We recently had a chance to speak with Bucquistador. The Charleston, SC company provides a platform to help you manage, track, and even fund your bucket list. We also had a chance to speak with founder Tori Schallot at last years One Spark.
TechFaster: When did you launch?
Bucquistador: Our national launch was November 19, 2013
What does your company do, and how do you do it?
Bucquistador: Bucquistador is a social networking and crowdfunding website centered on user bucket lists. users create a listing of their life goals, the system matches their goals to those of their friends, and then allows them to schedule events and even collect group payments or crowdfund particular bucket list items. Privacy setting enable users to publish public goals, make certain items available to friends only, or mark items private for personal viewing only. Bucquistador is the next and best evolution of the bucket list.
Why do you do it?:
Bucquistador: Bucquistador aids users in breaking down the barriers that previously deterred them from accomplishing their goals. By documenting and networking around goals users can define their dreams and find the best ways to complete them. Event management tools enable users to invite other to participants in events, which gives them additional support and in some instances can reduce the individual’s cost for an activity. The varying payment methods allow users to crowdfund bucket list items that were previously out of their reach financially, and the group payments allow them to collect funds for things like ticket purchases or group vacations.
What was the “ah ha” moment?
Bucquistador: I was always doing crazy things. To me they were just fun things I did in everyday life, but when i would post pictures of the activities on Facebook all my friends would scream at me for not inviting them to activities that were on their bucket list. It occurred to me that we needed a platform that would allow us to compare our listings of life goals and create events around them. While there are other bucket list websites, most of them were blog based that limited user networking. The other options were to spam email all of my friends whenever I was going to do something, or post it on Facebook and compete with the political ranting and cat photos. So, I created my own bucket list social network.
The group payments and crowdfunding was added onto the website after a group vacation to Key West. Eight of us were supposed to rent a house for the week for $450 per person. One couple paid for the house up front, but then it was a fiasco for them to try to get their money back from the other six people sharing the house. Some people tried to cancel at the last minute, others didn’t want to pay the $450 but offered to buy beer for the host for a week, etc.. As a result we added group payments and crowdfunding applications to the website that allow you to request funds and then receive alerts when someone makes a contribution.
Tell us a little bit about the founder:
Bucquistador: Tori Schallot was previously a Financial Compliance Manager that made sure companies made money legally. She was always generating ideas for new companies until one day her husband told her to either startup or shut-up. As a result, Bucquistador was born.
Here is our interview with Tori Schallot from last years One Spark:
We would like to thank Tori and the Bucquistador team for answering our questions. You can find out more at Bucquistador.com.
