The people
What they build
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Working at Sherpa
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On the TechTO stage
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About
Max Tremaine and Ivan Sharko built Sherpa after running into visa rules on their own trips. Tremaine's July 2016 TechTO demo walked through the problem it was solving: entry requirements are hard to find, written differently by every country, and unforgiving of a form filled in wrong. The app showed a traveller what a given visa allowed in plain language, pre-filled the application, mailed an envelope for the passport, and tracked where that passport was in the embassy process. Handling other people's passports felt sketchy at first, Tremaine said, so the company partnered with an existing visa services firm rather than doing it alone. At the time of the demo Sherpa covered a couple of dozen destinations and was working towards 150 by the end of that July, with work permits targeted for the following year. The business since moved from selling to travellers to selling to the companies that book them, positioning travel documentation as an ancillary revenue line rather than a support cost.
Backers
Venture-backed; specific investors are not established here.
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Quick answers
What does Sherpa sell?
Travel documentation — what a traveller needs to enter a country, and the visa application itself. It sells this to airlines, online travel agencies and travel management companies, who surface it in their own booking flows.
Who founded Sherpa?
Max Tremaine, its CEO, and Ivan Sharko. Tremaine introduced them both from the TechTO stage in July 2016.
Does Sherpa handle your passport?
In the 2016 consumer product, yes — it mailed an envelope and tracked the passport through the embassy. Tremaine said the team felt uneasy doing that themselves and partnered with an established visa services company for the handling.