Joah Spearman is co-founder and CEO of Localeur, a website/app focused on helping tourists find the best local hangouts when traveling to new cities. In his role at Localeur, Joah oversees business development, community management, marketing and investor relations. Before starting Localeur, Spearman previously co-founded an experiential marketing agency which worked closely with SXSW and ESPN X Games. Not only is Joah a serial entrepreneur, but he is also actively involved in several committees and boards within the Austin community such as AIDS Services of Austin and KLRU-TV (Austin’s PBS affiliate). He was recently named one of the Top 10 Black Innovators of 2014 by MVMT 50 and was named Emerging Business Leader of the Year by the Greater Austin Black Chamber in 2013. Joah is a panelist on the Digital Natives Disrupting Time-Honored Industries panel and will be discussing how new and innovative companies are disrupting and transforming industries.
Q: Tell us a little about yourself.
A: I’m the founder & CEO of Localeur. We’ve built a community of locals in 70+ cities around the world who share recommendations on the best local places to eat, drink and play to help travelers experience locally. I didn’t grow up taking family vacations and traveling so I started to fall in love with travel in college once I started to have a little disposable income. Over the years, I’ve come to regard travel as a sort of lifelong education. Localeur is really a company aimed at helping travelers have amazing experiences in new cities by connecting with the places and people who make cities unique.
A: Our panel will be focused on digital transformation and disruption of industries like travel and beauty. Over the years, we’ve seen seismic shifts in the way consumers discover and purchase everything from makeup to travel accommodations with companies like Pinterest, Instagram and Airbnb, to name a few. We’ll be touching on this disruption and the roles our companies play in transforming of the world’s most lucrative (and often stagnant) industries.
A: The panel was curated by the team at Next Coast Ventures, which is invested in a number of early-stage startups disrupting major industries. I serve on the board of KLRU-TV (Austin’s PBS station) with Next Coast founding partner Tom Ball, and they reached out to me to join this panel in part, I think, because of the unique approach Localeur has brought to the travel industry for the last five years.
A: There used to be a time with digital was something companies thought of a secondary channel to reach potential customers or users. Over the last 5-7 years, we’ve seen nearly every company and every industry view digital as the front door to their business from the website to the payment processes to the customer relationship management. Needless to say, digital is table stakes in this day and age to compete, to acquire customers and users, and to fulfill a mission be it in commerce or software or even in industries like real estate and beauty.
A: I honestly think we’re past the point of companies “going digital.” If a company is even hesitating to embrace technology and software and digital transformation, then they won’t even have a chance of existing, much less thriving, in a decade. The business graveyard is miles long with companies who failed to see the writing on the wall with regard to the role new technology would play in their industries.
A: I’m hopeful that this panel is a good opportunity for people already in the tech industry or people who maybe work for companies not fully leveraging technology to learn more about some of the innovative ways companies like Localeur and the others represented have tackled big problems or stagnant industries creatively. Innovation is everywhere, inspiration is everywhere, but a panel setting like this is a great chance for people to hear ground-level truths from founders about the approaches they took to solving problems.
Saturday, March 10
5 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Hilton Austin – Downtown Room 400-402/ 500 E 4th St
Find out more: Digital Natives Disrupting Time-Honored Industries