Trippl

Trippl started as a women's safety app at Imperial — a platform to connect women traveling home at night so they could share rides and look out for each other. The insight: UberPool proves the sharing economy works, but the experience is terrible. No control, random strangers. We thought we could do better with community.

We assembled a team of 7 from Imperial, started validating over summer before fourth year, and built iOS and Android apps from scratch. My master's project was the technical development of the mobile app.

Evolution

We hit cold start problems with women-only network effects and expanded to all genders with ID verification. Rebranded to Trippl (trip with people) — broader use cases, added filters for same university, mutual connections, same workplace.

We partnered with Black Cabs of London, ran launches at universities and venues, reached a couple hundred users, and made the finals of a Samsung competition.

The lesson

Building something people deeply care about is not the same as building a scalable business. On a sunny day in Hyde Park, we sold sunscreen sachets and made more money in two hours than two years of Trippl. That was the moment.