All posts by Drew Meyers

Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.

Finances and Money

What Kind of Deposit Rates Can You Get Abroad?

October 24, 2012 Drew Meyers 1 Comment

Depending on how long you are staying overseas and whether you stay in one spot or move around frequently, you may or not have a foreign bank account. I always wondered what kind of rates travelers could get on the money in those local banks. Surprisingly (to me), it can be quite high. My friend Dan at BankVibe recently wrote a post about the countries offering the highest deposit rates. Which countries top the list?

Not exactly the countries you’d expect to be on this list.

Ukraine (18.5%), Iran (18.03%), and Bangledesh (12.5%). High rates, but also high inflation.

For more info, read more at BankVibe.

[Photo via http://loans.msn.bankbazaar.com]

Drew Meyers

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Oh Hey World Updates

Do You Love People? Do You Love Travel?

October 22, 2012 Drew Meyers 9 Comments

Do you believe travel leads to more simplistic, and less materialistic lives? Do you believe traveling is a good thing? Do you believe we need simpler web experiences, built around less information from trusted sources rather than more information from strangers? Do you love people? Do you believe life is about more than money? Do you love traveling? Do you love technology?

We’re on the lookout for an amazing community builder to join the team…

What will that person (eventually it will be multiple) be doing?

Building strong relationships with travelers all over the globe
Helping community members get answers to whatever travel related questions they may have
Relaying feedback from the community into the product development cycle
Speaking on behalf of Oh Hey World at meetups and conferences
Online marketing (& some search engine optimization)
Finding ways to bring community members together in person
Facilitating discussions between community members online
Building a presence on the top 5 travel communities
Monitoring the Oh Hey World brand
Writing – keeping the Oh Hey World travel blog full of amazing stories
Traveling abroad — a LOT. Absolutely nothing replaces meeting people face to face

Prior community management and technology experience is a plus, but certainly not required.

I get asked all the time how to make money from abroad. This is that chance. But if making money for doing nothing is your goal (which is the sense I get from many who want to work remotely while traveling), don’t bother following up. Community building for a startup is a 24/7 job (I did it for 4 years at Zillow) — you need to live and breathe the company, which of course means believing in the grand vision of creating a travel experience based around information from those you trust.

It’s my firm belief that community building is the single most important component to building a lasting company, particularly a web brand. If an entrepreneur doesn’t understand and invest in building a community, they don’t stand a chance to succeed. This is certainly one of the most important hires for Oh Hey World. You’ll get in on the ground level, have a chance to make a lasting impact and advocate to millions of people that traveling is a viable option for every single person. Our goal is to create a world where every single person has not only a passport, but a stamp in it.

Interested? Let’s talk.

[Update: The starting point to expressing interest is to write a few guest blog posts for the Oh Hey World blog. If you’re not willing to go through that effort, then you don’t truly want this job – you likely just want to travel and earn money. That’s fine, but that’s not the type of person we’re looking for.]

[Photo via http://www.echoditto.com/]

Drew Meyers

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Location Costs

Why Small Budget Travel Group Tours are Needed

October 19, 2012 Drew Meyers Leave a comment

Of course, tours are nothing new in the travel space — they are just normally reserved for those willing to pay the big bucks. We all know cost is one of the biggest barriers to traveling. Which is why I personally see a huge opportunity for small, budget travel tours for backpackers led by experienced travelers — tours like Wandering Earl is offering to India (which is sold out).

Earl has two huge things going for him:

He’s spent a ton of time in India (and traveling in general with a count of 83 countries visited) – so he’s clearly qualified with experience
A sizable audience of travelers

Both are requirements for a traveler to sell out space in a 10 person tour.

India is pretty high on my list of places to visit. Extremely high actually. I’ve traveled all over the globe, and generally love solo travel — but India is exactly the type of trip I’d rather embark on with a group rather than going it alone. I’ve heard you either love India, or completely hate it. There is no in between. I figure it’d be a guaranteed amazing experience with a small group that includes at least one person with fairly extensive experience navigating India.

I can tell you from my experience talking to travelers all over the globe, most who have not traveled extensively are scared to travel alone. Not finding travel mates is one of the biggest reasons (aside from cost) people don’t take the leap to travel, at least from those I’ve spoken with. I can also tell you from experience that, while most seasoned travelers really enjoy solo travel, every traveler always welcomes more travel buddies – and there are experienced travelers qualified and capable of leading a budget tour to just about any country on the planet.

Anything that helps knock down barriers to traveling is a plus in my mind, and small budget tours certainly fall in that bucket.

For the newbie travelers, is a small budget travel tour appealing? For the experienced traveler, is leading a tour at all interesting to you?

Drew Meyers

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Photos

Who Wants to Bounce Across the Seine?

October 18, 2012 Drew Meyers Leave a comment

Did you know you can bounce across a river, literally? Take a look at this bridge to Paris…

Who’s in? Me!!

[Hat tip to my friend Katie]

Drew Meyers

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Travel Thoughts

Why Do You go Away?

October 17, 2012 Drew Meyers Leave a comment

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

— Terry Pratchett

I love this quote. In my mind, you can’t truly appreciate a place without having a broad set of places to compare it to.

Why do you go away?

Drew Meyers

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Online Travel Annoyances

Online Travel Annoyance #3: Answering “Where are you?”

October 15, 2012 Drew Meyers Leave a comment

If you travel extensively either for business or leasure, you’ve heard it over and over and over. The questions that never stops…

Where are you?

Almost without fail, the first question I’m asked when catching up with anyone (on the phone, in person, or via social media channels) is “where are you?” I answer it over and over and over, at least 2-3 times a day it seems.

You care where a lot of people are.

You always care about where your family is. Your close friends. Some influential public figures you’d love to meet. The person you’re scheduled to speak with in 30 minutes. Your fraternity brother who happens to be in the same city as you next weekend. The individual interested in kiteboarding and Pearl Jam (if those are two of your interests) arriving in town in 3 days. The super hot girl (or guy) you met in Australia 6 months ago and still have a crush on.

But you don’t care where everyone is. Not your friend across the country you haven’t seen in 3 years. Not your fraternity brother you would rather not see again. Not the random guy you met in Asia 3 years ago. Not someone you haven’t seen since high school currently in China.

Wouldn’t it be great to have one place that answers the “where are you?” question no matter who you are wondering about?

Right now, the process to answering the “where are you?” question comes down to one of the following:

Hope that the person you’re wondering about either emailed, called, or texted you — but we all know this is a very small use case. Unless you’re a close family or friend, this literally never happens.
Hunt around Facebook for the last status update that includes a location
Hunt around on their blog to find out where they currently are. In many cases, even once you find it, the most recent location is wrong (my personal blog fits in this category)
Call, email, or text them and ask them.
Continue wondering where they are for eternity until you hear from them…

We think there is a better way.

Drew Meyers

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Serendipity

Serendipity on my East Coast Trip

October 13, 2012 Drew Meyers Leave a comment

We all know serendipity is amazing.

As some of you may know, I’m on a east coast business trip that has already spanned Boston and New York City, with the next stop being Philadelphia and Washington DC. There have been a few serendipitous components to the trip, and some missed serendipity.

1. My best friend in the world happened to be in Boston the same weekend I was. As a result, I got to hang out with her for two days which was of course a huge unexpected bonus (who doesn’t like hanging out with their best friend?). Yet if that scenario were to happen to anyone outside of my 4 or 5 closest friends, we likely never would have realized we were to be in the same city at the same time. I trade emails and texts with my close friends all the time. Not so with everyone in my network — even though I’d love to spend time with many of my more distant friends in another city.

2. On the bus to the airport in Boston to pick up my friend, I saw a girl at the back of the bus who looked almost exactly like one of my close friends from high school. Since I couldn’t quite be sure from the front of the bus and didn’t want to make a scene by approaching her all the way from the other end, I texted my old high school friend who now lives in Los Angeles, “Are you in Boston right now?” I got a text a few minutes later that said, “Nope, but will be in NYC on Sunday.” Holy crap I thought — that’s crazy, since I was headed to New York on Monday. Turns out we didn’t end up meeting up since she was just in and out for a client meeting, but we tried.

3. A fraternity brother of mine, who I last saw in Santorini in the summer of 2010, was in Boston for the weekend as well. We randomly saw that we were both going to be in Boston ahead of time based on random Facebook status updates and planned to meet up. We both completely spaced and missed each other.

Drew Meyers

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Oh Hey World Updates

Tech Startup Scene – New York vs San Francisco

October 10, 2012 Drew Meyers Leave a comment

San Francisco?

New York?

San Francisco?

New York?

I’ve been debating between San Francisco and New York as a place to settle down after spending the past few years globe trotting. As some of you may know, I’ve wanted to move to New York since 2009 but haven’t followed through (yet). I’ve spent the last few weeks in San Francisco, and now I’m in New York for the next week checking out the startup scene here. A big plus to New York (for me) is that it’s so different from Seattle where I grew up, whereas San Francisco is the same general vibe with a much larger tech scene. Of course, San Francisco is closer to family and close friends. One of my goals while here is to spend time at a number of co-working spaces — I visited Projective Space yesterday, today I’m at WeWork hanging with Zeb from Renthackr, and tomorrow I’ll be at General Assembly with Michele from DoorSteps. The startup scene in NYC seems vibrant & diverse from what I can tell so far — just a lot smaller than San Francisco. Seems there are a number of events as well, such as Walkabout NYC next Friday.

At this stage, I’m still leaning toward New York. Yet every startup founder and investor I speak with tells me to go build Oh Hey World in San Francisco. Easier access to capital. More talent. Better network of mentors.

If we make it into Startup Chile, then it’ll be awhile until I have to decide since I’ll be in Chile until June.

[SF photo via http://www.starbasejet.com/]

Drew Meyers

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Oh Hey World Updates

Startup Chile Application Complete and an Oh Hey World Ad

October 8, 2012 Drew Meyers 3 Comments

We decided a few weeks ago that Startup Chile was the best next step for Oh Hey World, so we’ve been diligently knocking items off the application list ever since. After continually tweaking the written application responses over the past week or two, I finally pushed the submit button today (deadline is in about 9 hours)!

Part of the application was a 3 minute pitch video, which Will finished over the weekend. Since I think it turned out really good, I thought I’d share it here…

Version without an introduction (more of an ad for Oh Hey World):

Version with an introduction (video we submitted with our application):

Featuring the song “Fireworks” by Jahzzar, from the album “Traveller’s Guide” — http://betterwithmusic.com/

We’ll find out if we’ll be moving to Chile in January by the end of November – the waiting game begins.

Drew Meyers

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Oh Hey World Updates

Working on Startup Chile Application

October 5, 2012 Drew Meyers Leave a comment

We’ve been working on our application and video pitch for Startup Chile this week — and I’m sure we’re not alone since the application deadline is fast approaching this coming Monday, the 8th.

Below are a couple photos my buddy Tony Longo at Block Avenue took this morning (I’ve been working out of their office this week) as I was preparing to record some audio for the 3 minute Oh Hey World video pitch.

Prepping for audio

From outside

Wish us luck on a long weekend of revising our application and video…

Drew Meyers

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Exploring the Wild Blue Yonder