Why The FoundersCard Is A Travelers Best Friend
Traveling non-stop can be exhausting, seemingly endless and without the comforts and perks of home. For the vast majority of young entrepreneurs and travelers, an extra seat next to them on an plane and a free mini bottle of wine is the best case scenario on a flight. It's all about the little things when you travel, as the smallest of comforts or ease can make a world of difference and make or break your day.
We have heard a lot about an exclusive membership club called the "FoundersCard" for a couple years now, and were excited to catch up with the FoundersCard CEO, Eric Kuhn and ask him a little more about the amazing perks a FoundersCard can offer. From hotel honors programs to preferred rental care service, express fine dining seating and even deep discounts from AT&T and Apple, the benefits of a FoundersCard membership add up very quickly, paying off the annual fee in no time at all.
"The AT&T savings pays for the yearly membership, and that means everything else is just bonus." - Jim Anderson (Co-Founder @ About.com)
Latitude 34 [L34]: What experience as an entrepreneur made you realize the value of a service such as FoundersCard?
Eric Kuhn [EK]: The idea for FoundersCard came from my own experience as an entrepreneur having started an early internet company called VarsityBooks. We grew from two people to a 200+ person public company in two years only to have to re-build the business after the dot com crash. It was the roller coaster experiences that made me want to build a community that provides entrepreneurs with one-of-a kind experiences.
L34: Your membership is consistently growing across the world. Where do you see the highest numbers of your new international members joining from?
EK: We've seen a large recent increase in applications from Paris, Berlin, and Sydney.
L34: A FoundersCard membership can often pay for itself in the first couple months for some member. What perks do your members enjoy and utilize the most?
EK: Our hotel program is particularly useful and compelling. We individually select and negotiate rates for our members at over 150 hotels across the world. I also love the elite status travel benefits.
"Just booked a Mercedes SUV for a week and FC saved me $60 over my previous Amex Platinum card discount." - Dennis Mykytyn (Founder and CEO @ Modern Records)
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L34: While FoundersCard is perfect for those on the road, what are some great perks for more local based entrepreneurs?
EK: We have a growing list of partnerships with co-working spaces as well as many essential business services such as UPS and apple.
L34: How do you see FoundersCard five years down the road. With your growing membership, how will you maintain your exclusivity of your member community while extending membership to a new wave of young entrepreneurs?
EK: We've seen that quality membership growth helps accelerate quality partner growth so there is plenty of room to scale the existing business. We are constantly adding new features and events for our members.
L34: With the ever growing number of freelancers and non traditional 9-5 professionals flooding the workforce, entrepreneurship is becoming a more respected and popular career choice. How best does FoundersCard help to support this new wave of young thinkers working on progressive, life changing and groundbreaking technological advancements?
EK: Our networking events are invaluable not to mention a lot of fun to our dynamic members that include many freelancers and creative individuals. Many connections have been made at our events that have helped members grow their businesses.
Not only does the FoundersCard give you access to a taste of the high life, Eric and the team at FoundersCard works hard to offer exclusive networking events in cities all over the world, where FoundersCard members and entrepreneurs can mingle with some amazing people from around the world, fellow entrepreneurs and meet some of the brightest minds working on amazing business start ups around the globe.
While an annual price of $595 may seem a bit steep to some, adding up the available perks you soon realize the membership can pay for itself extremely quickly and most importantly make you feel a bit more special, comfortable and well taken care of along the road. As we said before, its the little things that make all the difference, and adding this little card to your wallet can make all the difference in the world.
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Jeff Johns is the co-founder and editor of Latitude 34 Travel Blog. Through 65 countries on 6 continents he has accumulated a seemingly endless stream of odd information, interesting stories and helpful tips and tricks to better travel. Jeff's goal is to visit all 204 countries on Earth before he is too senile to forget them all.
A graduate of the Visual Journalism program at the Brooks Institute, his true passions lay in honest visual storytelling, documentary filmmaking, Thai food and a good laugh.
Together with his girlfriend Marina, he runs Latitude 34 Travel Blog as a source of helpful information for those who love to travel or those who simply dream of it. If you have a comment or suggestion, send them an email at [email protected] and they'll respond super fast!
