THE LOCALEUR BLOG

A look inside the company that helps you experience local wherever you go. Follow us as we grow our community one local at a time.

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If you haven’t already, make sure to order a print copy of Localeur Magazine’s Fall/Winter issue. Plus, if you’re really digging our print vibes, subscribe for a year’s worth of quarterly issues! Visit shop.localeur.com now.

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Photo Recap: Localeur Team Retreat - Denver

Each year, I lead my team on a retreat over a few days to have fun, plan the future and collaborate (particularly since we often work remotely in various cities). Last year, we went to the Bay Area and ate great food, visited Pixar’s headquarters and more. The year previous we visited Washington, D.C. where we went on a local scavenger hunt, hosted a party with locals and hiked Great Falls Park. This year, we traveled to Denver for some high-altitude thinking. Through it all, we made our way around town with car2go, where we snagged a two-day package for less than $190 and found convenient parking all over the city and even at Red Rocks where we took in nature, as the locals do.

From left: Larry (brand and partnerships), Cate (content), Joah (CEO), Matt (UX design), Chase (engineering)

Our Senior UX Designer Matt gazes out at Downtown Denver from Red Rocks.

Our Director of Content Cate was happy about the close parking at Red Rocks.

Larry, usually behind the camera, reflected on finishing his first year at Localeur.

Next time, we’ll have to catch a show at Red Rocks, too! Definitely.

Cate and I did manage to get in a quality run though. The other guys watched.

Marcos Coal-Fired Pizza was an excellent first meal in the city. A couple of us earned the calories.

Tacos, Tequila and Whiskey is the actual name of this spot. Delicious.

While everyone immediately thinks of Snooze and jumps into an hour-long wait, we used Localeur to find Syrup and it’s an equally awesome, local brunch spot.

We had some fairly cold weather, but we had a sweet ride keeping us warm.

We hit up 1Up for some classic arcade games, from Pac-Man to NBA Jam.

All in all, we had a great time, and what’s not pictured is all the great planning and work we did to make sure Localeur keeps getting better heading into 2018.

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The new & improved Localeur Android app is here!

That’s right, the time has finally come to introduce our new and improved Android app. Download the app for free today on Google Play and please make sure to leave us a review sharing your experience and any feedback! We hope you enjoy using our app to #experiencelocal in 60+ cities around the world. Here’s a preview of what you can expect!

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Toronto & car2go: I could get used to this.

OK, so a couple weeks ago, I wrote about choosing to live carlessly in Austin. On a recent trip to Toronto, I got many of the same perks I get from being a car2go user in another one of the best cities in North America (if not the world). From pizza and pasta at Terroni on Price Street to beers at Bandit Brewery, the city and the recommendations from our locals in Toronto did not disappoint. Here are a few pics I was able to snag while hopping from one Localeur-recommended spot to another (with an assist from this car2go Mercedes-Benz CLA coupe).

This is me trying to be artsy in the Royal Museum of Ontario. How’d I do?

The aforementioned Mercedes-Benz CLA coupe. I could def get used to this.

Took the car2go for a spin to catch some views (Drake reference) at Scarborough Bluffs. Shout out to Jac-lyn. 

Also checked out the sights at Edwards Garden (above and below). This place was super chill and I could see it being a good date spot.

Then, of course, I figured why the hell not drive down to Niagara Falls (below). Sure, it’s touristy, but it’s still mighty impressive.

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Our new iOS app is here!

Launched March 1, 2013, with 15 of my friends in Austin, Texas, contributing recommendations on where to find breakfast tacos and see shows during SXSW and now expanded globally to 60+ cities and counting including Australia, Canada, Spain, London, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and 50 major US cities. We didn’t even have an app when we launched!

Still, we've done this without a single institutional VC firm, with just one full-time engineer, one full-time UX designer, a 5-person team, a stellar group of angel investors, some great partners like JetBlue, and a community of locals who truly know where to eat, drink and play, and they're willing to share it with you all not because you're tourists who will overrun their favorite local spots but because our community is authentic, curated, credible and high quality. There is trust.

Please take a moment to download our new iPhone app today (it's free). Email me directly at [email protected] with any feedback or feel free to leave a review in the App Store! - Joah

P.S. We are adding more functionality to “Nearby” very soon, then will launch Android within a couple weeks followed by major updates on Profiles and Trips so stay tuned!

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Living carlessly in Austin

You may remember that in spring of 2016, I embarked on a cross-country, 35-city roadtrip to meet with locals and local business owners all over America. It was an exceptional experience and led to some huge insights and breakthroughs for Localeur. Funny thing is, being in a car for nearly 20,000 miles (solo for the majority of it), for 42 days left me feeling a bit differently about car ownership in Austin. Upon my return, I immediately began making plans to sell my car and ultimately did so a little over a year ago. My FJ Cruiser, Uncle Phil, will forever have a place in my heart.

But the last year, not being a car owner, has been exceptional. I’ve used Lyft plenty. I’ve walked much more than ever before here in Texas, which takes me back to my days living and working in D.C. when walking was my preferred method of getting around. But the true life-saver has been car2go.

In March of this year, during SXSW, we were able to work with car2go and I introduced the company to some of my friends like drummer-turned-college lecturer Dorian (bottom) and co-workers like our director of engineering, Chase (top), who also embraced the car-sharing phenomena. Having car2go’s North America headquarters be based here in Austin, has made it that much easier to embrace the local company and their Smart cars, but I’ll be real...things go even sweeter when they announced they’d start rolling out Mercedes-Benz vehicles into the fleet this year, too. [More on that another time.]

Today, I’ve helped get Localeurs all over North America experience car2go including locals in Columbus (James), Vancouver (Marta), D.C. (Leigh), Portland (Yume) and Austin (Vicky), but honestly I don’t care if anyone else loves car2go as much as I do (even though they should) because I know why I love it.

Being carless from an ownership-standpoint in a city like Austin where car is king and driving is a part of life here as a local would be utterly and completely impossible without car2go. I’ve used it to run simple errands like going to the post office, shopping at some of my favorite spots (see above @ Passport Vintage) or meeting up with friends across town for a book club discussion, and that’s why I’m excited to use this space to share more going in the coming weeks and months about my personal experience with their cars (been riding around in the Mercedes-Benz GLA a lot lately) along with sharing the experiences of some of our Localeurs with their cars across North America, too! Stay tuned and drive safe!

- Joah Spearman, founder & CEO

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A lot of folks following Localeur don't know this, but my first job out of college was working for FEMA about 2.5 weeks after Hurricane Katrina. The White House recruited me to be the speechwriter for the newly-appointed director of FEMA after Michael Brown resigned. Working under David Paulison, formerly the Miami Fire Chief and Head of the US Fire Administration, I got an up-close look at a man and other staffers who had decades of disaster response experience. Chief Paulison was brought in too late to help the people of New Orleans in the days leading up to and immediately after Katrina, but over time he re-instilled confidence in the agency by working with the Coast Guard, American Red Cross and other disaster orgs and experts and focusing on the people affected instead of the politics. That experience, including spending time in the Gulf in the aftermath of Katrina and Hurricane Rita, shaped my perspective on how we can help. That's why the first thing I did when I saw the devastation with Harvey was reach out directly to friends and Localeurs in Houston to find out which local organizations our support should go to. There are many worthy orgs, but Texas Gulf Coast division of the Red Cross came up again and again so that's who we are supporting. Check out this NPR story to learn more about their leadership role in disaster relief. Please text the number here to support. - Joah Spearman, founder & CEO

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I may be the person standing there next to Apple CEO Tim Cook. I may be the person giving a demo of our iPhone app to the leader of the most valuable company in the world. I may be the founder and CEO of Localeur.

But this moment, which took place this morning in Austin around 9:45 a.m. Central, is a moment that belongs to my entire team and also includes our advisers, our investors and - most importantly - our community of locals who are truly passionate about helping travelers #experiencelocal.

Major thanks to the entire team at Capital Factory who helped put on a phenomenal event. And connected me to Mr. Cook!

Photos by Ben Porter Photography.

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We’re Hiring: Front-End Developer (Contract)

Here at Localeur, we’re passionate about helping travelers experience local. Born in Austin in 2013, we now serve up recommendations exclusively from locals in over 50 cities, including London, Canada (Toronto & Vancouver) and Australia (Melbourne & Sydney). Global expansion, native app product enhancement and profitability are our priorities for the remainder of 2017, and we’re looking for a contract front-end developer to help us on all fronts. This role could transition to a full-time role later this year, but our current focus is on finding someone who can help us mind some gaps between design and back-end development, and someone with great chops for UI and styling.

Compensation (monthly pay + stock options) is competitive and our work hours and work locations are super flexible. We pretty much work wherever we are.

We are a small, but nimble and diverse team of thinkers and doers, we embrace diversity, champion flexibility, transparency and creativity, and care little for how many vacations days you take or hours you work so long as our high standards of excellence of productivity are met on a consistent, professional basis.

The person in this role will work closely with our Director of Engineering (Chase Moody) and Senior UX Designer (Matt Armendariz) to enhance our app offering for both iOS and Android devices. 

If interested, please email [email protected] ASAP.

Here’s more:

Job: Contract Front-End Developer (React)

We are looking for a great front-end, JavaScript developer in a contract role who is proficient with React.js. Your primary focus will be on developing user interface components and implementing them following well-known React.js workflows (such as Flux or Redux). You will ensure that these components and the overall application are robust and easy to maintain. You will coordinate with the rest of the team working on different layers of the infrastructure. Therefore, a commitment to collaborative problem solving, sophisticated design and quality product is important.

Responsibilities

 - Developing new user-facing features using React.js and React Native

 - Building reusable components and front-end libraries for future use

 - Translating designs and wireframes into high quality code

 - Optimizing components for maximum performance across a vast array of web-capable devices and browsers

 - Providing input on new features that help drive the product forward

Skills

 - Strong proficiency in JavaScript, including DOM manipulation and the JavaScript object model

 - Thorough understanding of React.js and its core principles

 - Experience with popular React.js workflows (such as Flux or Redux)

 - Familiarity with newer specifications of EcmaScript

 - Experience with data structure libraries (e.g., Immutable.js)

 - Ability to build performant mobile animations

 - Knowledge of isomorphic React is a plus

 - Familiarity with RESTful APIs

 - Knowledge of modern authorization mechanisms, such as JSON Web Token

 - Familiarity with modern front-end build pipelines and tools

 - Experience with common front-end development tools such as Babel, Webpack, NPM, etc.

 - Ability to understand business requirements and translate them into technical requirements

 - A knack for benchmarking and optimization

 - Familiarity with code versioning tools (such as Git, SVN, and Mercurial)

 - Preferred but not required knowledge of React Native, Node.js, GraphQL

 - No formal education required but please provide examples of previous work or side projects, along with professional references

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My lead investor was an angel even before he died.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love."

Today, I am incredibly saddened and disappointed to share that yesterday morning, my friend, adviser and Localeur's lead investor Walt Schoenvogel passed away suddenly.

Maybe you've heard the saying, "God works in mysterious ways." Or perhaps you too live by the axiom that "everything happens for a reason." Powerful and often timely words, indeed, but I must be honest in saying there are moments like the present one when I just cannot quite see God's plan or cannot see beyond this particular day or moment to get to the silver lining of justification.

Doubt can creep in as such moments, but most of all its utter disbelief that whether one believes or not, God's power is so complete, so total, so eternal and so infinite yet somehow we spend a great many hours and days and years of our lives contemplating, consternating and, only occasionally, celebrating the most tremendous blessings we've been given: life and love.

We take such unquantifiable gifts for granted day after day after day. Even those seemingly living full lives on Instagram or with full bridal parties at our weddings or with full three-car garages and full bank accounts are often caught up in the temporary stresses of the lives we've been blessed to have that we often fail to see the forest for the trees instead preferring to complain about the rain or the drought and heat or the quality the soil or the lack of fruit yet bearing or in envy of the neighbor's trees or fruit.

We get caught forgetting that life and love are the only experiences that truly count.

Walt is one of the very few people I have ever encountered whom seemed to fully grasp how precious it is to have life and love.

The son of a doctor who refused to deny patients in the 1950s and 60s due to the color of their skin at a time when such refusals were the industry norm in the South; the husband of a beautiful wife Charlyn for four decades whom he always referred to with the admiration of a boy first acquainted with love; and the father of a daughter whom remains one of the most intelligent and all-around impressive individuals I've had the privilege of working with and knowing, it's clear to me that Walt had both a great respect both for his role in a lineage of people who honored time, hard work and principles and a great sense of duty to celebrate the joy in family, friendship, kinship and life's true gifts.

Before March 2016, I had never met Walt but knew of him through his daughter Sally who I worked with nearly a dozen years ago in Washington, D.C. Walt sent me a message on Facebook asking if I was still seeking investors for Localeur, to which I replied I had been. After a brief phone call, Walt and I planned to meet briefly at Walton's Fancy and Staple where he proceeded to convince me without a single word of persuasion that he would neither threaten my vision nor demand a board seat in becoming the lead individual investor in Localeur with a sizable investment. Six months later, he re-invested in my vision for Localeur, and through the past year has remained among my most steadfast, engaged and responsive investors and advisers.

A successful businessman in his own right across many industries, Walt is a man that I came to look up to as not just an investor but someone who had unlocked some secret doorway to a life worth living where its daily stresses never seemed to rise above his vocal chords or beyond the surface of his eyebrows and temples. The man simply seemed to live life as the gift it was, day after day. Often times, I'd see photos of his here on Facebook with his wife and children and grandchildren on vacation or of him enjoying a meal at a new restaurant or a glass of wine, and find the parallels to the lifestyle I am building for myself. Here was a man whom knew how to laugh and to live.

Altogether, I spent time with Walt on five occasions since last March, but it feels like we had years because every interaction was so full not only of words and exchanges of information, but of genuine interest and the kind of good vibes that people often project through social media but seldom experience in real life. My favorite time with Walt was when I introduced him to my fiance Susannah and he introduced me to his wife Charlyn while we were both on a trip to Paris, them celebrating another wedding anniversary and us celebrating our engagement. Despite the gap of many years, it was like we quickly became couple friends and shared stories of our lives and love over laughs that I'll never forget.

Walt touched the lives of his family and friends in a way that may never be measured in ways words can capture. I've read Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" and Paul Kalanithi's "When Breathe Becomes Air" and fully grasp the power of words, but no words of mine will ever suffice to relay to you all exactly how instrumental Walt has been not only on Localeur's trajectory as a company and my trajectory as an entrepreneur, but on my journey as a man, a future husband, a future father and a friend.

We have a board meeting on August 1, and I was so looking forward to seeing Walt and Heather Brunner and Blake Chandlee and my attorney Evan Kastner to talk through all the ways in which Localeur can continue its steady march toward fulfilling both our mission and our potential as a business. Mostly, though, I was looking forward to feeling the kinship that this group has formed not because these people care deeply and solely about the financial outcome of Localeur, but because these people - none more than Walt - have invested in me as a person.

Life and love are gifts, and Walt was gracious enough to share his gift with me and with all of us both with sage advice and a ready smile. For that, I am eternally grateful. Rest in peace, my friend.

- Joah, founder & CEO

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From the diverse, highly-skilled team whom I have the privilege of working with everyday to this impressive group of advisers (pictured above) who came together in Austin (from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and the Bay Area) this past weekend to inform our next steps as a business, what we at Localeur are focused on is not doing what's been done before us, but taking what's known (tourism) and taking it to a new level to truly allow travelers to #experiencelocal.  

I know, based on what I see everyday with other, better-funded Silicon Valley startups, that you would be extremely hard pressed to find a group of advisers this diverse, and, yes, it's very much intentional just as my diverse collection of investors is intentional.

I am of the mind that diversity leads to greater community, greater opportunity, greater creativity and, ultimately, a greater mission. So I've taken this extremely talented group of young, brilliant, creative and fun thinkers and doers, applied their abilities as advisers to Localeur, and pretty soon, you'll be able to experience the benefits to this as we implement their suggestions and thoughts into what we do as a business and what our product does to enhance travel experiences.

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We recently celebrated our 4th birthday so I wanted to share a few milestones we’ve experienced since 2013. We couldn’t have done any of this without our passionate and loyal community of locals, our supportive investors and all the travelers out there who want to #experiencelocal! Thank you!

Joah, founder & CEO

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Introducing Localeur Shop, the marketplace for all things related to the Localeur brand. You can now show your love for local by repping Localeur on your next travel adventure!

Inside Localeur Shop, you’ll find our newly launched Localeur Magazine as well as some exciting collaborations with some of our favorite brands: Ebbets Field Flannels and Pintrill.

Our magazine was a labor of love (and layout). You can read all about it here. Was your city or favorite place included? Cop one here.

The Localeur team has long been fans of Ebbets Field Flannels for their quality craftsmanship in making traditional baseball caps and other sports-inspired memorabilia. We also love that they’re 100% made in the USA. We were absolutely thrilled for our shipment of Navy/Vintage white and Triple-black to arrive and we are happy to say that even “I-can’t-wear-hats” people look good in our collab with Ebbets Field.

Pins are one of the hottest accessory items and there’s no limit to how many you can wear on your hat, jacket or tote bag. We intentionally made the decision to collaborate with Pintrill, the marquee pin company in the world right now. Our heart logo pins are so striking, that even at it’s small .75” size, you can spot one across a room! It was also the most-purchased item in our shop since our SXSW 4th Birthday Party & shop launch last week.

Let us know on social media what Localeur merch you’re feeling and tag us photos of you dipped in Localeur!

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Today, we are super excited to unveil Localeur: The Magazine.

While we are a web and mobile-first company, we are constantly seeking new ways to elevate our brand, expand our community and geographic reach, and put our authentic local content in front of travelers, wherever they are.

For us, launching a magazine for an online content provider like Localeur is akin to an e-commerce company like Warby Parker launching a brick-and-mortar location. It's partially to generate revenue and partially to grow and capture brand affinity in the physical form. Mostly, it's to share the amazing voices of our community of locals spanning cities around the country (plus Toronto and Vancouver).

You can find (and purchase) the magazine at shop.localeur.com.

There were so many contributors to this magazine but absolutely none of this would be possible without my product team of Chase Moody, Matthew Armendariz and, especially, the managing editor of this ENTIRE production from design and layout to publication Larry Luk, the copy editor who read and edited it all Cate Smithson and the man behind the camera Gary Williams Jr..

There is no limit to what a small but dedicated team of people with a shared sense of purpose and passion can do!

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Party With Us (and Ride Like Us) this SXSW

Joah here, founder & CEO of Localeur, and I’ve got some timely updates for you, but first let’s get one things out the way: we are throwing our annual birthday party (which just so happens to be during SXSW) on March 13 at Whisler’s - a locals’ favorite on the East Side - and you better be there. RSVP here. Do it. We’ll have MICK and some of our favorite DJs spinning all night.

Second, we are super pumped to be the ones to share some awesome news with you that’s going to save you a ton of time, energy and headaches that will put a damper on your SXSW experience this year.

Austin’s own car2go (yep, their HQ is here in ATX) will be going the extra mile to make it super easy for you to get around during the festival.

Door #1: While we’ve all come to associate car2go with the cute Smart cars (their official name is the “smart twofor”) that seem to fit in just about any parking spot in the city, they will also be rolling out some dope new Mercedes Benz vehicles for your driving pleasure including the CLA, a 4-person sedan that looks sexy as hell, and the GLA, (below) a 5-person SUV that has all the space of a larger car but none of the oversized parking issues that come with it.

Door #2: car2go will have four super convenient “Drop Zones” where you can get valet-style parking, which will definitely come in handy when you’re in a hurry to catch the next SXSW showcase or tech talk and not trying to spend half an hour (or more) looking for a parking spot. Don’t let it happen to you, take advantage of the Drop Zones; they’re free and there will be a car2go rep onsite to grab the keys and take care of the untimely parking duties. See below.

Door #3: As if the above wasn’t incentive enough, car2go is also kicking in $10 of drive credit for first-time drivers (use the promo code SHAREATX) when you sign up - you can take care of the registration business quickly here - or $10 in drive credit for current members who refer friends (bonus: your friend gets $10 in drive credits, too, so basically it’s one of life’s rare win-win scenarios).

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Make sure to RSVP here and arrive by 9!

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Four years ago, this week, we launched Localeur in Austin with 20 of my friends sharing their favorite local spots for SXSW attendees. It was our belief that these travelers wanted to #experiencelocal rather than relying on tourists reviews and outdated travel guides. Since then, we've expanded to more than 40 cities, partnered with JetBlue, been named a "best new travel app" by The Today Show, Forbes, Travel & Leisure and countless others, and built an unmatched community of locals who have shared thousands of authentic recs on the best places to eat, drink, shop, workout and play in the cities they call home. Today, our movement takes a giant leap forward as we cross the pond and launch our first city outside North America: London! Check out the London section of our app for local recs! - Joah, founder & CEO