Tripping Sheds Most Staff After 'Ugly' Conflict Between Founders and Board
Skift Take
Vacation rental metasearch isn't necessarily ahead of its time, although it certainly isn't easy given the complexity of the inventory and the required backend technology. Still, any company needs to execute to make a go of it, and that appears to have been a quality in short supply at Tripping.
Vacation rental comparison-shopping site, Tripping.com, which has raised some $52 million in venture capital funding, is teetering after laying off most of its staff last Friday amidst an ongoing and protracted conflict with its board, Skift has learned.
A sale is in the works for perhaps pennies on the dollar, according to two sources close to the company. There is no guarantee that a transaction would actually go through.
Some 15 employees at nine-year-old Tripping were laid off last week, the majority of the company. Remaining on the payroll at the San Francisco-based company is a skeletal team, including founders Jeff Manheimer and Jen O'Neal, CEO and chairman, respectively, as well as the chief financial officer, the chief technology officer, the chief strategy officer, and perhaps a handful of others.
[UPDATE: After publishing this story earlier this evening, former Tripping board member Dave Maney, who left the board in August, said the startup ran into trouble when it couldn't raise a new funding round. The goal was an "up round," or a higher valuation than the $200 million valuation at the previous round in December 2016. He pinned much of the company's troubles on board member Matt Krna, managing partner of lead investor Princeville Global, who allegedly pushed Tripping to burn a massive amount of cash on marketing to buy traffic
