Matthieu Jost, creator of the misterb&b app.
An unpleasant experience in Barcelona with an owner who refused to admit homosexual guests was the trigger for Matthieu Jost to create misterb&b.
This app, which aims to help people in the LGBTQ+ community feel at home around the world, it allows them to travel more safely, always feel welcome and get local tips.
At the time, he and his business partner had recently launched mygaytrip.com, an online and print gay guide. “After that unpleasant situation, I realized that there was not only a need for a service like this, but also a desire for it".
"That convinced Marc Dedonder (co-financer of mygaytrip.com) and myself to join forces with Francois de Landes, creator of sejourning.com, a French short-term rental website," explains the CEO of misterb&b, who also is the new Dockers ambassador.
Jost has created an app for the LGBTQ+ community to travel safely.
It was this collaboration with Francois that made it easy for them to create the app. “We had the necessary marketing knowledge and connections within the gay industry, thanks to mygaytrip, and Francois' technical brand knowledge,” Jost tells us.
Is there a list of conflicting destinations? “I don't like to point the finger at particular cities or countries. The world is a complex and diversified place, so it is possible to find a friendly welcome everywhere . Actually, it was precisely the fact that my bad experience happened in Barcelona, one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly places in the world, that made me realize the need for a service like misterb&b”.
for matthew there is no black or white , but different shades of gray: “Our mission is to throw out some shades of rainbows,” he jokes. Among the favorite destinations of this French businessman is, in fact, Barcelona in the first place. “I love its coast, the beaches, the gay scene and the cool atmosphere. Also Berlin, for the party; and Montreal, for the kindness of its people”.
What kind of traveler are we facing? “I travel a lot for work and often stay with misterb&b hosts. I'm more of a hand luggage, that allows me to skip check-in, with which I easily save 30 minutes on each trip. My trick to pack light is the Marie Kondo method . It's amazing how much space is left in the suitcase if you fold things their way,” he confesses.
Matthieu Jost created the app after a bad experience.
The most complicated part of the process of creating this platform, he tells us, was getting consensus and investment for an LGBTQ+ startup. “ It wasn't easy at first. The financial industry in France is very conservative , we had to move the company to the US. There we had the opportunity to be 'incubated' by one of the top three accelerators in the world, 500 Startups. So it was in Silicon Valley where misterb&b raised the necessary funds to boost its growth ”.
When the time was right, they moved the company to France, and now they have a team of 60 people with offices in Paris, Los Angeles and Lima, with 310,000 LGBTQ+ hosts in 135 countries . They offer private or shared rooms and apartments, a total of more than 100,000 gay-friendly rooms and a community of a million travelers.
Dockers pride t-shirts.
“From the beginning, the feedback has been incredibly positive. Of course, people complain when they feel something isn't right, but our community of hosts and travelers is very involved with misterb&b. We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign on WeFunder. Till the date, We have raised a million dollars! Is incredible!".
"And our 1,500 investors don't just put money in, they send us encouraging messages: They want us to succeed, they tell us how important we are to the LGBTQ+ community, especially in places where it's not easy to be yourself . For example, we have the case of an 85-year-old man who travels the world thanks to us and tells us that traveling as a gay man has only gotten so much better thanks to our hosts.”
The benefits of these Dockers t-shirts are for NGOs for LGBTQ+ rights.
Their future plans include, of course, further growth and expansion in countries where their offer is currently limited. "We know we have the full support of our community thanks to the aforementioned first Equity Crowdfunding Campaign. In just 10 days we were already halfway to our $1 million investment goal."
"This allowed us add hotel rooms to our inventory as an alternative to private rooms , shared or apartments offered by our hosts. See how quickly people reacted to this initiative n made you feel prouder and more confident than ever to move forward and continue expanding misterb&b in the travel industry”.
Dockers is collaborating with Matthieu on his Smart Series pants line, and has also launched the Pride 2019 T-shirt (available in stores and on Dockers.com for €25). **Profits will be donated to Outright International**, an NGO with representation at the United Nations.
Outright International is one of the projects that supports the program Mister for Good by misterb&b , which allows users of the platform to make donations to various LGBTQ+ NGOs.