This post follows a previous one that you can read there.
You can ask most entrepreneurs (well, at least those who start with no financial means): looking for financing is not an easy job, even when you have a great idea!
How did we manage to gather the initial investment for HouseTrip? First of all I think it is a question of speaking about the project and your need of financing to as many people around you as you can: the fear that an idea might be « stolen » if you do so is largely overrated and, in our humble view, should not restrain you. There is simply no coherent reason for it to happen: it would make the « thief » compete 100% with you on an idea you have ruminating in your mind for much longer than him/her… The only risk would be that the idea reaches another start-up or a company in the same field as yours but they would still have to decide to run with your idea (or part of it) and therefore eventually change theirs… Unlikely.
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This post follows a previous one which you can read there.
VentureKick
January 2009, a huge milestone for HouseTrip: VentureKick, the most prestigious entrepreneurship contest in Switzerland in the domain of technologies. The competition works in 3 stages: 4 projects win the first stage (and it gives them the right to participate to the second stage), 2 projects will pass the second stage and only 1 will ultimately receive the third stage’s prize, CHF100′000. We had applied to VentureKick back in November 2008 and learned in December that our project was one of the 8 selected (out of approximately 30) to present in front of the jury for the first stage.
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This post follows a previous one, which you can read there.
Back at home in Lausanne, I literally spent 6 months speaking about the HouseTrip idea to everyone I met. I wanted to check that it wasn’t something I was getting excited about on my own, that it was actually something people needed. It was a great feeling and it gave me confidence that everyone saw a lot of potential in the idea.
Junjun and Arnaud
On the way I had of course shared the idea with my girlfriend Junjun who, to my great delight, agreed that we should both dedicate ourselves fully to the project after we would finish our studies in January 2009 (we were both studying hospitality and tourism management at the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne).
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Welcome to the HouseTrip blog!
We thought it would be interesting to launch the blog with a series of posts about our short history: “where it all began” starts at the very beginning, the birth of the HouseTrip idea!
I remember exactly when and why I got the idea for HouseTrip: Junjun and I were driving from London to Lausanne (Switzerland), the car completely packed with all the stuff we had accumulated during the 7-month internship in the City of London and I was thinking about those two events, which – I didn’t know – would change my life.
Finding a Bed and Breakfast (B&B) in Scotland
The first event I was thinking about was when I tried to find a nice B&B for a weekend in Scotland: it doesn’t seem like much of a life-changing event but bear with us 
Eilean Donan Castle - Beautiful Scotland!
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