Tripl's Play: The Five Guys Behind A Travel Startup Hit The Road, Live The Dream
So far, nine days into their month-long stay here, the Tripl guys’ main frustration has been getting into New York bars.
They’re here to officially launch their startup , which aims to “make travel more social,” and to solidify a next round of investment. But before they can do that, the team, which consists of four Swedes and one American who has lived in Sweden the last two years, are encountering what all travelers face: culture shock.
For Tomas Eriksson, 20, the front-end developer and “baby of the group,” it was the shock of not being treated like an adult. “Two days prior to our flight, we realized, ‘Oh shit, he’s 20, not 21!’” says Peter Sullivan, Tripl’s Brooklyn-born, 26-year-old cofounder (you can drink in Sweden at 18). For Erik Lydecker, 28, a house music enthusiast, the real problem has come from bouncers who keep telling him he can only get into the club if he “has girls” with him. “I said, ‘I come from Stockholm,’” he says, irate at the memory. “’Should I bring girls from Stockholm?’ Then I said, ‘I’m married,’ and he said, ‘I don’t care.’” Even Sullivan, a New York native, hasn’t been able to parlay the group into a lot of bars: “You need to know someone who knows someone,” he says.
Thousands and thousands of unreadable pages of “guidance” and encouragement to do “Risk Management”, like when you rent a rowing boat to go out on a two ft