I often have the habit of checking out projects from Techcrunch especially when they are raising so much in a particular round of investment. On July 27 2017, I got a notification with Cool Cousinhaven raised $2M in a round led by Elevator Fund.

“Our lead into Cool Cousin’s Seed round is the largest first check we have written in our portfolio to date. We were extremely impressed by the Cool Cousin team and believe, as they do, in the difference between tourists and travelers. If Cool Cousin can make travelers feel at home across the globe, they will redefine the category completely.”

Well, I was excited by this outlook but I didn't go much further into reading about what they were about or more about their app. I only knew they were in the tourism industry and promising and I was good to go.

In 2017, I and three other great guys formed a team with a great idea to revolutionized the African eCommerce space into a fully functional decentralized sector. In our quest to raise funds for this project we came across a venture team led by Judy Robinett.

They were coming to invest in African Startups but unfortunately Ghana was not their destination. The pitching event was to take place in Johannesburg -South Africa but Judy was so interested in our idea that we had to be there.

With little capital, we had to delegate one person to represent us. I was responsible for checking out online to find out which hotel was closest to the event and the pricing and things like that. It took me about two hours to get the information but there were very scanty reviews.

Because we were low on budget, we had to make sure our delegate traveled in a strict route knowing everything before he boarded the plane. We took the telephone number of the selected hotel online so that in case he got there he could call them for services.

Unfortunately upon all time spent researching, our delegate got stranded upon hitting the grounds. He followed the map to the expected place but such a hotel was not there and he was now confused. After a while, his phone was off and all that while we had no idea what he was going through in Johannesburg.

He was getting frustrated but was scared to ask people as he could get robbed. Then finally he mastered courage to stop one lady, he pleaded to use her phone explaining that his phone was dead.
He tried to call the hotel again but he made an error in typing the number and it led to a certain woman. Fortunately the woman lived close-by and hearing him, she decided to meet up and offer help.

She helped our delegate out, locating the hotel and everything, apparently, the map from the website was misleading.
The next day he had a successful pitching and was off for Ghana again. It was when he got to the shores of Ghana that he shared with us the ordeal he had to go through in the great city of Johannesburg.

This has happened to thousands of people on first visits and I am sure you may have your own story of such. Even in this era of technology it still happens but now it is about to change.

Imagine if there was an app that we could use to connect with the locals of any place we want to visit. All the problems of misleading maps and things like that could have been avoided.

	This is what Cool Cousin is all about.

You may be a tourist, a student, a worker or anyone for that matter, when it comes to travelling to new places you are faced with tonnes of worries. Where to stay how to move, what to eat, places to visit etc. Information from the internet may be of help but not compared with the help of a local.

Just think about it, how much information can you get from tourist websites compared with information from someone that knows the nook and cranny of the town or city you are visiting.

Meet Cool Cousin, this is your cousin living in Rome. Two weeks ago your institution decided that you would be visiting the city for an educational tour. You were put in charge of the organisation and places to visit. Well, you have been to Rome once but it was on a business meeting and you left right afterwards. You don't know much about the educational centers in Rome but come on, are you going to turn this down? Hell no!

Quickly you contact your cousin because you know he is interested in educational stuff therefore he will know more than enough to help you in the planning. Your cousin is so cool that he even knows what you would be eating and where to get it, he knows the hotels and budgets to meet and he knows where you can rent tour vehicles.

After speaking with him you have the entire journey planned out without so much bias of having to search for every information online. A hotel may have great services and great pricing but just because they don't run ads for their hotel your search may never find them but your cool cousin knows them all.

"You don't have any cousins in Rome?"

Well, this is what this startup is here to provide. With Cool Cousin, you don't need to have a cousin in order to use the services of one. All you have to do is to log on to www.coolcousin.com or open the app in your smartphone and search for a local who has similar interest as you. These locals are known as cousins on the Cool cousin platform and they will answer all your questions regarding your travel.

Why is Cool Cousin so exciting?

Someone ask me " Is it because it is cool?" (haha). Well, everyone one loves something cool but this innovation is not only cool but also highly economical. It gives you a great experience with zero frustrations everywhere you go.

source

Before you had to travel for a tour, you had to do tonnes of research online for information on timing, where to stay, tickets for special occasions, current events, customized itineraries and more but today, Cool Cousin came to redefine the tourism space. All you need to do is fine a cousin!

The company was started in 2016 and soon covered not less than 500, 000 users worldwide. Its growth rate is phenomenal, growing at a double digit rate and has grown not less than 250% in the last six months per the information on their main official website. With the global tourist rising from 0.52 to 1.25 Billion people from 1995 to 2016 source, the future of this industry can only be exciting.

You find yourself in a particular location in the middle of a big city, you don't want to be asking around like a lost puppy, open your app, point to where you are and get help by clicking “Book Table” for restaurants, “Request Pickup” to get a ride from Uber, “Directions” and more. If you still have a question you can use the app to message your “cousin”. Everyone goes home happy!

The good thing is that Cool Cousin is built around a community of locals (cousins) around the globe who are passionate about city and sharing it with others. These cousins have a profile showing maps of all their interest and a traveler (user) can access this information with the app. On top of that, they get to ask questions not to Ai driven chat-bots but real humans.

Cool Cousin community member definitions

1. Cousins: This is the heart of the platform. They are the locals who knows the in and out of their various cities. These cousins will provide information about their interest in a form of maps and other useful resources on their profiles.
   Travelers get to use these information and cousins earn CUZ tokens by providing answers to questions as well us having very useful information on their profiles.

2. Users: These entails the travelers who make use of the information curated by the cousins. There have the option to pay for more information which they can do using Cuz tokens.

3. Contributors: These are the people that will be contributing to maintaining smooth operations and meeting of user needs. This group of users report bugs, upload pictures of places, curate reviews and feedback as well us inviting more users through word of mouth or by any other means. They will also be compensated with Cuz tokens for their contributions.

4. Businesses: There is also a room for businesses to operate as cousins but any promotional content is distinguished for users to know the organic sources.

source

Cool Cousin was established in 2016, why are they now having their ICO?

Unlike many ICOs, Cool Cousin is not a prototype or an idea. In fact, they have a fully functioning platform already. If you take a search on google or visit their blog HERE, you will see the stories of its growth and amazing impact already.

However, the team now wants to bring it to blockchain because of issues of security, easy and fast compensations as well as avoiding manipulations by highly centralized organisations. Cool Cousin intends to scale globally with a decentralized solution.

With a hard cap of 17,500 eth, Cool Cousin have had more than 90% progress with their ICO already and you can catch the final ICO on May 18 to be part of the next revolution the trillion dollar industry.
For more information on the ICO and timelines, please check their official website HERE

You can also check out this video for more information

Useful links:

• Cool Cousin Website
• Cool Cousin WhitePaper
• Cool Cousin Telegram
• Cool Cousin Reddit
• Cool Cousin BitcoinTalk
• Cool Cousin Twitter
• Cool Cousin Facebook
• Cool Cousin Linkedin
• Cool Cousin Medium
• Cool Cousin Instagram

This is my entry into the writers contest with @originalworks sponsored by Cool Cousin.

cc2018