In the two years since it was founded, Wanderu has grown and taken on new opportunities at every turn. In 2013 they participated in the SXSX Interactive accelerator along with 47 other startups. And earlier this year, Wanderu became one of the finalists in the Extreme Tech Challenge, leading to the opportunity to personally pitch to Sir Richard Branson. Like many entrepreneurs, founder and CEO Polina Raygorodskaya came up with the idea for Wanderu out of her own frustrations. While a college student running a boutique fashion, beauty, and travel PR company, she was often bouncing back and forth between Boston and NYC. Bus travel was the easiest way to go, but there weren’t any comprehensive bus booking sites that met her needs. This problem became even more apparent in the summer of 2011. This led her and Bratnikov to create a ground travel search engine to make it easy for people to find the best bus and train deals. Through their partner carriers, users can book travel to over 90% of the US and many destinations in Canada as well. Wanderu is available both online and as an app for iOS & Android. Still not convinced that bus or train travel is for you? Well, Richard Branson, owner of one of the largest airlines in the country, thinks they’re the bees knees of startups.
Image Credit: Flickr/Fellowship of the Rich
