The real origin story of TripNav doesn’t start with code. It starts with me standing in Halifax, keys to a rental car in hand, feeling wildly optimistic about how organized this day was going to be. I had done my homework. I asked ChatGPT to help plan a coastal road trip. It did a great job—Peggy’s Cove, scenic viewpoints, lunch spots, a few “don’t-miss” places along the way. I copied the list, opened Google Maps, and then reality hit. One stop at a time. Copy. Paste. Confirm. Repeat. Ten minutes later, I was still entering addresses and wondering why something this simple felt so… manual. At the time, I laughed it off. But the thought stuck. Once I finally hit the road, everything else fell into place. The drive out toward Peggy’s Cove was pure Atlantic magic—quiet roads, endless sky, and that feeling that you’re slowly leaving urgency behind. Standing by the lighthouse, watching waves crash against ancient granite, it was impossible to rush anything. Fun fact: the rocks here are over a billion years old, which makes your unread emails feel extremely unimportant. From there, I let the day wander a bit. I stopped at Swissair Flight 111 Memorial, a quiet, powerful place overlooking the ocean. Then I followed the coast toward Polly’s Cove, where the views are just as dramatic but far less crowded. These weren’t “optimized” stops—they were the kind you take because the road suggests them. Lunch happened at Sou’Wester Restaurant, mostly because it was there, and partly because eating seafood while staring directly at the Atlantic feels like the correct life choice. It was relaxed, unhurried, and exactly what the day needed. Driving back to Halifax later, I kept thinking about that small frustration at the start—the ten minutes lost to typing stops into Google Maps. The trip itself was effortless. The planning wasn’t. And that mismatch stayed with me. That’s really where TripNav came from. Not from trying to replace Google Maps or outsmart navigation—but from wanting a simple way to take a list of places (from ChatGPT, a blog, a friend, or a book), drop them in once, and be on the road in seconds. Less setup. More journey. Because if a trip is already this good, planning it shouldn’t be the hardest part.