Local startup, Trevolta, first came to our attention just over three weeks ago – and in that time it’s seen massive interest from all over the world, with more than 413 000 people signing up to (hopefully) get funding for their crowd-funded dream vacations.

While Trevolta’s popularity only started spiking three weeks ago, the website actually went live at the end of September. Since then, it has rolled out in phases, to avoid overloading the servers. Even then, the running joke at the SeedEngine offices – the shared workspace the Trevolta founders use – is that they didn’t quite expect the “million or so emails” that ensued.

Now, after the initial round of sign-ups and limited availability, the Kickstarter for travel has highlighted two travel projects for crowd-funding and sponsorship, of the 1 300 or so projects that have been created. For those who thought that Trevolta would be an easy way to get a free trip across the world, think again. Speaking to co-founders Mark Karimov (CEO) and Donovan Solms (CTO), they acknowledge that the process of selecting projects is a manual task.

“The thing is, with this amount of users… letting them all onto a website to create trips, it’ll become a huge mess,” says Karimov of the manual approval process – similar to the one Kickstarter uses for determining whether projects are genuine or fly-by-night.

“We can see what’s happening and assess the quality of projects. We’ll learn a lot as we go along – with feedback [coming in] from people and sponsors.”

Karimov says that there are some interesting submissions in the Trevolta back-end, from people who’ve planned things properly and have the proper motivation and preparedness for their dream trips.

Doing it right

Two of those submissions went live today. The first is a project for a team of people who plan to drive a retired ambulance from New York City to Patagonia. And it’s not just about an awesome, 23 500km adventure across the Americas: the ambulance will be donated to a community in need, at the end of the journey. Of course, the team’s preparedness involves extensive use of technology to keep people in the loop with their progress. Then again, with twelve people on the project – including an online content manager, writer, filmmaker, and anthropologist – they’re erring on the side of overachieving, rather than being prepared.

Still, a noble cause and a promise of a great story to be told is what’s earned them 80% backing (of their $10 000 goal) in a short amount of time.

The other project that’s been given the green light to get community funding is something far more attainable and romantic. A young Canadian couple sought (and obtained) $1000 to travel across three countries, with just their backpacks. Proving that they’re not just run-of-the-mill types, their project page has some fantastic photography. Alexandre Côté is a landscape and portrait photographer, so at least imagery from the entire journey will be well worth it to those who contribute(d) small amounts to their dream trip.

While those projects are great examples of what the Trevolta founders hope their service will be used for, it’s not to say that it’ll be the norm. One day, regular folks could still sign up and create their own, private travel projects. These would be projects that people can share with their friends or family. A married couple, for instance, can set up a Trevolta trip as a wedding registry, and solicit donations to help make their honeymoon a reality.

Same, but different.

Conventional funding for trips will use a model similar to that employed by Indiegogo. People who set up projects for their travels can opt to either have fixed funding or open-ended funding. The former will require a funding goal to be hit before the trip starts – presumably in cases where travellers don’t have other means of realising their goal. On the other hand, open-ended funding results in all pledged funds being given to travellers, whether or not the goal has been hit.

But in some ways, Trevolta is also different to the existing crowd-funding platforms.

“We’re trying to reverse the model,” says Karimov, explaining that project creators don’t have to suggest rewards for receiving funding. On Kickstarter and Indiegogo project creators have tiers and rewards. Donate $10 to a project, and you’ll get a t-shirt; donate $50 and you’ll be first to receive a prototype product.

Trevolta will allow funders to suggest ideas for rewards. If there’s an interesting trip you feel like backing, you can tie conditions to your funding. For example, offer $50 for the person who wants to travel to France, on the condition that they take a selfie in front of the Eiffel tower. Aware that this system could be open to abuse (the internet is full of people with strange tastes) the Trevolta founders have made this an opt-in system: you can receive custom requests, but can also choose to turn them down (and thus receive no money).

There are also two types of funding on Trevolta. Regular monetary funding from people, which most trips will be eligible for, and corporate sponsorship. The latter doesn’t necessarily have to involve money exchanging hands, either. A popular hotel chain can offer to cover accommodation, and a car rental firm can provide transport. Eventually, this will also extend to private backers. You might not have any money to help fund a foreign visitor’s trip – but an empty couch might be just as appreciated.

Social travel media

Even though it’s a South African startup, international brands have already joined Trevolta – the Patagonian ambulance adventure has received most of its funding from sponsors. and Mark Karimov says that they’re in talks with local brands who are also interested in participating.

Obviously, not all corporate sponsors get warm fuzzy feelings when helping somebody with a trip, so one of the coverage mechanisms Trevolta provides is a Trevolta Blog on the project page. This will be a single outlet for all updates to the project, before, during, and after the trip. Those who run projects and get sponsored will be required to adhere to conditions of that sponsorship, whether it’s through Trevolta Blogs or other social avenues, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and personal blogs.

So, who knows. You might have to write about your awesome hotel room and tweet about an awesome rental car, all while you trek across Europe taking wacky photos in front of famous landmarks and monuments. Or you could slum it on a free couch and sparingly use the few thousand rands that were generously donated by strangers on the internet.

And as long as your project is either extraordinary, inspiring, life changing, or for the good of mankind, you stand a great chance of success.