It is no secret that once someone spends 4 (or 5…or 6…or) years of their life making friends, living, maturing, eating and partying…oh, and studying in one place, that place becomes near and dear to his/her heart.  So dear, in fact, that the mere mention that another place could potentially be a “better” locale to spend these years is widely known to spur name-calling and fist-fights at bars throughout the country.

The truth of the matter is, in all seriousness, that the college years are truly a special part of life for those fortunate enough to have the experience.  The knowledge gained in those years goes well beyond what one learns in the classroom, and of course, includes an understanding of the college(’s) town like no non-alum could ever be expected to acquire.

So, if you are new to Duffel and wondering where to get started, why not start with your college town?  Or if you haven’t thought about your school days is a while, why not duffel up your college town?  Or if you, somehow, someway, believe your college town is better than mine and truly “the best” and want it featured on our All Stars page, well then it’s time to duffel up your college town.  When you’re done, send me an email at evan@duffelup.com with the link.

Have fun…and do be nice!

The day finally arrived.  After a year and half of eating, breathing and living Duffel, and nine months of interacting with our favorite Beta testers, we finally launched at TechCrunch50 DemoPit on last week!  To say that we were nervous is a drastic understatement — we were scared sh-tless (pardon our French, though we do love France).  Despite the staying up late and waking up in a cold sweat, launching at TC50 was one of the best experiences we could have hoped for.  People loved our intuitive interface and were fascinated by the ease of use, but perhaps most rewarding of all, they shared Duffel’s vision and gave invaluable feedback.  Sometimes being entrepreneur takes a little bit of “crazy” and it’s comforting to know that we weren’t alone.  Besides, earning Jack Arrington’s (Michael’s father) poker chip was one of the events that made our day a bit different than ordinary.

A big thanks to our die-hard fans who helped to make this day happen.  Duffel would not have been what it was without your support and feedback.  Thank you for your passion.  Thanks for all the buzz on Twitter and Facebook, and if you haven’t had a chance to, you can follow us on Twitter @duffelup and fan us on Facebook.  Moreover, thanks to our stellar Duffel team who believed in Duffel and worked endlessly around the clock - you are the brain of Duffel.  And finally, thanks to TechCrunch50 for putting up a great show.  It was absolutely an eye-opening experience.

As part of the launch, we did put in quite a bit of interesting features.  The list goes on, but first off, we gave our homepage a fresh face-lift.  It is now more interactive and inviting - do you agree?  We are also integrated with Facebook Connect, so now you can invite and share with Facebook friends.  And of course, you also can sign up using a Facebook account.  Besides the new features, we made quite a bit of changes to improve our trip planning dashboard, as well as gave users recommended activities to kick start their travel research.  We’d love your feedback on these.

Despite the successful launch, we’re not stopping here.  There are still a lot of work to do, problems to solve, and challenges to overcome.  Our vision - to build the most flexible trip planner for every traveler - remains unwavering.  We are stronger than ever, and we are here to make a difference.  Stay tuned - we’ve got more exciting news coming!