The World Is
At Their Fingertips
JULIE EDGAR STAFF WR TER
H
and in band, Lawrence
Levy and Michelle Cooper
explore the -universe from
the glowing monitors in
their Southfield office.
The couple, engaged to be mar-
ried next May, are in the business
of collecting places for a new on-
line venture that will be accessi-
ble to over 150 million Microsoft
Windows 95 users. They're look-
ing to introduce travelers who
may or may not be connected with
a knowledgeable travel agent to
exotic and relaxing adventures
throughout North America and
Mexico.
TravelNet U.S.A. Ltd., the
name of their new company, is
connected with a
cyber-geared enterprise that orig-
inated in England.
On a dive boat in the Cayman
Islands a couple years back, Mr.
Levy, 25, and Ms. Cooper, 34, met
Mike Riley, an Englishman who,
among other pursuits, runs the
travel section on Microsoft Net-
work, an online server to the In-
ternet.
Mr. Riley mentioned that he
needed advertisers from the
States, Canada and Mexico, but
being in England, it wasn't easy
to mine the vast array of travel op-
tions here.
"He wanted it to be more world-
ly for the user of the Microsoft Net-
work," Mr. Levy said.
Since mid-December, the
couple have been organizing
their own computer system and
looking for advertisers — any-
body from tour and rental car
companies to hotels to ski lodges
to individuals with time-share
condominiums — to place their
money and aspirations in cy-
berspace.
TravelNet offers the adver-
tiser a potential audience of mil-
lions, neat graphics and up to 20
pages of advertising, which will
be sold by the year.
"I'm positive there are com-
petitors, but I think this setup will
be different because of its accessi-
bility and user friendliness. The
graphics and the interactive
graphics will be much superior
to anything that is seen now.
Prodigy and America Online trav-
el advertisers, in my opinion, look
like a Mickey Mouse cartoon," Mr.
Levy says.
What will pull Microsoft Net-
work ahead of
the pack, if it
Names: Lawrence Levy and
happens, is a Michelle Cooper
secured trans-
Occupation: Owners, Tray
mission line elNet U.S.A. Ltd.
that will en-
Family: Mr. Levy's parents
able credit-card are Lou and Lori Levy; step
holders to re- brother, Josh Rubin. Ms. Coop-
serve and buy er's parents are Tom and Lisa
travel pack- Show,- sister, Helen Mahoney;
ages online.
and children, Alec and
The travel Danielle.
service is accessi-
ble now but only
through a site on
Microsoft Net-
work called Unit-
ed Kingdom
Passport. By next
month, Mr. Levy
says, the Ameri-
can Passport site
will be up and
Michelle Cooper and Lawrence Levy:
Globetrotters.
running.
Mr. Levy also runs Quik Text
from the same Southfield Road of-
fice. The 5-year-old company of-
fers electronic filing, bookkeeping
and accounting for small busi-
nesses. Ms. Cooper, who worked
in marketing for 10 years and
then spent another four as a tray-
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