T.J. Sassani needed no black magic, no crystal ball to see where his future was leading him five years ago.
All he needed was a man dressed in a suit and tie, clutching a Wall Street Journal and hefting a laptop the same as his, seated just across the aisle on a Boston-bound airplane.
Sassani, now 35, was working for a nanotechnology research group at the time and, as he says, the stranger who appeared 30 years his senior was living a life he'd be bound for when he himself neared retirement.
It was a fine future, but it wasn't for him.
"I thought, 'I can continue on this track and it's good, and continue to do what other people want me to do,' " Sassani said of carefully seeking safe opportunities. "Time was passing me by."
So he took a risk and acted on impulse, quitting his job, giving away most of his possessions and setting off for Europe to travel the world.
Finding inspiration in his own adventure, Sassani launched a startup Internet company that has since morphed into zozi.com, catering to travelers and residents alike who seek unique experiences.
The firm has a foothold in 25 cities and two countries, and is seeking to grow.
It's since been named by Entrepreneur Magazine among the "100 Most Brilliant Companies," and first in the travel category, and among the "50 Best Places to Work" by Outside Magazine.
"My family was supportive, but they also thought I was a little bit crazy. Frankly, it was crazy. I didn't do it for the money. Certainly, if you're looking to make money, on a risk adjusted basis, I probably picked the worst thing to do. It just so happened to work out."
Local for travelers
Zozi's offerings include lessons in parkour and free running in Washington, D.C.; yoga dates or fly fishing lessons in Denver; clinics on surf board design or snow climbing in San Francisco.
There are also lengthy getaways to some of the most exotic locales on Earth.
Where the giant online travel agents allow customers to book flights, hotels and rental cars, Zozi looks to provide creative and energetic outlets for life experiences.
"If you look at what's left, sort of the last frontier in travel space, it's really this activity and experience market, and it hasn't been solved," Sassani said of the online travel marketplace.
He doesn't knock the traditional touristy attractions many travelers seek out. Instead, his company caters to the curious, linking them with local merchants who offer options that are lesser known but at least equally attractive - lessons in cowboy horsemanship, a hot air balloon trip, overnight backpacking excursions.
The experiences are local to the traveler's city of destination and desirable to the more adventurous traveler seeking to learn the ins and outs of a new city without the polish and put-ons of more popular offerings.
What may set Zozi apart most is its celebrity tie-ins where world-class athletes and well-known personalities serve as tour guides, so to speak. Running the Big Sur coastline with legendary marathoner Dean Karnazes; skiing Squaw Valley with Olympian Jonny Moseley; biking in Sonoma Wine Country with Ironman champion Chris Lieto; taking a sunset safari with National Geographic's Mireya Mayor.
Sassani hopes to continue to grow Zozi through expansion of local activities and increased offerings in travel products and Zozi gear and apparel.
The market for U.S. activities alone is $30 billion, he said. That's twice the size of the car rental market and three times larger that the combined markets for cruises and packaged travel products.
"I want zozi to become the number one trusted brand in adventure and experience," he said.
Sassani was raised in Mount Carmel, a son of Patricia Straining and the late Carlo Sassani.
Risk rewarded
He graduated Mount Carmel Area High School in 1994 and studied business management and business marketing at Bloomsburg University, graduating in 1998. After beginning his career in the northeast, he moved west in 2001 to San Diego before settling in San Francisco in 2005.
The idea for an online travel business was stoked during a dive trip in Southeast Asia and further solidified while he traveled Australia for four months. When he returned to San Francisco in 2008, he put the plan in motion, raising capital and forming his team.
His first company, EcoVenture, didn't work. It offered exotic vacations for multi-day travel and wasn't matching consumer needs. In 2010, he launched Zozi and centered on local offerings. The average ticket price for activities offered on Zozi is $100, and many cost less than that.
"When the economy is slower, people might take less trips but they tend to do more things closer to home," Sassani said, saying that in light of the most recent recession, people began shifting their spending away from physical products and toward things that impact their own happiness. "The number one item on people's lists that impact their happiness the most are travel and experience, and that's what we sell."
Sassani said, to date, he's raised just under $20 million to bolster Zozi, but it almost went belly up. There was a point where he was broke and so was the company, and he wasn't making payroll.
"I took my last bit of cash and put it into the company and it was just enough to get us to that next round of financing. That was the magical point where things turned around and it became a successful business."
Be smart ... and dumb
Sassani laughed recalling his childhood. He said he was always a bit different than other kids. When the boys were out playing football, he was riding his bike or in the woods building tree huts.
He had a sense of adventure, he said, and sought to follow that path once high school ended.
It ultimately led him to Silicon Valley and to becoming the founder of a growing Internet startup finding traction in a competitive and lucrative marketplace.
The key to any success in business, he said, is table stakes: money, good people and a lot of luck.
"The reality is even with all those things, it's extremely difficult. I sum it up like this, 'You have to be smart enough to figure it out and you have to be too dumb to quit.'
"If you put everything else aside and follow your heart and do what you want to do and are willing to deal with that uncertainty, sometimes it works out and then you have it all. Most of the time it doesn't. That's why a lot of people will shy away because they understand the risk. ... It's really hard to step out there and put it all on the line. It takes that tenacity and perseverance and ability to deal with rejection and constant stress and that feeling of uncertainty in your life."