Over a year and a half ago, we embarked on building Oh Hey World in our attempt to solve the rampant missed connections while traveling problem that every regular traveler inevitably suffers from. Our goal was to connect like minded people in person.

We spent 7 months working on the product, and learned a lot. Ultimately, we ended up open sourcing that project as we realized location sharing isn’t a strong enough hook to get to the scale necessary to surface other trusted individuals nearby in the majority of cities.

But we didn’t solve the problem.

Thus, over a year later, we’re taking a second shot at solving the problem with a completely different product, which we’ve named Horizon.

We’ve sliced off one component - people nearby - of the original Oh Hey World product (see image below), and solved the “why” question with to find a place to stay. We learned the simplicity lesson, and are building the entire user interface around finding trusted contacts by location with the goal of finding a free (or cheap) place to stay in the next city you are traveling to.

There is zero doubt staying with a friend is the best way to travel; it just so happens it’s also the cheapest way to travel. Couchsurfing has enabled millions to experience the world and make amazing connections all along the way since it began in 2003. If you really think about it, everyone on the planet (that travels) couchsurfs. The vast majority just happen to stay with friends, family, and trusted connections rather than strangers. We’re enabling that discovery of trusted individuals to happen much more efficiently from your mobile device.

We hope you join us in this next journey to broaden your horizon.