In today’s remote-first world, coordinating travel for large, scattered teams has become a stressful juggling act. Booking flights and hotels for a hundred people across different cities turns what should be a team-building moment into a mess of spreadsheets, emails, and back-and-forth. The tools we use weren’t built for this kind of complexity. Often leaving one overwhelmed organizer to carry the weight.
That’s the pain point Tandem Trips was born to ease.
Founded by Memphis entrepreneurs Matthew “Mac” McMorries and Randall Thomas, Tandem Trips is more than a scheduling tool; it’s a response to the emotional toll of disjointed planning. Mac had seen the frustration firsthand: the wasted hours, the missed details, the anxiety of trying to get it right for everyone. He knew there had to be a better way. His vision was simple but powerful: create a digital-first platform that makes planning multi-person, multi-location travel feels effortless. Like booking a single flight.
The spark came during the Innovate Xcelerate Hackathon hosted by Epicenter and CodeCrew, where Mac joined forces with Bruce Brown and Dustin Peek. Together, they built a proof of concept of Tandem Trips: a centralized app designed to cut through the noise, reduce planning time, and restore peace of mind to those tasked with bringing people together.
At its heart, Tandem Trips is about more than logistics. It’s about making space for connection, collaboration, and shared purpose. Mac and his co-founders are building a tool that reflects the way we work now: distributed, dynamic, and deeply human. And in doing so, they’re turning one of the most stressful parts of modern teamwork into something smooth, smart, and surprisingly joyful.
Coming up in the next article in this two-part series, we’re sitting down with the founders to go beyond the headlines. Think quick hits on their personal journey, what keeps them motivated, the messy challenges and surprising wins of building a startup, and some hard-earned tips on innovation and scaling. We’ll also tap into resources and insights that every Memphis founder should know about.
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