What is Zicasso and "handcrafted travel"?

Do you have a complex trip to plan and just wish some true experts can help you do it? Zicasso is a free award-winning travel service that connects discerning travelers with top travel specialists. These travel experts compete for your business by providing handcrafted itineraries that are personalized to your needs. To ensure quality, we've spent thousands of hours to pre-qualify and select each tour operator and travel agent expert.

You save time and get the best value. You travel with confidence, knowing that you have the help and support of top experts who are there for you, from the research phase to the end of your trip.

A personalized service. Just a few simple steps:

1. Traveler fills out a simple form to describe the trip he or she wants. Zicasso then matches and notifies relevant pre-screened quality travel companies in our network.
2. Up to three travel companies will respond to traveler to begin a personalized trip planning process, typically within two business days. Travel companies provide expert advice, working with traveler to develop the perfect itinerary that includes where to visit, hotels, flights, airport transfers, various forms of transportation, tour guides, etc.
3. Traveler books the itinerary that best meets his or her needs, paying travel company directly.
4. Traveler enjoys the trip, then shares Travel Reviews with our community. To learn more, see our How It Works page.

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Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley in sunny California, Zicasso was founded by Yuchun Ku and Brian Tan, both Internet entrepreneurs and passionate travelers. Our team consists of top talent from great Silicon Valley companies like Google, Yahoo!, Cisco, and tech start-ups.

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About the Founders:

Brian Tan, Founder and CEO. Brian’s unending curiosity to learn and understand our world has taken him to over 40 countries…from climbing the Great Wall to diving the Great Barrier Reef, from meditating at an Indian ashram to fine dining in Paris. When traveling in developing countries, Brian often finds that the most enjoyable part is in supporting, visiting, and volunteering at non-profits that improve the lives of local communities. Brian brings extensive business leadership to Zicasso, with experience ranging from building a half-billion dollar Internet networking business, managing effective marketing campaigns with Google marketing gurus, and providing management consulting to travel companies from boutique firms to large USTOA tour operators. Brian received his MBA and MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT as well as BS in Electrical Engineering from Brown University.

Yuchun Ku, Founder and VP of Business Development. It’s rare to find anyone more passionate and enthusiastic about travel than Yuchun—hence we conferred her the title of Chief Travel Officer. For Yuchun, travel is about deeply understanding the local people and culture. And if that culture has good food, her interest can easily double. Her travels to 45 countries has taken her to all corners of the planet, from the Andes to Zanzibar, from the familiar countries of Europe to unfamiliar ones like Ethiopia and Uzbekistan. She has also volunteered in countries like Bangladesh and Ivory Coast. Yuchun’s management experience includes holding senior strategy and finance roles at Fortune 100 companies as well as advising leading travel companies on sales and marketing. She holds an MBA from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley, and MS in Engineering from National Taiwan University.

What We Are Not

We are not an online travel agency or a tour operator. We are a marketplace which connects buyers (travelers) with sellers (travel agencies and tour operators)—somewhat like eBay being a marketplace which brings buyers and sellers together. Since we do not sell anything ourselves, we are not partial to which travel companies you buy from. We do the homework to match you with up to three relevant quality travel companies and provide a platform which facilitates easy communication and transaction with the travel companies. When you decide which travel company to purchase from, you pay them directly.

What We Care About

We believe in building a company which is not only about making money, but also about making meaning. We believe in using our business to inspire and implement solutions for social and environmental improvements. We do this in two ways:

A Built-In Social Mission. Throughout our travels in developing countries—from Sri Lanka to Malaysia, Tunisia, Peru, Vietnam, etc.—we found that many countries are losing jobs to China since foreign investments are shifting to China. This shift seems to cut across diverse industries from light industrial manufacturing and garment making, to technology. When we talked to educated, thoughtful leaders in those countries and asked "What is the future for your country? How will you compete against China?" Often the answer is "tourism."

With its unique business model to connect travelers with travel companies, Zicasso is built with a social mission in mind for these developing countries. Our marketplace solution empowers all travel companies, no matter where they are located and what their size, to reach a global audience and grow their businesses. For developing countries, this results in tourism development and creation of high-quality jobs, leading to better economic conditions. And, we have an opportunity to advocate and encourage the development of sustainable tourism (see below) in these countries.

“1-1-1” Corporate Philanthropy Model. Pioneered by Salesforce.com, this means that 1% of founding equity, 1% of profits, and 1% of employees’ time, are set aside and dedicated to support non-profit causes. We have selected three travel-related causes to support:

• Sustainable tourism education and development (tourism which minimizes impact on the environment as well as respects and benefits local cultures and communities)
• Volunteer travel
• Nature and wildlife conservation

We hope you share our mission for social and environmental improvements. By using Zicasso, you contribute towards this mission and we thank you for your support.

Our Community and Values

Zicasso’s community is one in which travelers seek the best in quality, authenticity, and value, and travel companies strive to deliver the same. The best travel companies, whether large or small, receive the recognition they deserve and get more business. Travelers and travel companies come to Zicasso to help each other experience the best in travel—both from the client’s and vendor’s perspectives. Towards that end, our community is guided by the following values:

• We believe in open and honest communications—no hidden agenda
• We believe everyone will “do the right thing” to act with integrity and fairness
• We respect each other’s time and effort
• We treat others the way we want to be treated
• We are here to help each other experience the best in travel

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In the spirit of these values, Zicasso also pledges that:

• We operate with the highest integrity
• We do not spam
• We do not sell our users’ names and contact information to any third parties
• We take your privacy protection seriously

How We Make Money

We charge a fee to the sellers (travel companies). The buyers (travelers) do not pay to use our service. This is the same way in which eBay and Amazon.com Marketplace make money. Because we have created an online platform where many sellers are easily accessible to buyers, prices are typically highly competitive, i.e. buyers can expect to get the best value.