The world is your playground.

Posts from the ‘Vayable Perspective’ category

On Authenticity

By on August 15, 2025

Whenever people ask us why they should take Vayable tours, we always talk about the idea of authenticity. Wikipedia defines authenticity as “the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions.”

In the modern world “authenticity” can mean almost anything. It can mean identifying with “alternative” lifestyles and tastes; it can mean being effortlessly cool; it can mean being all natural without artificial flavors or packaging. Sometimes things trying hard to be “authentic” actually actually end up becoming laughably inauthentic. Things that mean anything actually end up meaning nothing.

To us, authenticity equates to a sense honesty - the things that people do in their daily lives, that they enjoy, when no one else is looking. Oftentimes, these are the things that are most telling, most beautiful. Take this royal cremation ceremony in Bali that our dear friend Michael was fortunate enough to participate in. From the chaotic ceremony itself to the onlookers quietly watching from the sides, you can see into the soul of the people and the culture.

We love seeing the eyes of professional tour guides light up when we explain the concept of Vayable. “You mean instead of the sights that everyone has in their list, I can show people what I like to do?” someone once said to me during a guide vouching interview. As travelers, we oftentimes don’t know what we want, and some of the best Vayable tours feature guides who do not compromise on what they show travelers because they know their city best.

When we go to a faraway place, we want to eat la comida típica, but much of the time restaurants that serve this type of food have huge placards on storefronts beckoning to tourists with their “authentic” fare. Every single time without fail, the low-key neighborhood haunt that’s been a local destination for generations will be much, much better. Explore the tapas scene in Barcelona with a local chef instead of going to some place with a flashy sign on La Rambla.

The tourism industry as a whole is really bad at figuring out what people want; take the prevalence of double-decker bus tours as evidence. So we challenge you to put your afternoon or day into the hands of someone else and trust them to show you their world. At most, you’ll have the time of your life. At the very least, you’ll gain a better understanding of the world around you.

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Vayable provides a safe way to connect with local experts worldwide

By on May 5, 2025

Here’s a guest post we wrote for DIWYY, a girl’s guide to travel.

In making the most out of our time abroad, it’s often important to reflect on the reasons why we travel. We travel to take in different cultures, to immerse ourselves in a world entirely foreign to us, and to reclaim that childhood wonder of discovering something we never knew existed. Sometimes the most transformative and memorable experiences come with a certain amount of risk - getting out of your comfort zone and taking a leap of faith in a person or place.

“When I was twenty years old, I went to Morocco. One afternoon I walked into a carpet shop with my bulky guidebook in tow, telling the shopkeeper that I wanted to visit the Sahara Desert but couldn’t afford to go. Before I’d finished my cup of mint tea, I was in the back seat of the shopkeeper’s Honda Accord, tearing through the windy roads of the Atlas mountains for fifteen hours until we reached the desert where his cousin, Ali, was the chief of a caravan tribe.

After five nights traveling on camel back, subsisting on bread our guide baked in the sand, and sleeping under the stars tucked in wool blankets, I returned to the caravan camp, just as the sun went down to mark the first night of Passover. Atop a sand dune, my new friends and I drew the Seder plate in the sand and together sang ‘Let my people go.’ Gazing up at the brilliant stars, Ali says to me, ‘The only real difference between us is that my tribe reads one more book than yours.’

The modest amount of money I spent had given Ali and his cousin enough to live on for a month. And my newly gained understanding of the world, and of myself, instigated a decade of exploration that has aimed to positively impact the world, not least of which, was founding Vayable.” - Jamie, founder and CEO of Vayable

It was purely serendipitous that Jamie met this shopkeeper who knew a caravan tribe leader, and it was fortunate that she was able to safely put her well-being in a stranger’s hands. We started Vayable to provide a safer way to take these leaps of faith. Vayable connects travelers with local experts around the world whom we have personally met and vetted.

When looking for things to do, off-the-beaten path experiences are often hard to find. Some of the most memorable and sought after experiences on Vayable take you to places you wouldn’t necessarily be comfortable going to by yourself. A favela in Rio de Janeiro, the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, Queens at midnight. Walking along the streets of San Francisco on the homeless tour with Milton, a homeless man himself, and listening to personal anecdotes about the neighborhood makes you gain a deeper understanding of issues both unique to San Francisco and prevalent amongst the rest of the world.

As travelers, we want to have access to amazing things while also preserving the integrity of local culture and staying safe. We want to get out of our day-to-day, respect the culture that exists, and experience it for ourselves. We live for those moments of connecting with someone from around the globe and stepping into their world. That is why we travel, and that is why Vayable exists.

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San Francisco at the Forefront of the Sharing Economy

By on April 5, 2025

There have already been some great recaps of this Tuesday’s sharing economy panel by Taskrabbit and Shareable, but here’s yet another one. We’re stoked to be part of the working group that will help shape public policy around this new economy that will enable greener lifestyles, bring people closer together, and make living in the city more affordable.

“As goes San Francisco, as goes the rest of the country, as goes the rest of the world.” - David Chiu

Sharable’s Neal Gorenflo kicked it off with a touching overview of the entire movement. The sharing economy was partly driven by the economic crisis and is a new way to live more fully. “Access better supports the pursuit of happiness than ownership.” In a world where people are starting to trust one another over large institutions, we are transitioning from a top-down factory model of society to a bottom up peer-to-peer model.

The panelists, Jessica Scorpio of Getaround, Molly Turner of Airbnb, Leah Busque or TaskRabbit, Jamie Wong of Vayable, and Jay Nath of the City of San Francisco all had great, unique insights to add to the discussion. Consumption through peer-to-peer models has the ability to touch everyone across the socioeconomic spectrum, from a homeless man living in the Tenderloin to stay-at-home moms looking to earn income while maintaining flexible hours to that new graduate who is barely making rent while juggling student loans.

There are also positive externalities: cleaner air and less congestion due to fewer cars, less construction and idle spaces due to hospitality exchange, and preserved local culture due to a more authentic way to explore. A common thread was that it’s important for cities to make regulations explicit and specific around new use cases that this movement creates.

“We are in many ways a cutting edge city in terms of tech, food, transportation, all sorts of things we’re really ahead of the curve. We attract a lot of forward-thinking people who want to do things in a different and more innovative way. We’re also a really old-school city, change here is very challenging. We get a lot of reflexive push back when we’re trying to do things differently. So much of this is really about educating the city as a whole.” - Scott Wiener, San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

As this the sharing economy grows, San Francisco will lead the world in implementing public policy around it. After all, as Turner said near the end of the night, “cities exist because it’s more efficient to collaborate and share resources.”

If you have thoughts that you’d like us to relay to the working group, we’d love to do so. Please contact us at community@vayable.com.

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Happy New Year and a Look Down Memory Lane

By on January 2, 2026

We hope everyone had a great holiday season and New Year!

As we look upon the new year, we’re filling our calendars and to-do lists with goals big and small that we’ve set for ourselves. Whether it’s being more healthy or learning something new, don’t forget to also appreciate the things in life that make you happy. Studies show that being happy broadens thought processes and facilitates creative thinking. The joys and inspirations we find every day in surrounding ourselves with beautiful interfaces, spending more time with loved ones, and treating ourselves to fun experiences can make all the difference.

This year has been a big one for us at Vayable. We launched to the world in April and made a lot of friends along the way. We noshed on food carts in New York City, created a meal with fresh, local ingredients in San Francisco, learned about sustainable agriculture in Costa Rica, and explored the other side of our own hometown. Our inspiring guides have been able to make their own dents in the universe, from creating community murals enjoyed by everyone to getting a step closer to quitting their day jobs, thanks to your booking their experiences.

2011 was a year of new beginnings, and we have big plans for 2012. Thank you for following us and supporting us in our vision for a better world. Stay tuned for great things to come!

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Traveling and How “Tourism” Became a Dirty Word

By on December 16, 2025

When we think of tourism, we think of people in Bermuda shorts carrying point-and-shoot cameras going to foreign countries just to seek out the same things that they do at home. They eat their hamburgers, ride around on a double decker bus, go to the tacky souvenir shops, and pay way too much for a taxi ride or clichéd trinket. There are plenty of funny comparisons on the internet between “travelers” and “tourists,” and no one wants to call themselves a tourist when they travel.

A tourist, via definition, is somewhat similar to a traveler. But the connotation of a traveler implies a deeper intent than a tourist. The tourist might get the basics down, see some sights, take a few pictures, and go home, experiencing only the surface of a country. A traveler goes deeper. A traveler explores the culture, the people, the traditions, the food, the lifestyles and inner workings of a country. A traveler gets more involved. This is not to suggest that being a traveler is better than being a tourist, as there are some amazing sights to be seen, and I’m sure that many tourists appreciate where they are. But being a traveler demonstrates an understanding of this world that we all live in together. - Debby Jagerman

All semantics aside, we feel that the main difference is one in mindset. Instead of forcing their culture upon others, which is how many “tourist traps” come to be, travelers integrate themselves in local experiences and are open to new things. We hope to keep culture alive by using technology to make it a little easier to become a traveler and get to the heart of a place. With a focus on building community and the sharing economy making the world a smaller place, hopefully in a few years the distinction won’t be so apparent, and the notion of “tourism” won’t be so dirty.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller
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Giving Memorable Gifts that Benefit the Community

By on December 15, 2025

We’ve been doing a lot of thinking about holiday gifts and realized two things:

    1. Most of us don’t even really remember what we got last year.
    2. Going to the mall, fighting through crowds to buy gifts benefits big box retailers but not necessarily our local communities.

It’s been a tough year for everyone. We don’t want to waste money on things that won’t last and are easily forgotten. Instead, we want to give memorable gifts that also do a little something to support the people in our local communities. Even if we don’t remember the things we were given last year, we do remember and smile fondly upon all the small and great adventures (or misadventures) we’ve been on with the people we love.

Going to new places and seeing new things make us happy both in the moment and years later. If we had never ventured up to hidden vantage points we wouldn’t truly appreciate the amazing beauty of San Francisco, Istanbul, and even Lisbon. If we hadn’t been out way too late in the Keys on a moonless night, we wouldn’t have seen the phosphorescence glowing in the dark water. These things might have happened years ago, but we remember them clearly and are better off for them than we are for any present we’ve ever unwrapped (sorry, Mom).

Even if, like us, you won’t be giving tropical paradises or far off getaways anytime soon, adventures at home are just as exciting and meaningful to loved ones - especially if you can be there to experience it with them. Every community, whether it’s in a big city or a small suburb, has a story and spirit all its own. When you take time to explore it, you’re really taking time to discover both the stories that you’re part of and the going-ons that are not part of your everyday routine. Better yet, you have the chance to support your local economy by visiting the small, off the map places that give life to your community and the people in it.

So instead of giving things that are wrapped in paper and then collect dust in closets, we’ve decided that we’ll be giving our loved ones the opportunity to gain new perspectives by exploring the world around them, to support the people and culture in their neighborhoods, and to create memories that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. This year, we’re giving the gift of experience and adventure.

Love,

The Vayable Team

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On Following your Heart and Passions

By on December 8, 2025

It’s been a few months since Steve Jobs passed, but his words still resonate deeply with us and inform what we do every day at Vayable. So many people opt out of doing what they’re passionate about in favor of a career that provides more stability and follows a set path. There are so many things like food, art, and humanities that are difficult to monetize in mainstream society.

The sharing economy is the quiet revolution against established systems and ways of doing things. In working on Vayable, we hope to turn passion into the source of stability in life. The other day, one of our guides told us that he’s getting closer and closer to quitting his night job and focusing on his love for food and bridging cultures.

People will no longer be afraid to live their passions, and we will be able to be our true selves. There are too many mediocre things in life. Love should not be one of them. “Work is love made visible.” - Kahlil

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Good Going: Loving Local Communities

By on November 24, 2025

It’s no secret that an active Vayable marketplace keeps local culture alive and helps people make a living doing what they love to do. In comparison to buying things at big box retailers this holiday season, re-directing money to purchasing experiences actually stretches your dollar (or currency of choice) more within the local communities you choose to spend it in.

On Friday, we will launch an exciting new feature that will make it easy for you to appreciate the loved ones in your life and do some good for the local community at the same time! Stay tuned, and in the meantime, have a lovely Thanksgiving!

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Spotlight on Russell, Vayable’s SF Street Art Guide!

By on October 7, 2025

 

We met up with our guide, Russell, for lunch and he took us to CELLspace, an organization that provides affordable work space for artists. He showed us the mural he’s working on and talked about some of the other artists that got their start at the space! He uses the money that he earns from giving street art tours on Vayable to maintain and create the community murals at the space. It’s his life’s work!

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Insider Blog: “From Surplus to Sharing”

By on August 23, 2025

Jamie, our CEO, wrote a blog post on the Collaborative Consumption blog!

I started playing soccer when I was eight years old. Today I continue to enjoy the thrill of the great “passing game”. A squad works together to move the ball from one end of the field to the next, one player pops it in the goal, and the victory is everyone’s to share.

The journey of a start-up is similar, particularly when you make sharing your business.

Two years ago when I moved from New York to San Francisco, I was surprised to discover that a pay-it-forward ethos dominates the start-up scene. This is a different concept than pure networking or favor exchanges that prevail in New York. In the Bay Area, everyone from the powerless entrepreneur to the Almighty VC expects to share their specific knowledge and resources with those who lack them, despite the highly competitive climate. This is what powers Bay Area start-ups.

But for collaborative companies such as ours, sharing is more than a custom, it’s our lifeblood.

At Vayable, we joke that we are “powered by Airbnb.” You see, in a sense our first round of funding came from Airbnb, not in the form of loan, but in an enterprise that has been mutually beneficial in moving both our companies forward.

In the first few months of starting Vayable, each member of our team was either renting or hosting on Airbnb, and using the extra cash to pay for basic expenses as we bootstrapped the company. Two of us even moved in with friends and rented out our own apartments full time to vacationers.

TaskRabbit also played a big part. Busy at work building our community and product, we would send TaskRabbits out to clean our apartments, greet guests, and one time, even show a guest how to use the television remote.

For an entrepreneur the commercial benefits of collaboration are clear and quantifiable, while the more subtle benefits of connection, idea sharing and building community are harder to measure but invaluable.

Sometimes on weekends and late nights our community manager, June, and I will work from the Airbnb headquarters, where we share much more than desk space and wifi with their team. Two am conversations turn into community initiatives and product ideas. This model of collaborative conception among our teams is a powerful demonstration of a whole being larger than the sum of its parts.

And when we travel, we take our habit of sharing with us.

In New York, the Vayable team works out of LooseCubes, a start-up that connects people looking to co-work with co-working spaces. LooseCubes not only taps into a market of space-sharing, but also one of knowledge sharing - a benefit we experienced first hand, collaborating with the LooseCubers on marketing and business strategies.

I also enjoy regular collaboration with the founder of Skillshare, another New York marketplace focused on classes and learning. We’re learning from one another and our products and communities are better for it. Michael offers a tour on my site and I offer a class on his.

As the economy forces us away from surplus and toward sharing, entrepreneurs are building businesses around the redistribution of these goods and services. We’re seeing more overlap among collaborative consumers: people who need a place to stay also want something to do, as well as help getting things done. This means that as one of us grows, we all grow. Conversion from Airbnb to Vayable is higher among existing users, as they’re already acclimated to the sharing model and many of them are emphatic about it.

And it’s no coincidence that those who have shared the most knowledge, resources and time with me as a first-time entrepreneur have been the founders of Airbnb,Kickstarter, TaskRabbit. They are not only mentors, but also trusted friends. And as the Airbnb and Vayable communities join together in New York next week, and TaskRabbit and Vayable team up this fall, it’s becoming more clear that the “passing game” at the heart of community-based marketplaces is not only a viable business model, but also a viable way of launching and growing a dream.

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