Skift Take
Tripnotes was among an increasingly crowded space for new trip planning tools powered by generative AI. It won't be the last of them to shut down.
Tripnotes got a lot of attention in early 2023 as one of the first experimental AI trip planners powered by ChatGPT.
A demo of the product went viral on LinkedIn and Twitter in January and was shared by Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley. Tripnotes has been referenced consistently since then by media and industry professionals.
But in mid-December, the founders shut down the Tripnotes website several months after selling to Dorsia, a members-only restaurant reservation startup. Dorsia also bought Welcome, a city guide app similar to Tripadvisor and the owner of Tripnotes.
Why the sale? Tripnotes had buzz, but it needed money – which wasn’t easy to raise in 2023, especially after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March.
“It was just a moment where everything froze,” Tripnotes and Welcome co-founder Matthew Rosenberg told Skift. “And it just became clear to us that even if you have a good idea, even if you have what I would consider really great early traction — we just found ourselves in a situation w