{"id":11152,"date":"2017-03-15T09:13:32","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T09:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wearetravelgirls.com\/?p=11152"},"modified":"2025-08-17T09:44:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T16:44:02","slug":"bungee-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wearetravelgirls.com\/bungee-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"LADIES WE LOVE: MAXINE OUTERBRIDGE OF BUNGEE GIRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ladies We Love is a new interview series with women from around the world that provide us inspiration through their travels and their personal stories. This month we got to know Maxine Outerbridge of Bungee Girl<\/em>!<\/em><\/p>\n

This month we had the pleasure of talking more with Maxine, Founder of the wonderful travel app Bungee Girl. If you follow our Instagram<\/a> you’ll see we regularly post about this app, it’s our favorite way to meet new girls and gain insider tips while traveling solo. Maxine had a very unconventional start to the world of mobile app development, following a successful career in finance and accounting. She is the perfect example of how a passion for travel and an excitement for inspiring females to see the world can turn into a successful career.<\/p>\n

Read the latest in our Ladies We Love<\/em> series to learn more about this fearless female entrepreneur!<\/p>\n

\"LADIES<\/p>\n

1. For some of our readers who have never heard of Bungee Girl, can you please explain the mission of the company and where you came up with the idea.<\/b><\/h3>\n

Bungee Girl is a travel app that brings together girls who like to wander. As a female-only app, Bungee Girl connects solo female travelers who either have an equal interest in visiting each other’s city or live in the same city and have a shared interest in traveling to the same location. Users get connected when they click on each other\u2019s city, showing a mutual interest.<\/p>\n

In one of our newest features, users can also create interactive travel diaries where they capture the best part of their trips. It\u2019s a short and sweet snapshot of key trip information. We call them \u201cpostcards\u201d on the app. With this feature, travelers will have a fun way to illustrate their trips while helping other women get some great tips.<\/p>\n

Our primary goal is to encourage and empower women to travel more often and particularly alone as we believe personal development is greater on a solo trip. We want to inspire women to get out of their comfort zone, take on new challenges, embrace new people and places and to travel boldly. Women shouldn\u2019t settle for clich\u00e9 trips or reject opportunities to travel because their friends or family don\u2019t have the money or capacity to travel with them. You should always come back from a trip a different person, a better person. That\u2019s what happened to me, that\u2019s what inspired me to start Bungee Girl.<\/p>\n

I was inspired to start this app after my first solo trip. I wanted to create a hub for solo female travelers, a safe space that facilitates global connectivity among like-minded women and brings a social element to travel planning. There are legitimate reasons why women are apprehensive or uncomfortable with traveling alone or to new places. Let\u2019s face it, we don\u2019t have all of the same concerns that men have when traveling. Although there are a lot of resources out there for finding accommodations, meeting locals and getting the best travel tips, a lot of them aren\u2019t designed or tailored to the experience of female travelers. This apps aims to create a product that does!<\/p>\n

2. How did you decide to make the leap from the corporate world to starting your own travel app? Were your family and friends supportive of the move?<\/b><\/h3>\n

I really look up to Mark Zuckerberg. He once said \u201cthe biggest risk is not taking any risk\u2026In a world that\u2019s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks<\/i>.\u201d  <\/span>As a single mother to 2 young kids I wasn\u2019t able to just quit my corporate job. In addition to my full time job, I had to put in a lot of time, energy and money to start Bungee Girl, but I believed it was worth the risk. I know I\u2019ve got a great deal of responsibility and two little innocent people who rely on me. However, I don\u2019t believe that you should let anything hold you back from your dreams. We are all in control of our own destiny. You just have to make it work and fight like hell because it\u2019s not going to be easy. I\u2019ve always been an extremely passionate and highly ambitious person.<\/p>\n

My family is used to it so they weren\u2019t surprised at all when I decided to take on this business venture. All my life I had been the typical overachiever and I even seemed to do better when I was challenged or when people told me I \u201ccouldn\u2019t accomplish something\u201d.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give you an example. In 2005, at the age of 16 (turning 17) I was really into fashion and thought I wanted to be a fashion designer. I knew the industry was tough and worried about going to fashion school because such a specialized focus could be problematic for me if I ever changed my mind. I was determined to figure it out before I left high school. I emailed every top fashion design company in New York City, all the big dogs. I really had some nerve, but even so young, I was still quite determined. A lot of people doubted me and thought I was reaching too high with the companies I was contacting. One after the other rejected me. But I heard back from Michael Kors and they agreed to set up an interview. During the interview, I learned that they didn\u2019t have an internship for high school students and reminded me of the conflict with child labor laws. I was so determined to make it work. I went to my high school and convinced them to give me school credit to work an unpaid internship. They found a way to give me 1 class credit through a special program. I returned to Michael Kors and convinced them to take me on as an unpaid high school intern since I would receive educational credit. It worked! I was assigned to the hand bag design group.<\/p>\n

It was the best experience ever although I discovered pretty quickly that fashion wasn\u2019t my thing, business was instead. I was a lot more interested in the operations, sales and marketing of the hand bags rather than the design of them. This experience was life changing and I pivoted my attention to business school. Over a decade later I have multiple business degrees and a CPA license. I\u2019ve had a successful career in finance and accounting. Moral of the story: if you really believe in something, and put your mind to it, you can really accomplish anything. You can listen to your critics for guidance and as a sounding board but ultimately your fate is your own. Sometimes you need to just take the risk. Even if you fail, it wasn\u2019t worthless, it\u2019s just a stepping stone on the road to success.<\/p>\n

\"LADIES<\/p>\n

3. You began solo traveling in 2015 and said it was the best trip you\u2019ve ever been on. Why was the solo experience so life changing? <\/b><\/h3>\n

In February of 2015, I went on my first solo trip which was a 12 day vacation to London and then South Africa. I had a close friend living in each of those locations that I stayed with. It was the best trip I\u2019d ever been on. I had the best of both worlds. I got to do my tourist thing during the day while they were at work or carrying about their lives and then on nights\/weekends, they would show me the city \u201ctheir way\u201d.<\/p>\n

My favorite night in London we went to a pop-up food market. The location was in this warehouse-like building but inside it was a really trendy spot with lots of hipsters, a delicious variety of finger foods, great music and amazing drinks. The vibe was so nice and I quickly realized I would never have found that spot without my friend nor would I feel like I \u201cblended\u201d if I wasn\u2019t with a local. It was awesome. She kept taking me to new spots and unique locations only a local would know.<\/p>\n

When I returned from my trip, I wanted to replicate this type of travel experience in other parts of the world but I thought \u201cIf I don\u2019t know anyone living there how can I do this? I don\u2019t want to just keep going to the same places where I already have friends and there won\u2019t be any opportunities for me to meet new people in these locations\u201d. I concluded, as a young woman living in NYC with this dilemma, there must be a like-minded woman living in the spot I want to visit that has the same dilemma and desire to come to NYC. How great would it be to create a connection to bring us together to solve our problem. That\u2019s where the idea for Bungee Girl came from!<\/p>\n

This solo experience was so impactful because for the first time ever on a trip, I was really present. Without anyone there to distract me, I got to truly embrace the environment, culture and people. I remember taking this breathtaking walk for hours through London. It was incredible how receptive I was to everything happening around me. In a short time I was able to learn a lot and gain an enhanced appreciation for the place I was visiting. Not to mention how incredibly empowering solo travel can be. In this peaceful serenity, I was deeply reflective and cognizant. The independence was rewarding and I felt like I became a different, stronger person.<\/p>\n

Solo travel isn\u2019t easy, that\u2019s why Bungee Girl is trying to make it better and work for more women. When women stick together and help each other out, amazing things happen. We want women  <\/span>to have the \u201cbest of both worlds\u201d experience as I did when traveling.<\/p>\n

4. You mentioned not knowing how to code, yet we\u2019ve joined the app and it looks beautiful! How did you create it?<\/b><\/h3>\n

I hired a mobile app development company to help me design and develop the app. I created a mood board to help them understand my style, the color scheme I wanted, the look and feel of the app I wanted and who my target user would be. In my mind, I envisioned what a Bungee Girl would look like and how she would act and I would clearly articulate that to the team. More importantly, I would make mock-ups of the app in Powerpoint to communicate the features I wanted and they would do their tech-magic to develop it. I\u2019m still fairly tech illiterate but I\u2019m not letting that stop me.<\/p>\n

\"LADIES<\/p>\n

5. Who or what inspires you to work day after day to expand your business?<\/b><\/h3>\n

I would say my kids are my biggest motivation. I know that sounds like a typical mom thing to say but for me, motherhood started out really difficult. I found out at 18 years old, in my first semester of college that I was pregnant. It was devastating and I would go on for years after that to struggle and endure extreme hardship.<\/p>\n

However, I had a revelation when I found out that I was pregnant. As innocent as missing one day of my birth control pills was, I still believed that it was my responsibility to step up and take on this unimaginable duty. My daughter didn\u2019t ask to be born to teen parents so I promised myself that I wouldn\u2019t become just another teen mom statistic and that her life wouldn\u2019t be compromised because of the circumstances. I was determined to overcome this obstacle and give her the best life any parent could give their child, with every possible opportunity and experience. I am still committed to that every day. So I haven\u2019t and I won\u2019t stop striving!<\/p>\n

6. What other apps do you use when you travel?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Guilty! I don\u2019t use many apps when I travel. For most of the day I\u2019m not on my phone when I travel besides to take pictures. I would say the most commonly used apps when I travel are:<\/p>\n