Simon Lehmann bought Trips tokens
The Uber Guru of the Short Term Rentals Industry jumps in Web3
Simon Lehmann is one of the main, if not the main, thought leaders in our industry.
- CEO / Co-Founder of AJL Atelier, a Swiss consultancy firm with a stellar track record of helping the big players in the industry.
- Co-founder and chairman of Vacasa Europe.
- Former President of Phocuswright.
- Former member of the board of Homeaway.
- Former CEO of Interhome.
And many more important positions as you can see in his Linkedin profile.
Simon is also a constant presence in all international conferences, in fact I don’t remember being at one where he was not present in some panel.
And he bought some Trips.
Much Wow.
A bit of history first
A few years ago we had a Trips meeting in Tuscany where someone asked:
- “When will we know we went mainstream?”
To which someone replied:
- “When Simon Lehmann buys Trips tokens!”
That evening, after a lot of wine and grappa, we decided to summon the Vacation Rentals Gods & Demons, and we offered 1M Trips in sacrifice for the miracle of Simon buying our tokens.
As the candles were burning, and we prayed, one of us who should remain anonymous, was possessed by a spirit and started talking in foreign tongues, making us tremble in fear.
He snatched my laptop, opened Metamask, inserted the password which he could possibly not know, and sent 1M tokens to a burn address.
We heard the screams of the tokens as they vanished in a cloud of blue ethereal smoke.
Our friend came back to himself, sweating and still a bit lost, said:
- “2021. It’s going to happen in 2021, during a pandemic”
And so, it was done.
This of course not true, but it helps understand how pivotal this moment is.
Now that Simon has bought some Trips, the signal to the rest is pretty clear.
It shouts loud and clear “People, this stuff is real, check it out”.
And I don’t mean just Trips, I mean this whole Web3 thing.
And then the masses (didn’t) come
I have to admit that I was hoping a lot of people would follow immediately, but it didn’t happen (not yet, at least).
I overestimated Simon’s missionary powers and underestimated how forward-looking he is.
In other words Simon is ahead of the industry, he doesn’t represent where it stands today.
In retrospect, that was obvious but hey, let us dream a little.
I am convinced that this is the Elon-Musk-Buys-Bitcoins moment for Trips.
When Telsa bought 1.5B Bitcoin it sent a strong signal to the rest of the corporate world.
Bitcoiners had long known that there was going to be a transition from “Bitcoin is risky” to “Not having Bitcoin is risky”.
Tesla’s purchase represented that moment.
Apple and Google didn’t jump in the next day, neither, as it takes time for such a paradigm shift to be fully digested.
But it’s inevitable.
Not even in retrospect.
Simon’s purchase will do the same for the STR industry: ignoring Web3 is now officially risky.
The kind of Your-company-may-become-obsolete-before-you-know-it risky.
The kind of You-survived-covid-but-you-won’t-survive-web3 risky.
You are not alone
Simon is not the only one.
Richard Vaughton has been on board for a few years, Moriya Rockman invited me to Tel Aviv to present Trips at Guesty, Chris Maughan is dipping his toes and shows a lot of interest and Mark Simpson is more a crypto nerd than he cares to admit.
It has started, and it won’t stop.
The only question left is when it goes parabolic.
I’m writing these things without any Schadenfreude (mmm…OK, just a little).
I don’t find pleasure in what’s going to happen to many people and companies.
In fact, we spent a lot of time trying to raise awareness and I think there is still time.
But you need to move now.
We have produced a lot of content for anyone who wants to learn, and we are here for any questions.
But listen: you don’t really learn this stuff by reading or watching YouTube videos.
You didn’t learn the internet this way, did you?
You learn by doing.
Here’s where you can start, with our Guide: Get on the New Web.
Thank you for reading this.
We are here for you:
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