The idea
The internet never learned to organize trust.
None of them organize recommendations by the one thing that actually drives a decision: who it came from. Beenlist is building that missing layer — a network where recommendations are ranked by trust, starting with the category people ask their friends about most.
Why travel first
Travel is the first dataset, not the last.
Travel is where the trust problem is most expensive and most emotional — you only get the trip once, and the difference between a friend’s pick and a stranger’s review is the difference between a memory and a regret. It’s also where people already text each other constantly. Get the trust graph right here, and it extends to everything people ask their friends about: where to eat, who to see, what’s worth it.
Travel today, the rest when the graph is ready.
Why now
This couldn’t have been built well three years ago.
Beenlist is built on what actually works in 2026 — not a 2015 idea retried.
The founder note
Why we’re building this.
For years, whenever I was planning a trip, I’d text my friends with the same kinds of questions: Where’s the best beach in Turks and Caicos? Is Polanco the best neighborhood to stay in Mexico City? Can anyone recommend a great guide for kids at the Vatican? Where should I go for a romantic dinner in Istanbul?
The recommendations I wanted never came from a five-star average or a stranger online. They came from people whose taste I knew — the friend who always finds the best boutique hotel, the one who knows every great restaurant, or the person who had just been where I was going.
But I wanted those recommendations at my fingertips. I wanted an easy way to tap into the collective knowledge of the people I trust — without having to ask the same questions, dig through old texts, or piece together recommendations from a dozen different places.
So I created Beenlist.
Before founding Beenlist, I spent a decade as a corporate lawyer and startup executive, building and leading legal and business operations teams and helping companies navigate the complexities of starting and scaling. I’m bringing that same rigor, curiosity, and attention to detail to building a different kind of discovery platform.
I believe the people we trust already hold some of the best information on the internet. Beenlist gives that information a home — making discovery easy, personal, and intentional, so you can find the places your friends actually recommend instead of navigating an endless stream of algorithms, anonymous reviews, and noise.
For press.
A network that makes the recommendations you trust — from the people you know, searchable. Open to anyone, starting in Austin. Founder available for interviews.