As seasoned travelers know, there is much to consider when preparing to go on a trip. But for those without that experience, or those who have more to think about in terms of their personal safety (such as women traveling solo), you might not know which boxes to check – or where to even begin with making a list. Cara Laban’s company, TravelReddi, was founded to help that group get its bearings, and to make the process easier for more experienced wanderers to navigate. It crafts free guides based on travelers’ destinations, and provides a plethora of details — from visa rules and airport transfers, to area-specific scams and other pitfalls to aovid. She bills the service as “all in one place, organized as a checklist, so nothing falls through the cracks.”

Editor’s Note: TravelReddi has been named to The Story Exchange’s 2026 list of 15 Brilliant Business Ideas. Here’s our lightly edited Q&A, with Laban.

How is your business different from others in your industry?

It’s personalized in that the guide adjusts based on your passport and destination, as well as your trip type and length. It covers the unglamorous stuff no one talks about. Not “top 10 restaurants,” but rather, the information that prevents real problems. It’s structured as a checklist that you work through, so you know that you’ve actually prepared. It’s pre-trip focused, too, as TravelReddi’s goal is to make sure you get on the plane and to your accommodation with no issues. And lastly, it’s built by a traveler, not a media company, which means that our content comes from real friction points — the kind you only learn by actually showing up underprepared.

Tell us about your biggest success so far. 

I was recently accepted into the Web Summit Alpha program for up-and-coming startups, which still feels a little surreal. TravelReddi is young, I’m a solo non-technical founder, and I applied before I felt ready. Getting in quickly was a reminder that sometimes the idea carries you further than you expect.

That said, my biggest success might simply be that I’m still here working on TravelReddi — still building, still iterating, still finding reasons to keep going. For someone who has started a lot of things, that’s not nothing.

What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?

Getting in front of the right people without a marketing budget. TravelReddi is free to use, which means the value is easy to communicate. But monetization depends on volume from affiliate conversions, white-label licensing interest and sponsored placements. These all require a lot of traffic and trust. Building that as a solo founder, with no paid acquisition budget, means every user has to come from somewhere organic.

My approach has been to start with the communities I already had access to. I reactivated a dormant Facebook group of nearly 500 travel-minded members and began rebuilding it as a genuine community rather than a broadcast channel. I’ve leaned into the product itself as the marketing. The guide is good enough that people email it to themselves and share it, which is the most honest signal I could ask for. On the B2B (business-to-business) side, I’ve taken a direct approach: my first white-label prospect is someone I already know and trust, which lets me learn what agencies actually need before trying to sell it to strangers.

None of it is fast. But I’ve learned that trying to scale marketing before the product earns word-of-mouth is not worth it. So I’ve focused on making something people actually find useful, and letting that do the early work.

Have you experienced any significant personal situations that have affected your business decisions?

I’ve been a digital nomad for nearly 10 years. That means I’ve also been a traveler who learned hard lessons the expensive way. Those experiences didn’t just inform the product. They are the product.

I’ve also dealt with anxiety and possible obsessive-compulsive disorder for most of my life. I’m a chronic over-preparer by nature, the person who sends the spreadsheet before every trip, who researches every detail not because it’s fun (even though it can be) but because not knowing feels unbearable. That instinct turned out to be a feature, not a bug. TravelReddi is essentially my anxiety, productized.

Before this, I spent years as a systems consultant helping small businesses onboard clients without anything falling through the cracks. I was good at it. But I kept waiting for the idea that would let me apply that thinking to something I actually cared about. I started and stopped more businesses than I can count. TravelReddi is the first idea I haven’t wanted to quit.

What is your biggest tip for other startup entrepreneurs? 

Stop telling yourself to “just start.” It’s the most repeated piece of startup advice and it’s nearly useless if you’re anxious, neurodivergent, or someone who has ever stared at a big idea and felt completely paralyzed by it.

What actually worked for me is… just have fun. I tinkered. I built a little thing because it was interesting, then another because that was interesting too. At some point I looked up and realized I hadn’t quit, which, for me, was the real milestone.

How do you find inspiration on your darkest days?

Sometimes I don’t, honestly. I let myself watch an entire season of something, nap in the middle of the day, eat whatever I want. I’ve stopped treating that as failure and started treating it as maintenance, because rest is productive. Trying to force inspiration when you’re running on empty doesn’t produce inspiration; it produces burnout. The days I’ve pushed through when I had nothing left have never been my best work. The days after a real rest usually are.

What is your go-to song to get motivated on tough days?

I don’t have a go-to song, I have a go-to playlist. It’s called “Totally Stress Free” on Spotify, and at this point it feels like it was curated specifically for my nervous system. Folksy, acoustic, feel-good. The kind of music that slows your brain down without putting it to sleep. When everything feels like too much, that playlist is the first thing I reach for.

Who is your most important role model? 

My great-grandparents, who I never met. In the 1940s, they built a mail-order company dedicated to hair and beauty products for Black women — a market that was almost entirely ignored by mainstream brands at the time. They identified a real, underserved need and built a direct-to-consumer business around it decades before that was a common model.

Instagram: @travelreddi
LinkedIn: @travelreddi

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