Meet Anna Kayfitz | Founder of the Visited App

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna Kayfitz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
The idea of the business began with a personal need to keep track of all the countries I have visited. This lead to the creation of Visited App. When the downloads started increasing, the realization that this could be a business began.

What should our readers know about your business?
Visited is an app which allows users to map their journey now and build future wish list We are different as we have travel stats that are personalized to you. We built out an inspiration section which allows you to swipe via travel pictures and add new locations to your wishlist. This feature was very important for us, there are many beautiful places that do not get the recognition they deserve and people simply do not know about them. This way new destinations can be discovered.

The latest feature of the app is checking off famous places of specific lists such as cruise ports, beer destinations, ancient sites, churches, and many more.

Nothing worth doing is easy. We have no investors and sometimes we had to sacrifice personal financial needs to ensure business was running. Other challenges included identifying what features to focus on, our users were great at sharing their wishlist but a small team lacks the time to build out all those features. We are slowly getting them out of the door. The biggest lesson for us was that you cannot please everyone, this is very difficult especially for an app that is designed to inspire international travel. For example, some users want to check off islands in Spain as countries, but there are not sovereign. So the question was do we change what we currently consider a country to please a few users or do we stick to the definition of a sovereign country. We are working on an approach which would allow both selections, however, this will take time and in the meantime we just have to be ok with the app as is. The lesson learned is that sometimes you just have to stick to your big picture plan.

The world ideally would try out visited for themselves and get inspired to see the world and all the beauty on it! It is a feel good app that celebrates all travel journeys small and large and lets you dream and get inspired to travel more.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Toronto has a lot to offer, however, my favorite part of the city is getting away and visiting the many hiking trails around. I would first take them to Mimico in Etobicoke about 20 minute drive from the city. Here you can see the best views of downtown it is situated right on the waterfront with nice bike lanes. I would also take 2-3 days to go to Niagara Falls, of course a world wonder, which also comes with vineyards and nice family run restaurants, there are lots of hiking/bike trails along the lake as well as butterfly and gardens. In the city, I would definitely check out the Art Gallery of Ontario if you are into Art, I would catch some nice movie at the TIFF building for some international films. And of course not visit to Toronto is complete without the CN Tower. Also ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) is a very nice museum which you can spend a day in. As for drink/food there are too many option ad you can eat food from any corner of the globe all on one street!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There has been a lot of support from too many people to name. However, the biggest credit goes to our users, who are actively involved in helping the app be successful. Each day they email us feature requests, addition to places or cities that we missed and that is helping the app become what it is today and even better tomorrow.

Website: www.visitedapp.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visitedtravelapp/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/visitedtravel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisitedTravelApp

Other: Download the app for free at iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/visited-map-where-ive-been/id846983349 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arrivinginhighheels.visited&hl=en_US&gl=US