At Travel Associates, we value unique experiences. We want you to come face to face with a different culture and unlock the secrets of your destination. One person who shares our sentiment is Avis, co-founder of mmMule; a website that unites travellers in a quirky way. Here, she shares with us the inspiration behind her creative, new website and the opportunities it presents to travellers around the world... My name is Avis. I am an Irish girl who used to run a surf lodge in Mozambique. That was, until I decided to follow my passion and co-founded mmMule. We've all had moments where we've pondered about what it would be like to turn our back on our everyday jobs to pursue our secret entrepreneurial idea. For me, that moment escalated a couple of years ago, when I met Andrew. His like-mindedness changed the course of my life and together we set out to change the lives of other travellers too. Andrew is an Aussie creative director and before I met him in Mozambique, he’d spent the last ten years working between working in New York City & travelling the world. We hit it off immediately & decided to travel to and explore Ethiopia together later that year. Whilst on a three day trek in Lalibela, we got to talking about all the things we were passionate about in life and what it was in our opinion, which made travel special for us.
Both Andrew and I agreed that the highlights of previous trips were always the unexpected, interactions we had with the locals in the area. We both love meeting new people and are fascinated by other cultures and ways of life. It's those unique and authentic experiences that stay with you forever. People I meet always laugh at my stories and ask how I manage to have such amazing stories from my travels. I soon discovered it was the local connections that usually led me to my wacky adventures. Andrew felt the same, so we decided that together, we would somehow try to enable ordinary people to travel like us; meet locals and have awesome, authentic travel experiences. So, whilst half way up an Ethiopian mountain with a dancing priest, a couple of donkeys and an ill-fated goat named Henry we decided we would ditch our real world jobs and follow our passion for travel, by creating a website that facilitated such experiences.
We went to Coachella in California and during our shenanigans there, met our developer. After some good times together in New York, Dublin & now Sydney, the idea of our website, mmMule, finally began to take shape. It operates on a few different levels, but is best described as... a new type of social travel network that allows you to get anything you want from anywhere in the world, by rewarding a traveller for delivering it to you. Sound cool? We think so too. It lends itself to endless possibilities. Maybe you're a local looking for your preferred brand of jeans from the USA or craving your favourite wine from Paris. Perhaps you've run out of that 'hard to get' make-up, or wish you could get your hands on something from duty free? Enter mmMule. Perhaps you're a traveller who wants to meet locals, find a place to stay or get the inside scoop on where to go and what to do in a certain region? mmMule can help you to line up these kind of interactions. With this new concept, you never have to be a tourist again; you can build connections in every city you visit. You can meet like-minded people, get anything your heart desires & experience the world from a local’s perspective. It has been a year of hectic coding and endless Skype calls. Admittedly, there were moment where we contemplated throwing in the towel; it was quite the struggle trying to bring this project together, across different continents, but here at mmMule we were very excited to finally go live a few weeks ago and the response so far has been phenomenal. We've had great feedback from people all over the world, looking for items to be delivered. We have had requests from Europe, Canada, the US, Middle East, South America & Australia. Our most common requests are for specialist food like, wines, coffees and whiskey. My absolute favourite request so far was from a surf instructor in France, Joe. He missed some treats from back home so, in return for someone delivering him some crisps & chocolate to France, he offered them a complimentary surf lesson. So next time you're on the move, hop on to mmMule & see if there's something you can deliver to someone, to help them out and add to your own travel experience. Go on, you mmMight just surprise yourself.
Avis Mulhall is the co-founder of mmMule.com You can follow her on twitter @avismulhall | @mmMule_com Find out more about mmMule at: www.mmmule.com | https://www.facebook.com/mmMuledotcom
