All guests on my first two tours have been friends. I mean, they’ve booked & paid like standard customers, but I’ve knew all of them before they did.
That’s partially because: without a brand; reputation; reviews; word-of-mouth and begging are the only way to get bookings in your first season in the tourism world.
However, it’s also partially because I knew I could get genuine feedback from friends.
I truly want to build a great product & experience. Something that no other tour company in DC has, and that I enjoy offering. And I know that the only way to ensure all of these things is to apply the agile mindset I learned (but didn’t always implement..) in my 20+ years working in the internet software startup world:
#1- Put something into the world
#2- Talk to customers & get feedback
#3- Make changes based on #2
#4- Goto #1
Ideally this cycle repeats early & often. I took way too long to launch, but I’m hyper-focused on making sure I grind away rapidly feeding into this flywheel now that I’m live.
LFG!
eyeintim 
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