Trusted Places blog series

This week we have a new guest blogger Walid Al Saqqaf, co-founder of TrustedPlaces. We will see three more posts about his business; what it is, why its useful and most importantly how they make money.

TrustedPlaces is a social network around people’s interests and favourite places. It is the people’s local guide to original and undiscovered bars, excellent restaurants and traditional pubs, specialist food shops and hidden parks that constitute the hidden gems in cities like London. Through TrustedPlaces, business owners can also gain valuable insights into what their customers think about their venue and also attract new customers by interacting with an engaged, targeted audience amplifying word of mouth for their business.

Why did we start TrustedPlaces?
We were fed up of going out to the same places in London or always having to call a friend ‘in-the-know’ to find out where to go and what to do in different areas in the city.
We were also really excited about discovering some really cool, unexpected places, like excellent family run cafes, local traditional pubs, great value restaurants and amazing bars that stayed open late. We knew that most people we know felt the same way about such places, so wanted to build something that would give them a better chance of being discovered by everyone else.

This in turn would give these local interesting places a stronger chance to compete with large chains that increasingly homogenize our neighborhoods. We realized that by starting TrustedPlaces we also had the unique opportunity to act as a rallying point for people wishing to preserve the uniqueness of their local area.