who is now based in South Korea. We have Jason to tell us more about this great start up and what led him creating Unanchor. Catch his interview with an introduction video below:


Jason, let's start with a brief introduction of yours.

After working in the Silicon Valley for a large corporation for almost 5 years, I grew tired of the rat race. My girlfriend and I quit our jobs, sold all of our stuff and took off. The initial plan was to travel around Asia for a year and then come back to the states. That was October 2009. We’re still abroad and currently live in South Korea.


Tell us about the fascinating concept 'Unanchor' uses.

We find local experts around the world and essentially ask them -- "if you had a close friend coming to your town for the first time for only 3-days, what would you do with them?" We then ask them to take that thought and write it out as a self-guided tour itinerary in full-detail with pictures, maps & directions.


How did you come up with this concept? We would like to know about Unanchor's inception.

It was during my initial year-long trip through Asia that the problem of figuring out what to do and how to get around continually plagued me. I was in Beijing when I really had my “eureka” moment. With only a few days there I began researching what to do and literally found over a thousand attractions to see. How was I supposed to choose? And once I did, what was a smart way to plan the day and get around?

I eventually settled down in South Korea, taught myself to code and launched the first version. I was later joined by my co-founder, Mohammad.


If you're asked to list Unanchor's top 3 advantages, what would they be?

1. Our local experts – We work with some of the brightest and best travel writers in the world.

2. The completeness of the itineraries – Traditional guidebooks and other travel-planning information leaves out a lot of critical information. For example – specific directions, prioritized recommendations and insider local’s tips.

3. Unique experiences – The itineraries on our site are only available through Unanchor. It’s a fun and different way to see a new city. The itineraries give you a local’s perspective of a city giving you the opportunity to get off the beaten path.


Since Unanchor is in its initial stages, are we going to see some additional features soon? If yes, what would they be?

We're in the process of rolling out a couple new things at the moment actually. The first is a new interactive format for our itineraries. You can see examples for Sydney, Australia, Paris, New York City, & San Francisco.

We're getting ready to release our first iPhone app as well. It should be available in the next couple of weeks.


In the pre-launch stage, what was the major difficulty you faced?

We had a tough-time finding itinerary writers initially. It took us a few different tries and methods to finally break through and bring in a constant stream of writers.


And now when it is up and running, what is the biggest challenge?

Prioritizing what to do next. We have a lot of ideas to improve the site and things we want to do. But with only the two of us, it’s always about prioritization.


What kind of reception has 'Unanchor' had so far?

From both our writers and the travelers that have used the itineraries, the response has been great. Writers have really enjoyed sharing their local expertise in our unique format. And travelers have loved being able to see cities from a local perspective.


What are your dreams/vision for 'Unanchor'?

Long-term we want to know what you’re interests are, what you want to do and where you are. Then, based on that information we want to provide you with a unique self-guided experience through your mobile device.


Share your fondest memory with 'Unanchor'.

Going back to our difficulties, in the pre-launch stage – finding writers. We had come up with a new plan to offer writers a revenue advance. If this wasn’t going to work, it was time to move on. We rolled out the plan and advertised it on Reddit (travel section). The post got a ton of comments, a lot of upvotes and resulted in quite a few writer applications. We’ve had no trouble finding quality writers since then.