Localeur Expands to Help More Travelers Avoid Tourist Traps

AUSTIN, Texas, May 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Localeur announced today it plans to more than double its reach this summer from six to 13 U.S. cities. Named the Best New Startup by Austin Monthly in 2013, Localeur will expand to Atlanta, Chicago, Denver and Miami before Memorial Day followed by New Orleans, Seattle and Washington, D.C. later this summer. These cities will join its roster of Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

"Since launching last year, Localeur's mission has been to help travelers experience cities the way locals do," said CEO Joah Spearman. "We've built an engaged community across the country, and we're ready to meet demand in more major U.S. travel destinations."

Localeur has built a community of locals in each of its cities who provide authentic recommendations on where to eat, drink, and play. While competitors focus on checkins and reviews, Localeur's hyper-focus on authenticity and curation helps travelers avoid places rated highly on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor that many locals consider to be overrated or tourist traps.

"We're experiencing exceptional month-over-month growth and user engagement is well above industry averages, which is tremendous validation of what we're doing and our unique value proposition to travelers and locals," said Chase White, co-founder and head of product.

Localeur has built a diverse roster of early angel investors. Several Central Texas Angel Network members have invested led by consumer investor Chris Shonk, along with hedge fund specialist Travis Devitt, former Microsoft technology executive Bart Robertson and former Freescale veteran and Rice University faculty member Michael Brogioli, Ph.D.

"Localeur has all the things I look for in an early-stage investment: passionate and savvy founders who've built a great product with very little funding that serves a real consumer pain point in a large and growing market," said Brogioli, whose engineering firm works with General Electric and Thompson Reuters, among others.

Several successful entrepreneurs have also invested in the company, including Ken Cho, who co-founded Spredfast and now leads the startup, People Pattern; Sweet Leaf Tea and Deep Eddy Vodka founder Clayton Christopher; WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner, who previously served as COO of Bazaarvoice; and Dre Hayes, co-founder of The Foundation, a notable lifestyle branding and sales firm.

SOURCE Localeur