Q: What was the first week of launch like?
We’d spent many weeks getting ready for the launch, so we were pretty well-prepared. However, when a major Australian news site published a positive review of our site on the second day, the volume of traffic to our site forced us to scale our infrastructure by more than 4x to handle the number of visitors. We did not anticipate just how popular the site was going to be in the first few days.
Q: That plane crash image – that backfired, didn’t it? What has that taught you?
Well, we weren’t in a typical start-up position. We were on the front page ofnews.com.au for a second day in a row. There are many things we’ve all learned from this incident, but probably our best takeaway is that we realised how well we work together as a team. We quickly fixed the page, spoke with the journalist, monitored the feedback and did it all on a Friday morning.
Q: Why flights when it’s such a competitive space and margins are so low?
Basically, we were frustrated that there was no easy option to search and compare for sale airfares. We thought there was a need for a site where consumers could come, see the actual sale fare and book it quickly, directly from the airline.
There’s a lot of potential here. There are a lot of savvy shoppers in Australia and this site is geared toward them.
Q: What do you offer that other flight sites don’t?
GetFlight is the first and only site dedicated to sale airfares for flights in and from Australia.
Q: How long did it take you to get this off the ground?
We started working on this project in January 2011.
Q: Let’s talk about Travellr, your previous start-up? What gave you the idea?
Travellr was my third business. I got the idea for Travellr after spending a few days in Tokyo and realising that everyone had the same Lonely Planet book and that trying to find something to do meant digging through travel forums and finding out of date information and wading through pages of information. I thought “there is just so much travel and local knowledge inside of everyone’s heads, and yet we rely on a handful of travel authors to tell us where to stay and what to do?!”.
With this in mind I built Travellr.com to let travellers share their own travel advice and tap into the wealth of travel knowledge that exists within all of us.
Q: When did you realise it was going to work?
On our launch day someone posted a question asking where they could buy a second hand four-wheel-drive in Kenya. I was really worried that we couldn’t answer such an obscure question, but within 24 hours another member who had just recently purchased a 4wd posted details of the car dealer and address. So I guess that proved that it was working!
Q: When did you sell it? Did you start it with the intention of selling it?
World Nomads approached me just after launching in 2009, and it took about six months to finalise the deal. I started with the intention of building a business that could take on investment. Monetising travel content is hard, hard, business as a startup, so you have to keep your options open or be able to self fund.
Q: Same with GetFlight? You have an exit strategy in mind already?
Our sole focus at the moment is on building a site that Australians who want to search for flight deals will love. We are self-funded and are not looking for an exit.
Q: How about expansion? You see the model working elsewhere?
Our plan is to keep learning and focusing on the Australian market.
Note: Ian Cumming will be speaking at WIT Australia on June 21. He will be casting his eye over the travel start-up landscape in and sharing what’s new and hot in the space.
