A love
of travel inspired by a term abroad in England has led to
a successful guidebook company for Nancy Judson '83.
In 1989, she quit her job as assistant
corporation counsel in New York City's law department to
start TripBuilder, a company that produces easy-to-use,
inexpensive travel guides for nine (soon to be twelve)
cities worldwide.
“I wasn't happy practicing law but
I knew that I liked to travel,” Judson says,
explaining that she loved her junior year term in Bath,
England. So when she was on a vacation in Paris, her
dissatisfaction with guidebooks prompted her to design
her own travel guide.
TripBuilder guides feature an
easy-to-use foldout map that has points of interest
divided into categories and color coded — museums,
historic landmarks, hidden treasures, sights for kids,
and more. “It is a really easy way of navigating a
city,” explains Judson.
The guides are available in bookstores
nationwide. Corporate buyers also include the guides in
their welcome packets for new employees and visitors, and
tour groups also are big customers.
To gain start-up money for her venture,
Judson sold advertising space. But she knew that earning
the advertising dollars of the large corporations she had
targeted, such as British Airways and Hertz, would be a
battle.
Her solution was a creative one. She
sent postcards from her vacations to the marketing
directors of all the companies she had targeted. On each
postcard she wrote that she was having a great time but
that a great guidebook would make it better — and she
knew that she could produce that great guide. She signed
the cards “Love, Nancy” to make sure they would
get past the marketing directors' secretaries.
Judson followed with gifts of building
blocks (to reflect the name TripBuilder). When she
finally called the marketing executives, they all agreed
to meet with her, perplexed by who “this Nancy”
was.
“That's how I got my foot in the
door, but I was really prepared when I saw them,”
Judson says. “I really felt that I had a great
idea.”
Several of the advertisers agreed to
buy space in her guides, and Judson published her first
guide about England and her next on London. (She quickly
decided to focus on producing travel guides for cities,
not entire countries; she also no longer sells ad space.)
TripBuilder has been wildly successful,
moving five years ago from a mail-order market to the
mass market. Judson attributes the company's success to
its product. “Our guides are just really easy to use
and they break down the city and make it more
manageable,” she explains.
Judson says the best part of running
the business is the opportunity to travel, but that she
also loves the flexibility gained by being her own boss.
“I love getting up every morning and coming to
work,” she says, “and it is really exciting to
see the way the series has expanded nationally.” An
extra bonus is the opportunity to spend more time with
her one-year-old daughter, Jamie.