$10K MRRin 2 years

2 milestones

Current revenue

$1M ARRas of December 2024Source

Wanderlog $1M ARR 2024 with 5-person team. Both Peter Xu and Harry Yu are co-founders.

Dos hermanos gemelos construyeron la aplicación de planificación de viajes número 1 después de trabajar en Stripe y Google

Founder

Peter Xu & Harry Yu

Co-Fundadores•Technical•USA

Commitment

Full-time

Experience

Experienced

Product

Wanderlog

Una hermosa aplicación de planificador de viajes para investigar, organizar y mapear tus vacaciones con características colaborativas.

Type

App Móvil

Industry

Viajes

Model

Freemium

Marketing Strategy

How Peter acquired customers

Growth Channel

SEO / Contenido

Also Used

Product HuntComunidades

Tech Stack

Tools used to build Wanderlog

React NativeNode.jsGoogle Maps APIFirebase

The Full Story

TL;DR

Peter y Harry Yu, hermanos gemelos de Yale, convirtieron a Wanderlog en la aplicación de planificación de viajes mejor clasificada después de empresas de viajes anteriores y trabajos en Stripe y Google.

Peter y Harry Yu son hermanos gemelos que estudiaron informática en Yale. Antes de Wanderlog, construyeron compañías de viajes exitosas y auto-financiadas, incluyendo BookWithMatrix y All the Flight Deals.

El contexto

Peter trabajó como ingeniero en Stripe y consultor en McKinsey. Harry trabajó como gerente de producto en Google. Su amor compartido por viajes y tecnología los llevó a construir herramientas para viajeros.

Construyendo Wanderlog

Wanderlog es la aplicación todo en uno para planificar tu próximo viaje, con énfasis en un excelente diseño. Puedes seguir tus planes en un documento colaborativo, descubrir lugares para visitar y hoteles para reservar, y compartir consejos de viajes con amigos.

Y Combinator y más allá

La empresa fue parte de la cohorte 2019 de Y Combinator. En 2021, recaudaron una ronda seed de $1.5M de General Catalyst y Abstract Ventures.

El desafío de COVID

A pesar de lanzar justo antes de que COVID devastara los viajes, continuaron construyendo. "Incluso durante COVID, hemos visto crecer nuestra base de usuarios," notaron los fundadores. Se enfocaron en el producto, sabiendo que los viajes regresarían.

Tracción actual

Wanderlog es ahora la aplicación mejor clasificada en Android Play Store para términos como "itinerario" y "planificador de viajes", y ocupa un lugar alto en Google para "planificador de viajes" e "itinerario". Facilitan miles de viajes por semana.

Y Combinator: 2019
Financiamiento seed: $1.5M (2021)
Clasificación en App Store: #1 para "planificador de viajes"
Empresas anteriores: 2 compañías de viajes auto-financiadas

Key Takeaways

La experiencia de dominio de empresas anteriores acelera el desarrollo de nuevos productos

Enfócate en excelente diseño para diferenciarte en mercados abarrotados

Sigue construyendo durante las crisis: estar listo cuando el mercado regresa vale la pena

El SEO para términos de planificación de viajes impulsa crecimiento orgánico sostenible

Originally published onWanderlog Blog

Founder proof brief

A one-page proof brief turns Peter's Wanderlog playbook into your next test.

See what it covers before you sign up: the pattern worth copying, the channel to test, and the risk to avoid when you adapt this story.

Pattern

$10K MRR

Channel

SEO / Contenido

Output

Action checklist

What a proof brief covers

A one-page brief that turns Peter's pattern into a testable plan
Channel bet: start from SEO / Contenido
A risk check before copying the Wanderlog playbook

See what a proof brief covers

See what it covers first. Create an account only if you choose to unlock.

Inspired by Peter's journey? Generate a business idea in the Viajes space using AI and real founder data.

Milestone Journey

Peter achieved 2 milestones on the path to $10K MRR

$1K MRR

1 year

February 2020

Avg: 11 months

+1 year to next milestone

$10K MRR

2 years

February 2021

Avg: 1 year

2 years

Total journey time

Milestones achieved

Peter's Path to $10K MRRPremium

The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone

How Peter actually did it

6/7 funnel stages sourced

Reconstructed from Peter's own published sources. Quoted claims are the founder's words, verified verbatim; anything marked as our analysis is exactly that.

Where the idea came from

Personal painPivot from A hotel price tracker they were building in late 2018 and dropped at the Y Combinator kickoff; the product then launched publicly as Travelchime before being renamed Wanderlog.

Peter and Harry planned their own trips in Google Docs and Sheets and found it painful, then confirmed the same habit in everyone else they spoke to. The Y Combinator application that got them in was a different idea, a US version of the Chinese travel blogging site Mafengwo, and the document-based product took shape only after they started collecting real travel documents from friends.

“We used to plan our trips using Google Docs and Sheets, but it was a pain.”

Launch HN: Travelchime (YC W19), posted by co-founder Peter Xu

Validation

Talking to usersValidated

Before writing any Wanderlog code they posted on Facebook asking friends to send the Google Docs, Sheets and emails they had used to plan real trips, offering bubble tea in exchange and delivering it in person so they could talk through how people actually plan.

The documents and the delivery conversations were what told them how people really plan travel.

“The itineraries we got and the conversations we had delivering boba told us a ton how people really plan travel.”

How we went from bootstrapping to doing Y Combinator, by Peter Xu

Talking to usersValidated

During the Y Combinator batch in early 2019 they biked around San Francisco handing out free milk tea to travelers in exchange for a conversation about how they plan trips. Harry says they spoke to over a hundred travelers, whose planning styles varied widely but who all used some kind of document.

Over a hundred travelers interviewed in person during the batch, with a single consistent finding.

“we biked across San Francisco, offering free milk tea to over a hundred travelers who talked to us about how they plan”

Announcing our seed funding from General Catalyst and Abstract Ventures, by Harry Yu

First test users

Personal networkFree testersFacebook post to their own friends (December 2018)Hacker News Launch HN, under the name Travelchime (March 2019)

The first people they pulled in were their own friends, asked over Facebook for their existing travel documents in exchange for bubble tea. The first public user intake was the Launch HN thread three months later.

“send out a Facebook post asking friends for their Google Docs, Sheets, and emails with travel plans and itineraries”

How we went from bootstrapping to doing Y Combinator, by Peter Xu

Acquisition channels, and whether they worked

Word of MouthScalingWorked

Growth came from travelers sharing plans with the friends they were travelling with, which is the core collaboration feature rather than a separate marketing motion.

“Having spent almost nothing on marketing since we launched, Wanderlog has grown organically through word of mouth”

Announcing our seed funding from General Catalyst and Abstract Ventures, by Harry Yu

The product was built as a real-time collaborative document from the start, so sharing a trip plan with the people on the trip was the normal way to use it rather than a referral prompt bolted on afterwards.

Per Announcing our seed funding from General Catalyst and Abstract Ventures, by Harry Yu

SEO / ContentScalingWorked

Search was a deliberate bet from before launch: they had already built a profitable travel business on SEO and expected to repeat it, despite knowing travel search is competitive.

“we know SEO is tough, Peter and I have built a profitable (albeit fairly niche) business in the field on top of SEO before”

Harry Yu answering the standard objections to travel planning startups

Peter's stated view, three years in, is that a better consumer product does not win on its own and a consumer startup has to attach itself to a channel with existing growth, which in their market meant search.

Per Peter Xu on search engines, SEO and consumer startup growth

Communities · Hacker News Launch HNLaunchToo early to tell

They launched on Hacker News rather than Product Hunt, choosing it deliberately because earlier Hacker News launches had worked for their previous products.

“We've gotten a ton of support from Hacker News in the past”

Launch HN: Travelchime (YC W19), posted by co-founder Peter Xu

Paid AdsLaunchAbandoned

They ruled paid acquisition out rather than testing it, on the basis of what they had seen running earlier travel sites, and say they never spent anything on it.

“we've actually never spent a single cent for paid marketing on our previous projects”

Harry Yu on growth and paid marketing (Launch HN thread)

What didn't work

Product scopePre-launchCost: time

They were building a hotel price tracker when they got into Y Combinator, and dropped it during the kickoff after a partner told them to pick one thing.

“We stopped working on our hotel price tracker, and started coding Wanderlog immediately.”

How we went from bootstrapping to doing Y Combinator, by Peter Xu

They did not believe in it themselves, and it had already been built by others; sunk effort was the only argument for finishing it.

“not to mention that it’s been done before”

How we went from bootstrapping to doing Y Combinator, by Peter Xu

What they did instead: Started coding Wanderlog immediately and collected real travel documents from friends instead.

PositioningPre-launch

Before Wanderlog they ran WrapAPI, a general purpose scraping tool, and concluded a horizontal developer tool was the wrong shape of business for them.

“we found that it was rather difficult to make a business out of an unspecialized scraping tool”

Peter Xu on why WrapAPI did not become their business

Developers could build their own version, which capped both the customer base and the price, and selling it properly needed enterprise sales skills they say they did not have.

“Developers can often roll their own solution too, which limits your customer base and how much you can charge.”

Peter Xu on why WrapAPI did not become their business

What they did instead: Moved to vertical, industry-specific products, which is how they ended up back in travel with Wanderlog.

FundraisingPre-launchCost: time

The Y Combinator acceptance was their third application; the first two were rejected, and they had decided to bootstrap instead.

“Harry and I had unsuccessfully applied to YC twice before.”

How we went from bootstrapping to doing Y Combinator, by Peter Xu

Product scopeLaunchCost: time

An earlier calendar view was built and then removed in favour of simple place lists, before the public launch.

“we actually used to have a calendar view in the product, but stripped it out”

Harry Yu on removing the calendar view

What they did instead: Place lists that users could name Day 1, Day 2 and so on if they wanted a schedule.

PositioningFirst customers

The product launched publicly as Travelchime in March 2019 and was operating as Wanderlog by October 2019. Neither founder has published a reason for the rename.

Per Peter Xu on why WrapAPI did not become their business

How it changed as they grew

At launch: 2 people (The two twin brothers, both writing code)

First 1k mrr: 5 people (4 engineers including both founders, plus 1 designer)

First 10k mrr: 6 people (4 engineers including both founders, a designer, and a growth marketer)

Today: 6 people (5 engineers and 1 designer across the US and Canada)

Bootstrapped · 2018-10

Accelerator · 2019-01

Seed · $1,500,000 · 2021-09

Pricing new tier: Free, with affiliate commissions as the planned revenue model at launch → A paid pro tier alongside the free product

No reason was given. Harry mentions the pro tier only in passing in the seed announcement, as something newly launched that the round would help them grow.

Our analysis, not the founder's claim

What broke as they grew

Distribution rather than product. Peter's repeated position is that a better consumer product does not win on its own, so the binding problem for a company like theirs is finding a channel on an existing platform with enough growth in it.

Per Peter Xu on search engines, SEO and consumer startup growth

Sources (12 in the founder's own words)

Launch HN: Travelchime (YC W19), posted by co-founder Peter Xu · founder-authored · 2019-03
Harry Yu on growth and paid marketing (Launch HN thread) · founder-authored · 2019-03
Harry Yu answering the standard objections to travel planning startups · founder-authored · 2019-03
Harry Yu on affiliate monetization and their earlier travel sites · founder-authored · 2019-03
Harry Yu on removing the calendar view · founder-authored · 2019-03
How we went from bootstrapping to doing Y Combinator, by Peter Xu · founder-authored · 2019-04
Announcing our seed funding from General Catalyst and Abstract Ventures, by Harry Yu · founder-authored · 2021-09
Peter Xu on why WrapAPI did not become their business · founder-authored · 2019-11
Peter Xu, Ask HN: Who is hiring right now (March 2020) · founder-authored · 2020-03
Peter Xu, Ask HN: Who is hiring (February 2021) · founder-authored · 2021-02
Peter Xu answering Travel planning software: the most common bad startup idea · founder-authored · 2021-09
Peter Xu on search engines, SEO and consumer startup growth · founder-authored · 2022-01
Wanderlog full-stack engineer job posting (company page, unsigned) · third party

Persistence

Projects attempted before finding success

failed projects before this one worked

Learned from a previous attempt

Launch Strategy

How they introduced the product to the world

Soft Launch

Initial go-to-market approach

Low risk — lets you iterate quietly

Validation

How they tested demand before building

MVP

Method used to confirm market interest

Most common approach — build and learn fast

Launch Pricing

Price point when the product first launched

Gratis

Initial pricing strategy

Common for building initial traction

Starting Audience

Whether they had followers before launch

Started from Zero

Built audience alongside the product

63% of founders in our database started from zero

Time Investment

Average weekly hours during building phase

60 hrs

per week on average

Full-time dedication

Initial Investment

Capital required to get started

$10,000

in startup costs

Significant upfront investment

Biggest Challenge

Crecer durante COVID cuando nadie viajaba

Unlock Peter's Full Journey

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Frequently asked questions

How much does Wanderlog make?

Wanderlog reports $1M ARR as of December 2024. Wanderlog $1M ARR 2024 with 5-person team. Both Peter Xu and Harry Yu are co-founders. Source: GetLatka.

What is Wanderlog?

Una hermosa aplicación de planificador de viajes para investigar, organizar y mapear tus vacaciones con características colaborativas. It operates in Viajes.

How long did it take Wanderlog to reach $10k mrr?

Peter Xu & Harry Yu took 2 years to reach $10k mrr with Wanderlog.

Was Peter Xu & Harry Yu a solo founder?

No. Peter Xu & Harry Yu built Wanderlog with co-founders.

What marketing channel did Wanderlog use to grow?

Wanderlog grew primarily through SEO / Contenido.

What industry is Wanderlog in?

Wanderlog operates in Viajes.

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The Full Story

TL;DR

El contexto

Construyendo Wanderlog

Y Combinator y más allá

La empresa fue parte de la cohorte 2019 de Y Combinator. En 2021, recaudaron una ronda seed de $1.5M de General Catalyst y Abstract Ventures.

El desafío de COVID

Tracción actual

Y Combinator: 2019
Financiamiento seed: $1.5M (2021)
Clasificación en App Store: #1 para "planificador de viajes"
Empresas anteriores: 2 compañías de viajes auto-financiadas

Key Takeaways

La experiencia de dominio de empresas anteriores acelera el desarrollo de nuevos productos

Enfócate en excelente diseño para diferenciarte en mercados abarrotados

Sigue construyendo durante las crisis: estar listo cuando el mercado regresa vale la pena

El SEO para términos de planificación de viajes impulsa crecimiento orgánico sostenible

Originally published onWanderlog Blog

Dos hermanos gemelos construyeron la aplicación de planificación de viajes número 1 después de trabajar en Stripe y Google

The Full Story

El contexto

Construyendo Wanderlog

Y Combinator y más allá

El desafío de COVID

Tracción actual

Key Takeaways

A one-page proof brief turns Peter's Wanderlog playbook into your next test.

What a proof brief covers

Milestone Journey

$1K MRR

$10K MRR

Unlock Peter's Full Journey

Frequently asked questions

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Enjoyed this story?

Join founders learning from real success stories

Browse Stories

Dos hermanos gemelos construyeron la aplicación de planificación de viajes número 1 después de trabajar en Stripe y Google

The Full Story

El contexto

Construyendo Wanderlog

Y Combinator y más allá

El desafío de COVID

Tracción actual

Key Takeaways

A one-page proof brief turns Peter's Wanderlog playbook into your next test.

What a proof brief covers

Milestone Journey

$1K MRR

$10K MRR

Unlock Peter's Full Journey

Frequently asked questions

More Stories You Might Like

How I turned a spreadsheet into a $2M+/year business as a solo founder

How I made $22K in 7 days with a ChatGPT UI tool

My 2-year journey to $10K MRR as a solo founder

Explore similar stories

Enjoyed this story?

Join founders learning from real success stories