I’ve got a big announcement… And I’m going to tell you about it, and I’m going to do it in my typical overly-honest way.
In 2010 I started a wordpress blog. In 2011 Carrie and I took our millions of miles (and little else) and booked a oneway ticket to Asia.
We really had no idea where that journey would take us. If you’ve followed along, you know that it took us all over the world. That journey – of full-time globetrotting and living in hotels for years – was nothing short of fantastic!
A story for another day, but to make it short, a few years ago we moved to Austin. During our time in Austin, we focused more on other businesses, for instance the tech start-up you may have read about on this blog.
However, recently I decided to make an effort to make Travel Is Free great again.
We updated the majority of our Resource page – including resources ranging from the Complete Maps, Delta Miles Calculator, to the Best Hotel Rewards Program InfoGraphic (which I recommend checking out). And obviously I wrote a lot of new posts as well…
To be completely honest, I’ve found it pretty difficult to create high quality posts and tools at a meaningful rate. I’ve just never had a desire to write posts that others have already written, and worse, I hate writing a post that someone (or a ton of people) have already done a better with.
My approach has been to try to find unique content, data driven posts, and to build new tools.
The good news is I have close to a zillion ideas to build out.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t always made a lot of sense to continue to pay my data guy to keep collecting data for my tools… But I did it anyways because I enjoy doing it. I just limited the number of tools I created.
Super unfortunately, looking at the numbers, I continued to limit the number of these projects I enjoy so much.
My Goal
My goal has been, is, and will always be, to create awesome resources for people… And for myself.
I want to build things I’m eager to use.
<Enter TPG>
I knew I wanted to take a new direction (in the wake of our tech startup ending (pausing?)) and I had a number of options in front of me…
But a few months ago I had a conversation with Brian Kelly (the CEO and founder of ThePointsGuy.com) that changed the course for me.
Talking to Brian I felt that we had the same goal for my future: to create increasingly useful products.
I walked away from that meeting feeling / knowing that working with him, TPG, and RedVentures, was the best place for me if creating useful products is my actual goal.
I have dreams of building awesome tools, big and small. And I knew this was the only place that would give me the chance to create not only all of the small tools, but 100% certainly the only place that would give me the chance to work on moonshot projects.
So…
*Drumroll*
As of this week, I’m an employee of RedVentures / TPG.
I’m working in the tech office in Austin and am excited to work on some interesting ideas already started and some to come.
What does this mean?
What does this mean for me and travelisfree.com?
For me, it means I get to work on some awesome new tools (and obviously having a stable income is appealing).
For travelisfree.com… Well, that’s currently up to me.
My hope is two things.
Hope 1) From reducing my work load to a single job, instead of a few businesses, I’ll be able to focus more on miles & points stuff… And hopefully have more time on my hands.
Hope 2) That I’ll be able to work with someone at RV willing to give me a little bit of additional resources for small tools and keeping my resources page updated.
Either way, I view this as a win / win.
Hopefully I can create small products (similar to the ones that I’ve been making) that feed into the databases and bigger tools that I’ll be helping create with Red Ventures. That would be the ideal win/win, and a place I hope to get to soon.
Here’s a crazy idea…
I recognize that a lot of my audience views TPG the same way coffee connoisseur’s view Starbucks. Some friends have felt that I’ll be in a corporate environment that will limit my ability to make creative products and make autonomous decisions.
And maybe there are those who just don’t like TPG and therefore will project their own feelings on me and Travel Is Free…
For that I have two responses.
1) Maybe (and this idea is real crazy), just maybe, the critics should wait to see what kind of content and products I create.
That is, that I should be judged based on the quality of the work I do, not who funds it and who I associate with. This way, critics can wait to be informed before complaining… (I told you it was a crazy idea!)
Right now my posts are pretty limited, so any increase is a benefit. And I personally will only create content I think is great, or I won’t last. That’s just my personality.
2) I know from talking to Brian Kelly that he really cares about creating content and tools that are actually useful to users.
If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be interested in hiring me (and others like Richard Kerr) and he wouldn’t care about the same tools I’m interested in… But he is.
I personally feel creating interesting content at high frequency is incredibly difficult and that’s what his hires are about.
But honestly, I don’t want to debate RV and TPG… I want us to be judged by the products we’re aiming to create.
For that, you have to see them first.
The only thing I care about is creating useful content, tools, and products.
That’s it.
I truly hope RV will trust my product sense enough to empower me (and the new tech team) to create genuinely interesting things. I hope I’ll have the ability to make a positive impact on any product I work on and I hope I’ll have the ability to pursue good ideas (especially small ones I can do myself).
It is a corporation, and I am one of many. That was my fear going in… And what’s funny is, before I met with Brian those months ago, Carrie and I talked and were 90% sure we were going to decline any offer made. But after our meeting, I knew I wanted to join.
Brian didn’t pitch me. If anything, I spent half the time talking about things I want to build.
What was clear to me is that he shared the same vision for tools and products moving forward, and ultimately, I felt like this is a place I could make a difference.
Since I’ve only had one day of work (which was majority filling out on-boarding paperwork), I haven’t been a part of actually creating anything yet.
But when I/we do start creating thigns, I want to be judged by the quality of my work. In fact, I invite judgement there.
For that, we have to wait and see. 🙂
Conclusion
The other thing I’d say, is that this site is my baby and those who have supported me all along the way are also a part of the awesome globetrotting journey we’ve had.
This is where I learned how to come up with unique ideas and what people actually enjoy. And you guys have shown tremendous support and love for my approach – which I’d define as a journey of learning to find and execute unique ideas.
That’s exactly what I want to continue doing…
I don’t give a dern about critics who have judged me on my associations… But I do care about creating something useful, and you guys are the judge of that.
That being said, I invite judgement and feedback for anything I create. And honestly, I hope to make all TIF supporters proud!
For those of you who appreciate what I’ve done so far, I thank you for your support! Truly!
And I hope you love whatever we create next.
Thanks!
– Drew
![Nick of FM on #40kFarAway [TIF Podcast]](https://travelisfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/travel-is-free-podcast-nick-40K-120x86.jpg)
Happy you will still be around. Thanks for ever thing so far and looking forward to what comes next
Congratulations to you, looking forward to seeing what you are capable of creating with addition support. best of luck in your new adventure!
What about the podcast? It was part of my weekly routine. Loved listening to you guys.
Big news. One hope I have, as I don’t frequent TPG much, is that I will be able to search for content from you and that your work doesn’t get lost in all the noise. Wish you the best of luck as I have been reading since the start.
jpgisbd – Once he’s writing on TPG, you’ll presumably be able to find his posts at https://thepointsguy.com/author/drewmacomber/
If you use Feedly or another feed reader, you can add https://thepointsguy.com/author/drewmacomber/feed (assuming /drewmacomber is the slug his posts will be at) to only get his posts rather than subscribing to the entire TPG feed.
Wow, that’s a surprise. Looking forward to see what develops and wishing you the best.
Hi Drew – congrats and I hope this works out for you. It’s really disappointing, (kinda like finding out Santa isn’t real) but I’m sure a move I would have made myself. Like you suggested, I will wait to see the final product. Best of luck! I hope your podcast survives. Industry consolidation by RV stinks!
Hope you do well. But I won’t be following you. TPG is a shill site. What few nuggets of good content at TPG don’t outweigh the endless shilling.
Best of luck.
So what became of your start up? You were super passionate about that and absolutely confident that it would succeed. I would be interested to hear what you learned from that experience.
I have no doubt you will create great content for TPG. I think the fear is that your content will be filtered through those that pay the bills and so ultimately your content will not contain 100% what benefits the people, it will be a mix of that and what earns the corporation the most clicks and $.
Um, lol, ok. So you will have the same editorial creativity as Kerr who previously “left” TPG for probably the same reasons ?
Wow, when I saw the heading Starting a New Chapter I got a pit in my stomach that you were going to say you guys were getting divorced. So obviously thrilled that is not the case.
I stopped paying attention to TPG long ago viewing it as crap for the masses. So my fear is either that you will start pumping out top ten lists of nonsense or worse blow up
deals by bringing your vast knowledge to the masses.
Having said that I do want to thank you for what you have given us through Travel is Free and wish you the best of luck.
Best of luck over at TPG! You have some excellent and unique content here that’s been helpful over the years.
I’ll give you a chance over at TPG… But as many others have said above, I find that the majority of TPG content isn’t great. There is way too much pushing credit cards, sloppy content, and even bad advice that it drowns out some of the good. I hope you’re able to continue to push the content that you want, and of the quality that you want. Ultimately that is what will be important to keeping us here. 🙂
Good luck!
Good move. TPG has moved far ahead of the others which puts you on the winning team. Ignore snide remarks from idiots who think a site or an individual making money is evil. March on… do what is best for you… and best of luck.
I love your blog and really wish you the best. Your content has been useful, innovative and highly insightful. While I view TPG as utterly lacking in integrity, I hope that you’ll prove differently. Good luck.
Congrats! I may miss seeing updates on the small, independent blog I’ve come to know and love (and, yes, the complete maps and hotel infographics are great), but I hear TPG is a top-notch place to be. Enjoy!
Best wishes for you and Carrie. I hope you will be the one new employee at TPG whose quality doesn’t suffer once they get there. And keep up your side business ideas for when RV/TPG’s bubble bursts in a few years.
But to be frank, I think it’s naive to believe that RV and Brian Kelly will give you the same creative control you have on your own, or that they really care about readers. They care about credit card conversions and ad revenue. Keep in mind Brian pulled back an article that was critical of Marriott because they didn’t want to damage their relationship with the company. This is the same company that pumps a zillion affiliate links within any post they can, lied about never accepting free flights, and plays fast and loose with advertising disclosures. The crass commercialism of TPG puts Matthew Lesko to shame and TPG hasn’t been healthy for the miles and points hobby as a whole.
Thank you for all you’ve done over the years – it’s been so valuable. However as much as I’ve loved your work and think you’re an awesome dude, I won’t be following you to TPG. I just can’t in good conscience give clicks and revenue to an unethical business such as that.
Well put. I’ve loved this site for over 6 years now, but can’t say the same for TPG. I hope this turns out well, and will withhold judgement, but I am concerned.
First – big thanks for everything you have done here. Really is best in class. Not a huge fan of TPG, but will wait and see. I do have a couple of questions;
1 – Will you be creating content at TPG or is is more back-office tech stuff. The announcement made it sound like you were going to be focusing on creating tools and an app.
2 – What does this mean for the content here. Will you continue to post new stuff here, or is everything going to be via TPG ?
I know this may change over time, but wondering what the initial plan is.
Drew, I’ve been a big fan of yours for years, but this is disappointing. In my opinion, you and Doctor of Credit have run the two best miles and points-oriented blogs.
You gotta do what’s best for you, but TPG, along with Million Mile Secrets, are just conduits for pimping credit cards and recycled, unoriginal content. “10 Reasons Why The Chase Sapphire Reserve is Great!” and “Here’s Why You Should Sign Up for an Amex Platinum NOW!” posts week after week and month after month, with 5+ referral links built into every post.
Again you gotta do what’s best for you. Your readers get to do the same as well. I’ll be adding to my support for Doctor of Credit going forward.
This is exactly my sentiment. So disappointed.
Hobby is dead and TPG helped kill it out of his own greed
Congrats to you on the move. Many thanks for all you’ve done, I’ve referred to many of your posts numerous times when I’ve planned trips for the family. I’ve always enjoyed reading your blog, and really appreciate all the useful (and original!) stuff you put out there for everyone. Looking forward to seeing more of that going forward.
Good luck, wish you can continue to create great contents/tools as you planned!
Congrats on the new job, Drew. I liked your Starbucks analogy; that’s how I’ve viewed TPG in recent years. But with their recent hires, I feel I should be checking in and seeing what I’ve been missing out on. It seems they’ve made a very positive turn. Cheers
Congratulations!! all the best to you in your new roll. You put out awesome content an look forward to whats ahead.
Congrats, thanks for sharing the news. I’m looking forward to seeing your new creations.
Congratulations, Drew!!! I look forward to your work on TPG. I, for one, am a Brian fan and hope this works for you both.
Will you be on a Talking Points podcast?
Congrats! Although don’t like TPG that much, but believe in you always makes a sound judgement and decision.
I feel like my favorite microbrewer has just been bought by Anheuser-Busch.
This comment is perfect! Exactly how I feel. Definitely wish you luck Drew and hope you keep what made this site so special for years!
I was really excited to hear the news!
TPG has it’s pros and cons but overall I continue to follow it and it’s clearly the most successful points blog out there, so to see you join in a role where it sounds like you should have a good amount of room to do what you do best is awesome.
Hope it works out and us who are fans of your work will see lots of awesome new products/content from you!
Best of luck!
Hey Drew,
I’ve been following yours and Carrie’s journey for several years. I’ve always found your content to be smart, interesting and different (in a good way). Even though half the time this stuff goes over my head, I always find a nugget or two that is useful. If this is what your gut is telling you to do, then it is the right decision no matter what. All the best in your next chapter and I’ll be staying tuned and following along for the ride.
No no no! Drew your posts have been the best I have read amongst most of the points/miles website! At TPG all your posts will push the Capital One and Amex Delta cards like crazy!!! And then what bothers me the most is that they dont show how much they pay for their tickets… they say usually its $X or X miles. They are not honest.
No no no! Drew your posts have been the best I have read amongst most of the points/miles website! At TPG all your posts will push the Capital One and Amex Delta cards like crazy!!! And then what bothers me the most is that they dont show how much they pay for their tickets… they say usually its $X or X miles. They are not honest.
I think this has the potential to be really good, assuming they do give you a strong measure of creative freedom. It would be a mistake for them not to, so I’ll certainly keep an open mind and watch what comes.
Congrats! While you’re at it, could you create a searchable by hotel property calendar of rates by month including AAA, AARP and lowest cancellable and non-cancellable rates? It should be map view like Seth’s was (before it fell into disrepair).for properties by city and include selection by chain. Shouldn’t take too much time. 😉
your content has been great and i hope you continue it
Let ’em hate, Drew! 🤑🤑🤑
Keep up the good work over there.
I hope the best for you and Carrie. I’ve followed your blog for a long time and love your content and don’t just rehash what others have posted. Like others said, TPG is lacking originality and is just pushing credit cards. Hopefully you will be happy there.
Congrats on selling out. TPG is the lowest denominator and a shill. For you to join him shows a complete lack of judgement. Will miss the useful content posted on here over the years, but I cannot in good conscie continue reading after this decision.
Good luck, and do let us know if you ever come back to your senses.
Seriously disappointing and even depressing… literally one of the few sites, I have checked daily even though many days there were no posts lately. Obvisouly, im not going to bother checking on the site anymore as I’m certain how your site will change for the worse. Hopefully, you got a hell of a lot of money up front because I don’t see it being worthwhile for you any other way. Such a shame…
Great for you, not so for us your loyal fan base. But I cannot judge all the Mozart’s who needed patrons so they can work on their masterpieces. You are the head of the master class Drew, and you can write your own ticket to any job description you want. (And if TPG cannot handle that, we’ll all still be following you wherever you go.)
Sad. It’s like you don’t realize how much you could’ve made if you’d run your own blog better. This world eats good people, you’re just the latest. But it’s sad this didn’t have to go this way. And, while it’s good to be optimistic, you seem to use your optimism to mask bad ideas. Good Luck with your soul.
Best of luck Drew. Screw the critics…. You have given enough, time to cash In a little bit especially if you really believe you will do better there. Just don’t disappear in the noise like Julian
SMH…congrats on selling out. TPG is garbage .
Congratulations on the big move, Drew!
I’ve been reading and learning much of my best moves from you since about 2012, and I absolutely *WILL* be following you over to TPG through your transition. I’m hoping you’ll be able to serve over there as a strong voice for delivering your always practical and high-quality content.
To all the haters: here’s a guy whose work you’ve been learning and benefitting from for years, and now you’re posting garbage personal opinions on his site that has zero benefit except maybe to give you a tiny sense of satisfaction around your own smug opinions.
If you want to discourage Drew from joining TPG, fine, write out your reasons and why you think there’s a better alternative. If you hate TPG for shilling CC sign-ups and writing fluff copy, fine, go find one of those posts and write it there; perhaps it’ll have an educative effect on a reader. If you’re just complaining about a change that hasn’t even occurred yet, at least be constructive in your criticism. Wtf.
Also as someone hinted at earlier, TPG is in a position where it needs to anchor itself with meaningful quality content and long-term readership if it wants to expand its market dominance. (Which, judging by the way Brian Kelly acts and talks, I presume it does.) People who read sites like these make up an essential part of the market. We still sign up for new offers and cycle through the cornerstone cc’s that carries the same referral value as any newbie. For obvious reasons, TPG is not capturing clicks and referrals from this market. Presumably they’re making moves, so Infor one am interested to see how it pans out…
I rarely bother with TPG anymore. I do understand why mommy points went there, but she is now irrelevant to me too. I prefer Lucky. It’s really all about personality and I just find him really likable.
Good luck, might as well give TPG a whirl. Drew seems like the type of person that if he doesn’t like it at TPG or empty promises were made, he will call them out and go back to being independent. That said, I hopped over to TPG and still don’t like their credit card pushing; gosh, the first page has an “essential reading” section with only credit card posts.
Like many here I think this is a bad move. TPG is just a credit card pusher. You have met the enemy and he is you now. TravelBloggerBuzz comments today that it’s telling you have not made any reply to all the comments here but I’m not surprised as you never answered short simple questions from readers before in your comments. I don’t think Drew ever bothers to read comments from readers of his blog. It’s been helpful. But don’t expect anyone to ever respond to comments made here
This is disgusting and I’m very disappointed to hear it. Your reputation will go the way of TPG. And deservedly so. Another one bites the dust.
not cool bro. TPG is garbage
Drew,
I’m sure you expected the backlash, but don’t pay attention to all the haters. As you stated very clearly in this blog post, you told all of your readers to give you a chance. That you would continue to put out incredible content / tools that everyone has benefitted from so much. And for all of those that have commented and said hateful things, it seems they are doing so for selfish reasons, and for the fear of losing all the insights they’ve gained from your posts.
I really don’t understand why people won’t respect your decision. Congratulations and wish you the best on the new job! You deserve it. Thanks again for all the time and effort you put into the blog
I hope you got a big pile of money for this. You deserve it for the years of interesting and original content. However, I’ve seen this movie a few times before and I know how it ends. Thank you for your past contributions and I sure hope I am wrong about what happens next.
Hi Drew: I’m also disappointed with your decision, but for very selfish reasons. Your blog seemed very niche and you’ll have a much bigger platform with TPG–so all that great information will now be available to a huge audience. Like I said–very selfish. But I’m happy for you and frankly, if anyone has earned it, you have. You’ve provided years of amazing content and I’m glad you’re getting an opportunity to be rewarded more fairly for all you do. I’ve actually given up on TPG recently, but looks like I’m coming back. Good luck!
Fucking sell out. Not surprised cuz your a little beeatch.
Delete this blog from my favorites bar. Best of luck. You deserve to make money, its a shame this is how you have to do it. I suspect you will lose your old followers almost completely, but you will certainly find a new audience at TPG.
“We are the borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” -RV
Hi Drew, I feel happy and excited for you! I’m sure TPG gives you the platform to extend your research/investigation chop at a much larger scale. Thank you for your knowledge from the last couple years and would love to more of your work from TPG.
Hey Drew,
You’ve been my favorite blogger since I started this hobby 7 years ago. You have helped me travel the world the world in ways I would have never been able to otherwise. Almost every post of your site has been useful. I want to give you a big thanks for everything you have done for this community.
I have NEVER read a single useful post on TPG and probably haven’t been to his site in years.. All of the content is absolute garbage. I hope you can help change that but I must admit I not optimistic. Good luck with the new gig!
Hi D & C,
While I’m apprehensive of what TPG may do, at the same time I want to thank you for all the resources and content of TIF, and congratulate you on what will hopefully be a beneficial experience for you personally. Much like when an indie band with a small but die-hard fanbase all of a sudden has a big hit, and those fans become salty that their cool, pocket band is no longer a secret.
Oh HELL NO… 🙁
Drew,
Best wishes to you! I have loved your content and you have done a great job!
I also listened to your extended explanation on the podcast. I respect your decision and understand the motivations. With that said, TPG has never had the quality of content that you and Greg put out. It is due to continually pumping credit cards and keeping the bill payers happy. Now, the good news is much of your best work should not annoy them (like Greg’s did when he lost like 1/2 his revenue), but go into it with two eyes open. To me, that is what makes the decision for you so tough as I assume you ceded all you intellectual property and you stuff was flippin’ brilliant.
Again, best wishes; you are one of the best and hope you can stay there. I will continue to follow this site, but admit I won’t stoop to going over to TPG.
Could you clarify the part about Greg losing half his revenue?
I never assumed you were selling out by working with TPG. I think he’s a sell out and absolutely the reason for the demise of the points and miles world. But when your second podcast back is with the Genters and you end with them recommending their best TPG articles, that pretty much is selling out.
Best wishes to you!
Good luck, Drew. I appreciate all the original and interesting content you’ve put out over the years. I still use your hotel maps regularly (and wish you had them for even more chains!).
While I don’t ever just go to the TPG’s home page looking for content, I find that when I’m a little unsure of something and look it up on google, TPG is usually one of the top items in the search. And I’ve found that compared to other blogs, TPG usually summarizes the issue quite well and lets me get at the heart of what I was trying to learn/remember quickly. Yes, it pimps a ton of credit cards. That doesn’t bother me. I’ve never clicked on a TPG affiliate link and don’t read the silly content on TPG that is just pumping up particular credit cards.
Is Drew still with TPG? I haven’t seen anything about it by him. I know his wife works with Frequent Miler but nothing about Drew. Wonder if it worked out.