SĒKR TRAVEL BUSINESS
T R AV E L B U S I N E S S
SĒKR From Instagram influencer to entrepreneur, we speak with Breanne Acio, co-founder of Sēkr as the mobile platform establishing a diverse community for the Great Outdoors Writer: Phoebe Harper
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ype ‘vanlife’ into Instagram, and you will be met with almost 13 million posts labelled under that hashtag. Over the past decade, the hype of the vanlife movement has amplified as a lifestyle choice that seeks adventure from the everyday, living in a nomadic way and reassessing what is truly meaningful in your life. Whilst not for everyone, it was this captivating way of living that set Breanne Acio and Jessica Shisler – co-founders of Sēkr - on their own career path. “My co-founder Jess and I were part of the early vanlife scene and had established ourselves as micro-influencers on Instagram,” Acio explains. “We were both living the full-time vanlife separately and saw first-hand how hard it was just to find a safe place to camp overnight, and how difficult it was to understand which campsites would have amenities like showers, WiFi etc.” The idea for Sēkr was born, and in 2018, the two women joined forces to combat this issue and launched a platform that would bring digitalisation into the outdoors space – an area that is relatively behind in its incorporation of technology despite huge demand. “Sēkr is a women and minority-founded crowdsourced mobile platform that was created with 24 | Outlook Travel issue 08
everyone from the full-time nomad to the occasional road-tripper in mind,” she continues. “The platform makes the entirety of the outdoor travel planning process easier and safer by connecting travellers to the campsites, resources, and outdoor communities they’re looking for.” Differentiated by its celebration of diversity and laudable stance on sustainability, earlier this year the company was officially recognised as an honouree for FastCompany’s World Changing Ideas 2022.
Sēkr co-founders, Breanne Acio and Jessica Shisler
Based in America, Sēkr primarily focuses on the geological wonders of the US National Parks as a playground for adventure that can feed the spirit of any traveller. To date, the platform hosts over 50,000 campsites nationwide, including the largest available database of free campsites. It is an easy-to-use resource that endeavours to get everyone outdoors and enjoy the huge benefits that such experiences have to offer.
