The leading Adventure Travel site was born and raised in the wild West Loop. iExplore coordinates and packages some serious travel for the most interesting destinations. It connects 2 million visitors per month with thousands of local tour operators around the world, and has been voted #1 Adventure Travel Site by Forbes five years in a row and been rated a Top 50 site by Time Magazine.
George was an investment banking VP at CSFB before launching the company in 1999. He brought together a management team of executives from Galileo and Classified Ventures and raised capital from Tribune Ventures, Bear Ventures and Soros Private Equity Partners. National Geographic took a 30% stake in 2000.
Dimensions: 80 people x 7 years x $NDA
Funding: Tribune Ventures, Bear Ventures, Soros PE, National Geographic
Customers: Adventurous Consumers
Location: Chicago [West Loop] + www.iexplore.com