It’s been 3.5 years since I traded my suit for a backpack and started building an easier way for people to plan their hiking adventures in the Alps. 

This isn’t my first foray into business building. I’d set up a Christmas tree delivery business during a short career break in my mid-twenties and co-founded an online referral marketing product too. The Hiking Club is a very different business though. It combines my corporate skills with start-up frameworks, and, most importantly, a passion for the problem I’m trying to solve. You could say, I’m doing my life's work.

Instead of spending the 2021 European summer exploring new hiking routes in the Alps, I spent it on the other side of the world within 5km of my apartment. You can read more about that here. After a little wallowing in self-pity, I dusted myself off and went looking for a way to make the most of my situation. The University of New South Wales (UNSW) was seeking applicants for their Founder’s 10x business accelerator program. This was the alternative route I was looking for.

The program is designed for high-potential tech-enabled startups, with a focus on becoming investment-ready. A full calendar of content was delivered by industry experts, alongside dedicated mentorship and business review sessions. Each session challenged participants to re-evaluate their approach to different business topics and experiment with new opportunities. It was an experience unlike any other I had been a part of and one which has set The Hiking Club up for long-term success.

There are 5 main changes to The Hiking Club that have come out of this program which I want to share with our community.

1. New co-founder: I’ve welcomed Greta Stevens to The Hiking Club as my Co-Founder. Those of you who purchased a copy of our book Modern Adventurers would know that Greta led the design for this project. Our friendship has stood for nearly 20 years and her business skills are an excellent complement to mine.  Oh, and she shares a passion for hiking, with the Camino de Santiago being an especially memorable experience. The Hiking Club community will benefit greatly from her involvement. Susan Perry, continues to advise and support, and Bronte (my 18-month-old) will be running the show in no time :p

2. New trail onboarding model: We currently have 3 multi-day trails on the platform: Walker’s Haute Route, Tour of Mont Rosa, and Tour du Mont Blanc. I have walked every inch of these trails many times to capture content for our products and keep them up to date. While I absolutely love doing this, there are locals that know these trails better than I ever will and can provide us with the expert content we need to build incredible self-guided hiking products and keep them up to date. After sharing our partnership proposal with a small number of local guides in the Alps, we’re thrilled that 4 have partnered with us. Another announcement will be made about this in the coming weeks.

3. Personalised day hikes: During the European summer, we started piloting personalised day hike products. We believe there is an opportunity for our technology to solve problems that people face when choosing and planning a day hike. In our main pilot, we created 12 versions of 3 ‘standard’ hikes in the Chamonix Valley, changing the start/end locations and/or route to enable someone walking slowly for 2-4 hours up to someone walking very quickly for 6-8 hours to experience the key highlights of the trail. Based on the answers to 4 questions, the user is shown their version of the 3 hikes. Over 90% of people chose to download a personalised version of hikes rather than the standard version. Now that the hiking season has finished in the Alps, we are continuing with our personalised day hike pilot in Sydney, Australia, where the post lockdown hiking season has just begun!

4. Focus on community: To date, our engagement with the hiking community has been one-directional via our email newsletter and social channels. While broadcasting information can keep people informed, it doesn't allow the community to access the most valuable and exciting hiking resource...each other! This changes with the launch of our new Facebook group for The Hiking Club community. We want to offer hikers a place where they can connect, inspire, and grow with each other. If you love hiking, join us and share a story to celebrate the hiking trails of the world and the adventurous spirits that explore them.

5. Vision refresh: With the above changes, we decided to re-looked at the vision, mission and overall brand of The Hiking Club. It was a great opportunity to think deeply about our north star and how we can better communicate with our customers and community.  The work is best summed up by our new vision statement: To empower a global community of adventurers to walk the way they want in the wild. What do you think? We’re certainly inspired by it :)

As you can see, it’s been an exciting few months for us alongside continuing to support our hikers in the Alps. We’re confident these changes will provide an even better experience for our customers and the hiking community. Special thanks goes out to the UNSW Founder’s 10x team for welcoming us into the program and supporting our journey on this highly rewarding alternative route.

Brendan

Author: Brendan Jones, The Hiking Club
A pizza-making, craft beer-loving, peanut butter connoisseur that has been exploring the great outdoors since completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award in high school. He started The Hiking Club to democratise hiking and the benefits that come from spending time in nature. You can read more about Brendan and the team here.

Who are we?

The Hiking Club empowers anyone to walk the way they want in the wild with personalised self-guided hiking experiences that are easy to find, quick to plan and simple to navigate.

We believe hiking experiences have the power to transform lives. With a growing range of personalised hikes that take into account your preferences, fitness and interests, we give you everything you need to explore the legendary trails of the world!