Brief introduction about yourself and tell us something about We travel solo? I am born and bought up in Ambala. I moved to Delhi in 2008 after joining Amity University for my MBA. After completing MBA, I worked for various startups and growth stage companies as Business and Marketing Strategist, in the meanwhile, I came up with the idea of WeTravelSolo. Being an avid traveler, I never waited for a company to join me for a journey. This is when I planned to start a company which would work as a community of like-minded people. So, I founded this company in June 2014. The company belongs to travel industry and we are a start-up. www.wetravelsolo.com Wetravelsolo is an interest network for connecting like-minded individuals online as well as offline over common interests. Wetravelsolo is version 10.0 of Solo Travelling. A ten times bigger door to enter the unexplored world. There are more people to meet than places to see or vice versa. It offers you limitless options to travel and meet like-minded people. It brings to you expert advice, guidance and company of people who have traveled the world far and long, as your Trip Crafters. It lets you take trips, explore the world, connect with people you never knew existed and share your travel stories with the whole wide world. With this app, you not merely travel solo but you travel solo, together.
Please tell about your inspirational book $100 startup, and the idea behind inception of Wetravelsolo. Though I have traveled Solo Extensively, Taken A Lot Risks while traveling Alone.. Took 4 am Cab, went alone with Driver to an unknown area for the thrill of exploring the place I.E Deeps of Agumbe which i later discovered is also a Naxalite hit area.. Took long lonely walks on beach to reach a Light house. But This Idea was born on in the confines of one of my jobs, where I was getting ample free time.. So I read a Book "$100 start up". This book touched me. It was mentioned that start a Business of things that are close to your heart. So I asked myself, which are the elements that are close to my heart - Answer was - Travel, Community Building, Social Networking, Empowering Individuality for people and getting the individuality accepted and the business itself - Hence Wetravelsolo Although I am an avid reader and have read a lot of books but this book explains the idea of starting up from Ground Zero. It does not explain you how to set up big businesses but simply motivates you to move out of your comfort zone. There after a lot of research happened, a lot from my personal experience to build up a strong business model around my passion. With very fine observations, we came across many problems and gaps. We found those problems so intriguing that we thought innovation is a must in these spaces and that’s how WeTravelSolo came in mind. There is no healthy way for people to increase their social circle. After a certain age our friend circle starts depleting. Our only Social Circle is primarily our work colleagues or old friends. We all have an urge to meet new like-minded people in a healthy way. Traveling is one of the methods that let you meet new people with least inhibitions. We all have urge to travel. When that travel itch comes, there is no escape from it other than traveling. And sometime it is very difficult to find like-minded people who will travel at the same time, as you; same place as you want and same manner as yours. You will have to compromise in some manner while traveling with people. Even if you compromised and travel, there is no surety that you will have fun. Solo Traveling is glamorous, but it is very boring as well. Even when we are traveling solo, we are looking for ways to meet new people. So why do you need to travel solo when there is a community that lets you connect with other solo travelers and TRAVEL SOLO TOGETHER WITH THEM while taking care of your on trip Experience. We plan to have like-minded individual travelers on a platform enabling each other in their passion for traveling in any manner. There are hand crafted trips by more experienced individual travelers on budget for others to join. Innovative platform; please share your future goals for expanding Wetravelsolo? With Wetravelsolo, we intend to build a common platform where people can unite, travel and socially interact with each other over common interest areas. For all Solo Travelers, now there is a community which brings like-minded people who enjoys doing similar things and visiting similar places on a common interest based platform.
Please share what all challenges you faced while walking your entrepreneurial journey. Explaining and Selling the Concept of Traveling solo with like-minded people/strangers has been a challenge but has made people pretty excited about the thrill in it. Back in 2014, People have mocked the idea of strangers traveling together and had even asked me to not even give it a try as it more of a global idea than Indian. We are here trying to create a behavior among Indian Markets and No behavior is built in a Day. So we are having parallel journey of convincing both Investors as well as Consumers. Travel Industry was fairly new to me, when I have started! Faced Quite a Bit of Challenges. But they were all fun and have made me a stronger person. When you are passionate and driven, you just keep going and smaller and bigger problems become a daily affair. I too have a flair for inviting problems in my life as being a strong headed woman I don’t compromise on my attitude. Of course with that in hand, you will invite a lot of problems.
What piece of advice would you like to give to the aspiring youth who wish to pursue their dream of becoming an entrepreneur?
According to you, what are the top three essential skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
How do you manage the work-life balance? Do Entrepreneurs have a life? ;) I take small breaks while hanging out with friends or spending some me time. Take a Solo Trip and a Wetravelsolo trip at least once a month!
What are your views and opinions towards the ambiguous need to promote women entrepreneurship and women empowerment in India? I was having this conversation with few fellow women entrepreneurs that how much we envy Men`s club. Howsoever hard we try; it is very difficult to replicate the same with Women. It is no denying the fact that Women Entrepreneurship needs to be promoted with more and more women coming together to help each other.
