MyGeoTrex: A collaborative museum tour for any location

I have an unhealthy obsession with museums, and I particularly love nerding out by renting those badly narrated audio tours that offer background information for every exhibit.

MyGeoTrex, a new startup launching today at the DEMO Spring 2012 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., is a lot like a museum tour for any location in the world — only without the bad narration, and with the power to create your own media entries for locations using your smartphone.

“The last time you went to the zoo, did you wish you had more information on the animals there? When you walked up to the Bengal tigers, did you want information on the tigers on your smartphone? MyGeoTrex can do that,” said co-founder Stephen Earls at the Demo Conference in Santa Clara, Calif.

The MyGeoTrex iPhone app lets you drop any sort of media, including photos, music, and videos, to a GPS location. You can make entries public for anyone to find, or private for a select group of people. When browsing a new city with the app, you can find public entries, as well as “Trexpeditions,” which contain a collection of location entries to explore.

The company competes with the likes of MyTourGuides, and Wallit, but co-founder and CEO Eric Small tells us that it differs since it combines individual features that some of its competitors offer. For example, MyTourGuides is focused on finding tours, instead of leaving your own mark.

MyGeoTrex has been in private beta for months, and Small tells us users have created hundreds of Trexpeditions. The company also has a fully-featured website that lets users access their GeoTrex data, in addition to the mobile app.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based company is self-funded and has two employees so far, Small and co-founder Steve Earls, who serves as VP of product management and sales.

MyGeoTrex is one of 80 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2012 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After we make our selections, the chosen companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.