Who We Are

From online booking to custom websites and digital marketing campaigns, TRYTN makes running your company easier than ever. Meet the team that makes it all happen

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About the Company

TRYTN is an online booking and centralized reservation management system for tour and activity businesses. The simple, intuitive interface means setup can be completed in minutes. Businesses increase their direct sales while reducing costs by gaining access to TRYTN's subsidized web development and marketing services. A streamlined web presence combined with reliable software gives TRYTN partners the tools they need to succeed in the increasingly competitive activities industry.

Reza Barissi

Founder and CEO


I founded TRYTN to bring ease of use and efficiency to world travelers and vendors who share my passion for great excursions. TRYTN is a user-friendly booking platform and reservation management system that enables tour operators to streamline their businesses online. Enhanced further with access to our subsidized web development services, our business partners stay ahead of the competition and have more time to focus on creating memorable experience for their customers.

A graduate of the University of the Virgin Islands, I spent my early adult life in the Caribbean where I worked primarily in the maritime industry. An experienced boater and dive instructor who has worked in a variety of tour operator roles, I also have an unofficial degree in the world of tourism and activities.

Online booking, reliable reservation management and maintaining an optimized web presence have long been pain points for excursion providers. In today’s connected world, these pain points have only become more important over time. As a result, I was determined to develop the necessary technology and tools for tour operators to stay ahead in the increasingly competitive activities space. To turn my determination into reality, it was essential to assemble a team of experienced professionals who viewed persistent problems from an operator-first perspective. Working alongside this extraordinarily talented group of engineers, and with continual strategic advisement from industry professionals, TRYTN was able to finally provide true solutions to the long-known problems in the tours and activities space.

TRYTN has been unique in our operator-first approach. We will continue to work especially hard to view future design and development from the perspective of the activity businesses to which we have brought significant success.

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Steve McDowell

Co-Founder and Chief Technologist


From jigsaw puzzles to building custom remote-controlled boats to splicing together the technology of the day to play 8bit video games Steve grew up with a love for building things and solving problems. Serving in the US Army for 13 years he learned many valuable lessons and gained perspectives that have helped fuel his drive to make things better. Over the past two decades, he has worked in varying technical leadership roles in Fortune 500 companies across the Chicago land area.

His life changed one day when he accidentally bought a book on the lean startup movement which started him down the entrepreneurial path. Prior to joining TRYTN, Steve helped co-found PatentEngine where he served as lead developer and CTO.

Steve holds a BS in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University and an MS in Management Information Systems from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Darcy Gassel

Account Management Director


Darcy earned an MBA from IE Business School in Madrid, consistently ranked as a top international entrepreneurship MBA program. Her background at advertising agencies, market research and consulting firms and start-ups across a variety of industries molded her into an enthusiastic believer in constant innovation. This experience allows her to approach solutions from different strategic angles, and she motivates others to do so as well to achieve highly impactful results.

An early member of the TRYTN team, Darcy has personally helped hundreds of tour and activity companies across industries and geographic regions to grow their businesses. Years of experience in this ever changing and exciting industry enables her work as a true partner and advocate of TRYTN companies to constantly improve, grow and move forward.

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Peter Johnson

Business Development Lead


An avid traveler, Peter spent a year taking TRYTN on the road while tapping into tourism markets and meeting with local operators across 7 different countries on 3 continents. Prior to TRYTN, he spent the last 10 years in different capacities within hospitality and tourism.  From large corporate hotels Stateside, to living and working at boutique properties in Central America, Peter has accumulated a wealth of experience across the different segments that make up the travel industry.

The tours and activities space suits him well, and he is firm believer in TRYTN’s mission to be the champion of the individual operator.  In addition to getting out and experiencing a new place through tours and activities, it is Peter’s humble opinion that in order to get the full experience you must eat the street meat, drink the local liquor and see the live music.

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Brandon Parker

Lead Developer, Front-End and Analytics


The fascination of the Internet—the capabilities it holds, the freedom to share information across the globe in an instant, the openness for anyone to use, and the challenge of how to make it all work—that’s what motives Brandon as a lead developer, analyst, and digital strategist.

Brandon’s foray into web development can be traced back to when he was 8 years old and received his first computer. By middle school he was building a website for his dad’s regional cycling club, and by high school he’d earned the role of webmaster for the school’s site. He went on to earn a degree in web development and to devote 10 years building ecommerce solutions for B2B and B2C enterprises. He has implemented custom booking engine solutions for a leading hospitality company and has developed ecommerce solutions for a FORTUNE 200 leader in technology services.

As lead developer and analyst for TRYTN, Brandon manages front-end development, analytics and reporting, multivariate testing, user research, competitive analysis, social media marketing, and search engine marketing (SEM). He also contributes to quality assurance and sales efforts, and is certified in Google Analytics and Google AdWords. Brandon excels in collecting all perspectives and determining a solution that achieves marketing and customer-experience goals.

Brandon’s passion for solving and building extends outside of computers; he loves to woodwork (he even handbuilt wall hammocks for his two cats, Vesta and Benjamin). He lives in Denver, Colorado, where he enjoys hiking, snowshoeing, biking, and skiing. He’s also mildly obsessed with KU basketball and all-things-NASA (in fact, he was even chosen for the Deep Space Network Social in 2014).

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Locations

Chicago Office (Headquarters)

332 S Michigan Ave
Suite 8120
Chicago, IL
60604
United States

Denver Office

1550 Wewatta St
Suite 3181
Denver, CO
80202
United States

Online Booking Software
Online Booking is an important piece of building your overall sales strategy for the travel industry, and there are a lot of important factors to consider. Online Booking impacts and integrates different pieces of your business: reaching and converting more direct customers, streamlining operations, and managing alternative sales channels.
Reservation Management System

Your business is unique, the systems you utilize should be able to align with your processes and operational needs. Manage your reservations and schedule in an intuitive platform that doesn’t require long training sessions or having to contact customer support to make changes. Easier to use than a pen and paper – but does so much more.

Custom Website Optimization
Your website is your most important sales tool and it takes an expert to increase your rankings. An optimized website needs to be fast, secure, responsive, structured for Google search and customer navigation. An operation’s website impacts several important pieces of your business: direct traffic, customer experience, sales conversions and is a source of information.

Turnkey Solutions Across All Devices

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Highest Rated Tour Operator Software on G2Crowd

TRYTN has the highest rating on the most reliable platform for honest feedback.

5/5
“The TRYTN team is extremely knowledgeable, trustworthy, reliable and provides excellent customer service. We were approached by many different companies, did our research and TRYTN is clearly the superior company."
Jose Manuel O.Cabo Sails
"The software works great. We have been able to make changes that really have helped expedite processes. TRYTN has also helped us build our SEO. We are very happy to made the switch to TRYTN"
Jason M.Chicago Cycleboats
"TRYTN is an excellent reservation platform for my business. It lets my clients book reservations quickly and easily as well as stores all my business information in one location"
Nicole WDe Lille Sports
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