Tripshaper.com

Tripshaper is a bilingual, map-first guide to Indonesia, helping travelers build better trips and connect directly with local providers—without booking commissions.

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Inspiration

While planning a trip to Indonesia, I realized how many different maps, blogs, forums, videos, and booking sites I needed just to build a good itinerary. Once I was there, I also saw how much small local providers can lose to major booking platforms charging 15–20% commissions.

What it does

Tripshaper lets travelers:

  • Explore more than 1,100 Indonesian destinations on an interactive map
  • Ask local providers practical questions
  • Build and share their own trips
  • Make direct, commission-free bookings

How I built it

I built Tripshaper with Codex and ChatGPT, first using GPT-5.5 and later GPT-5.6, on a Laravel and JavaScript foundation. The process involved a great deal of experimentation, testing, and iteration.

Challenges I ran into

As a non-technical product manager, I needed reliable ways to know whether the app was actually working as intended. I built a set of analytics and health dashboards to track user behavior, latency, errors, server performance, and friction throughout the experience.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I’m proud that I built a working bilingual travel platform by myself—something that would traditionally have required a product team and several developers working for months.

What I learned

Travelers have endless alternatives, so a useful product is not enough. You have to continually remove friction, earn trust, and give people a clear reason to return.

What's next for Tripshaper.com

Tripshaper is currently in beta. I’m using a small stream of visitors from Google Ads to study behavior and improve usability and engagement.

I’m also building a curated-trip generator that combines a logistics graph of Indonesian destinations with LLM calls. After answering a few simple questions, travelers will receive a personalized trip that is both appealing and geographically practical.

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