About Matador:
Ben

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As one of the founders of Matador Travel, Ben brings a passion for cultural understanding and positive global change, as well as a tireless work ethic and quest for adventure. Ben learned the importance of stepping outside of one’s day-to-day world at a young age when he accompanied rural health missions to China and East Africa. Through those experiences Ben realized the unifying power that travel and cultural awareness can have on individuals. Since then he has lived, worked, and explored in over thirty countries and five continents. He has lived and studied in Spain, traveled throughout Europe, taught and lived in Central America, trekked and surfed throughout South America and continues to encourage others to experience different cultures first hand. He believes that cultural understanding is what breaks down stereotypes and creates a universal bond between people of different backgrounds. The purpose of Matador Travel is a reflection of the Founders’ efforts to facilitate this understanding.

Matador is founded on an ethic of participation: what we take in, we should also give back. Passionate Travel, unlike tourism, is not about consumption. It’s about being IN the world – about curiosity, respect and reciprocity.

Ben graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Spanish. In addition to being a founding partner of Matador Travel, Ben is also a dedicated youth worker and part-time adventure travel guide. As a coach, teacher, tutor, and mentor Ben has always tried to enrich the lives of young people around the world. He is currently working as a Program Coordinator for a Youth Leadership Program in San Francisco that enables a diverse group of Bay Area teenagers to gain valuable leadership skills and experience through community enrichment projects, outdoor wilderness training, internships, and leadership seminars. Ben also volunteers as a kayaking and backpacking guide for another Bay Area based youth program. His outdoor leadership experience includes time as a trip leader for a well known Travel Company in the US, as well as many mountain expeditions, kayaking trips, and backpacking adventures both domestically and abroad. As co-founder of Matador Travel, Ben is driven to create a unique place for Passionate Travelers to connect through travel writing, social networking, community building and philanthropy.

The internet is the only medium that lets us literally circle the globe without leaving home—and visit home from whatever far-flung corner of the world we have carried ourselves to. Physical travel and virtual travel can unite on the Web – only if we remember that human connection and the sharing of wonder are at the heart of the travel experience.

Ross

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Co-founder of Matador Travel, adventurer and proponent of the participatory web, Ross was a travel junkie long before he had reached the summit of Kilimanjaro at age 16. He has what Ben describes as a "calculated fearlessness" and a determination to prove that nothing is impossible; qualities that come in handy as an intrepid traveler and determined entrepreneur.

Ben and I are both Passionate Travelers. Like millions of others around the world, our sense of ourselves has been shaped by experiences thousands of miles from where we were born and raised. We started Matador because there was nothing on the Internet that incorporated all the aspects of what we thought were essential to a social travel site--one that would attract people we respect and admire--and empower them to communicate, collaborate, and share their knowledge and passion about the things they've discovered across the globe.

Ross's quest for unique adventure and exploration of the unknown has led him to live, work and study in Spain, Africa and South America. As a college student, Ross studied international relations in Madrid for a year and immersed himself in the Spanish culture and way of life. Reluctant to return to the U.S., Ross' long time passion for the Dark Continent led him back to rural Kenya where he hitchhiked to every corner of East Africa and worked with schools in the foothills of Mt. Kenya, raising money for a private charity that sought to improve the primary education of local children. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a BA in International Relations and a minor in Business, Ross left for South America with college buddies including long time friend and co-founder Ben, and spent four amazing months trekking and climbing his way through Peru, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. He immediately fell in love with the beauty and passion of the Argentine way of life and moved into an apartment in Buenos Aires with two frenchies. By day he taught English in the barrio of San Telmo, and by night he spent his earnings exploring the nightlife and culture of Bs As. Finally the money in Argentina wore thin and in an inexplicable turn of events, Ross found himself working for a large enterprise software company in Silicon Valley, spending the majority of his days in a cubicle. The shock of going from a South American adventure to a life of corporate monotony solidified Ross' decision to become an entrepreneur. He capitalized on the time in front of the computer by studying the intricacies and potential of the culture of participation and how it was changing the Web.

In the back of my mind I knew the ultimate adventure was still on the horizon: starting my own business. A year later I decided to apply my experience in adventure travel, NGOs and technology and formulate a business plan that would combine what I loved most (travel) with what I saw as the most important movement on the Internet (participation), and center the business on what I hoped people would embrace (positive development and sustainability in a rapidly changing world). I knew Ben shared my vision and thus, Matador was born.