Stephenie Rodriguez
CEO | Founder of WanderSafe.com
Para-Fencer | Author | TEDxSpeaker
2017 DIGITAL DISRUPTOR OF THE YEAR - MOODIE DAVITT REPORT
2017 DIGITAL DISRUPTOR OF THE YEAR - MOODIE DAVITT REPORT
Japanese for 'well done' or better than, JOZU for WOMEN is a platform that empowers women to travel better & safer. The company is presently in BETA and early stage, having raised $1M in angel investment and survived the Pandemic with a product that is truly ultilitarian - WanderSafe.com
The solution is one that provides legacy safety information to female travellers and those verified can enhance the application with first person experiential data to contribute to the knowledge base around locations that are safe or not safe.
I began my career in content in 2001, when I published my first issue of Ocean Drive Australia, a franchised magazine of OCEAN DRIVE from Miami which at the time belonged to SoBe News Inc. It was later sold to Greenspun Media. In a similiar vein to Ocean Drive, and as part of the celebration of travel and lifestyle from our members, JOZU launched its first and second editions of our online digital publication at JAUNTE.
Deciding it was a better and easier solution for our readers to follow the JOZU brand, we changed the name of the publication from JAUNTE to JOZU Magazine. The publication features interesting articles generated by and about our travel community members.
Travel stakeholders, such as Tourism Boards, hotel chains, Airlines and dutyfree companies are the greatest beneficiaries of the big data that is generated from listening to travelers. With the robust travel community of JOZU for WOMEN and the power of the Microsoft Azure suite, we are able to create robust social insight dashboards and analytics as a service as an enterprise offering.
MY CV - A GLIMPSE OF PREVIOUS WORK
JOZU for WOMEN INC operating as WanderSafe.com
After traveling to more than 65 countries and most of the time as a solo business traveler, the need for intelligence around safe areas to walk and enjoy became paramount and extremely scarce. After becoming a part of the 25% of the population living with disabilities, I learned there is an even greater need for tools and solutions that empower women and the vulnerable to make better choices as it relates to way-finding, especially after dark. This was the inspiration for WanderSafe. Its been an interesting journey of connecting to the right team of creative, clever and intelligent co-Founders who shared my passion and we proudly birthed this idea in private BETA in March 2017. Since that time, we acquired more than 1 million HENRY (High Earners Not Rich Yet) females who are also women who wander.
JOZU has raised more than $450K in angel funding and continues to raise money to build out our audience.
The platform serves both consumers and enterprise customers. WanderSafe Assist became an obvious ancillary revenue opportunity for us, and we created a B2B solution for organizations who manage remote and off-site workers to view our data through robust dashboards with an Analytics as a Service revenue strategy.
Mighty Media Group is a consulting firm founded in Sydney, Australia in 2004. It's first customers included Pirelli Tyres Australia, and The Cabinet for content development and digital publishing. It evolved into a digital agency at the forefront of social media in 2009.
MMG has consulted to a plethora of blue chip multi-billion dollar multi-national companies including SSP - The Food Travel Experts, Club Med, Allied Mills, AIATSIS (The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Sydney Airport, JR/DutyFree, Oakwood Asia Pacific Hotels, Cebu Pacific Air, Accolade Wines Global Travel Retail, Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds, F.I.N.E Bijoux Jewellers, and many more.
MMG delivers digital marketing campaigns and strategies that have won international awards. In 2016, Accolade Wines GTR Division won the prestigious Frontier Award Technology Innovator of the Year Award in Cannes for MMG's #HardysHero Campaign. The #HardysHero campaign was an omni-channel activation that leveraged mobile advertising, a mobile game, ibeacons, and digital display advertising in partnership with Sydney Airport.
OCEAN DRIVE AUSTRALIA
OCEAN DRIVE (AUSTRALIA) was Australia's first national glossy lifestyle magazine. It was a category champion and was launched in December 2001, touting the biggest magazine launch in the history of Australian publishing. The magazine was distributed nationally through newsstands at the highest price point for a domestic magazine, and included a distribution to five star hotels, airline lounges, luxury spas, and luxury car dealers. I raised $450K in angel funding for this venture.
The franchised publication was returned back to its holding group - SoBe News Inc. at the end of its initial licensing period for environmental reasons.
(I vowed never to kill a tree and print traditionally again.)