Called by Michael Arrington “one of my favorite new startups for 2010,” Gogobot connects you with friends to make planning and sharing your travels fun. Based in Silicon Valley, Gogobot launched its private beta in November, 2010. The site has been covered by TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, AllThingsD, Trendslate, the nationally syndicated Nate Berkus Show, WGN-TV Chicago and was mentioned in Trendwatching’s 11 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2011.
The site was founded by ex-MySpace exec Travis Katz and Ori Zaltzman, former chief architect for Yahoo! BOSS, and is backed by Battery Ventures, Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, MySpace Founder Chris DeWolfe, Square GM Keith Rabois, and angel Oren Ze’ev.
The site leverages social data to make [trip planning](http://www.gogobot.com/) easier. Whether you are searching for [Las Vegas hotel reviews](http://www.gogobot.com/las_vegas–hotels), [things to do in Maui](http://www.gogobot.com/maui-hawaii–things_to_do), [places to stay in San Francisco](http://www.gogobot.com/san_francisco–hotels) or the [things to do in New York](http://www.gogobot.com/new_york_city-new_york_state–things_to_do), Gogobot makes planning your next trip easy and fun.
Travis Katz is the Co-founder and CEO of Gogobot, a stealth stage travel startup, backed by Battery Ventures.
Travis an entrepreneur and executive with a proven record of success in the web 2.0 space. He formerly built and ran international operations for MySpace, IGN and other Fox Interactive Media Properties. Travis led the expansion of MySpace into Europe, Asia, and Latin America beginning in February, 2006, growing the user base from 10MM to 66MM in that time. Travis structured MySpace joint ventures with Softbank in Japan, IDG and CBC Capital in China and venture investors in Russia, and sat on the boards of those ventures. Prior to joining MySpace Travis did M&A for News Corp and helped create Fox Interactive Media and acquire key properties, including MySpace, IGN and Scout.com. Travis worked as a consultant in the high-tech practice of McKinsey & Co’s in San Francisco. Travis also spent 4 years doing economic development at the World Bank.
Ori Zaltzman the founder and CTO of Gogobot, a social travel recommendation service.
Ori is a serial entrepreneur and technologist. Ori was the chief architect of Yahoo! BOSS, and one of the lead technologists for Yahoo! Answers, in charge of content quality for one of the largest social platforms on the web.
Ori co-founded 2 companies, utvee and Tailor Made Television. Tailor Made Television provided the first interactive TV services to the 3 major cable companies in Israel, offering micropayments, gaming, chat and analytics. utvee is a startup focused on crowdsourced, contextual shopping services for major television shows.
Chris DeWolfe is the co-founder and former chief executive officer of [MySpace.com](http://www.crunchbase.com/company/myspace), the leading online lifestyle portal. He currently serves as the CEO of [SGN](/company/Social Gaming Network), a social gaming platform, which he joined in March 2010. DeWolfe continues his entrepreneurial mission at SGN. As CEO, DeWolfe led the acquisitions and rollup of MindJolt, SGN and HallPass Media, creating a leading independent multiplatform game developer and publisher.
He [stepped down as CEO](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/22/confirmed-myspace-ceo-chris-dewolfe-steps-down/) in April 2009. DeWolfe, alongside co-founder and president, [Tom Anderson](http://www.crunchbase.com/person/tom-anderson), created a new platform for a generation to communicate and discover culture based around the self expression and connectivity of the sites more than 115 million active users.
Satish Dharmaraj is a Partner at [Redpoint Ventures](http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/redpoint-ventures). He is the former CEO and founder of [Zimbra](http://www.crunchbase.com/company/zimbra), which was [sold](http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/17/breaking-yahoo-acquires-zimbra-for-350-million/) to [Yahoo!](http://www.crunchbase.com/company/yahoo) for $350M in September 2007.
Prior to founding Zimbra, Satish was VP of the Messaging Product Division at Openwave Systems, responsible for the email, unified messaging, voicemail, and instant messaging product lines. Satish managed the engineering and product management teams which had over 200 people and a $45 million budget. While at Openwave, Satish’s division deployed 180 million mailboxes worldwide with the largest deployments being 20 million mailboxes at JPhone and KDDI in Japan.
Roger focuses on the software, consumer Internet and digital media markets. His investments include Angies List (IPO), FreeWheel, Gainsight, Groupon (IPO), Kontagent, Lotame, Narrative Science, PrimeRevenue, TrialPay, Weddington Way, and World Golf Tour. Hes also involved with BlueKai and Gogobot. Roger was on the boards of Insitu (acquired by Boeing), SafetyWeb (acquired by Experian), and Send the Trend (acquired by QVC). He was a board observer at Groupon prior to its IPO and at Neoteris prior to its acquisition by NetScreen.
Before joining Battery, Roger spent 10 years as an entrepreneur and operator. Most recently, he was a co-founder of Corio, a leading managed service provider that was acquired by IBM. At Corio, Roger oversaw all business development activities and later became a General Manager of the e-commerce business unit.
Prior to Corio, Roger was the Manager of Internet Products at Edify Corporation.
Satya joined Battery in 2007 and focuses on the Software, Consumer Internet and Digital Media markets. He is on the boards of BlueKai, BrightEdge, ChoiceVendor, FreeWheel, Jelli, LiveIntent, and Lotame and is a board observer for Angie’s List and Bazaarvoice. Satya’s prior experience spans more than a decade in online media and software, both in operating and investing roles. Before joining Battery, Satya spent several years at Google, most recently as Senior Product Manager for AdSense. Beginning in 2003, he helped to build the AdSense business through various partner development and product management activities. Before Google, Satya was a Senior Product Manager at DoubleClick, leading the company’s efforts in the search marketing business. Satya also worked on various product and operational initiatives for the DART ad serving platform, including with both publishers and advertisers/agencies.