More than a 'behind the scenes', this is a 'under the skin' - a raw, honest tale of what it's like to do battle with the demons of failure, hoping for a god that can't be found. Awaiting Part 3.
Wow, that was effective story-telling. At first I agreed that accessing the US market was crucial; and then that growing the present market was crucial. It's easy to see explosive global growth like dropbox's being necessary; but usually growth is segment-by-segment, especially with geographically or socially based businesses (e.g. Airbnb began in US, craigslist began in SF, facebook began in Harvard).
Melbourne doesn't seem as ideally placed as a world travel center... however, Australians and New Zealanders are disproportionately world-travellers. It's a great place to start. Lonely Planet actually started in Australia, and grew from there (they didn't even have Western European books for a long time, because not their target). They sold their last 25% stake for $67m - it's not "a billion dollars", but it's OK, and they made a difference.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planet#The_Wheelers.27_f... Bonus coincidence: their head office is in Melbourne.
> everyone knows the only way to make money out of flight search is to add hotel search.
Errr, is this true?
Then why do the flight search as the main thing.
Recently I have been trying to find a holiday bolthole for my family. Find me the perfect holiday and I will accept a higher than usual flight - I just want to fidn a great hotel for two weeks not a nice flight for six hours
Tom, I'm a poor student who has booked 3 trips through you guys, I love it and don't know why everybody doesn't use it. Feel free to hit me up, I'm in Sydney.
I was an early fan of your service - really liked where it seemed to be headed. Used it about 4 or 5 times and the only reason I stopped is my brother started a travel agent business. Kind of consistent with your story I just checked out your site again and my general impression without looking too hard is "not as good/polished/compelling as it was before". I guess because you've been trying lots of different stuff out.
Did you get any research to suggest people want to be pinged when good deals come up? My own use case is generally I've decided I want to go somewhere at around about some time and I just want to book it. Also most instances of people travelling that I can think of right now are similar. So I was surprised to see your front page pushing the alert feature so hard.
I'm sure Howard's laptop had more than just code on it.
Which brings me to my next point: If you use a laptop, do regular backups of the contents. And keep those backups in a separate location from the laptop.
This is the 3rd story I can remember reading about people getting their laptop stolen. And I know someone who had their laptop stolen recently, I was even in the room where it happened while it happened. (I was doing something else and didn't notice it's absence.)
When it happens, the backups will be your only consolation.
(And any tracking technologies you may have at work.)
I love this series Tom! I've been a big fan of adioso for a long time (I've used it for most flights I've booked in the past 3 years).
I didn't realize how much it was struggling and it's refreshing to see someone sharing the honest truth about the company, makes me realize that it's not just me going through these struggles and startups are hard on everyone, even those who graduate from y-combinator with funding.
What do you guys think of Flocations, assuming you've seen them? They're Singapore-based and targeting the same market you guys (initially) are - budget travellers to/within Southeast Asia.
I think both your sites are great and look forward to using them soon. I've already recommened Flocations to a few people and will do the same for Adioso. Rooting for you here!
Brutally honest which is refreshing, it sometimes feels like a lot of the time start ups gloss over the obvious truth that it's just not working, yet.
They seem like smart guys, there's a real problem there and probably as importantly there's a market. Last holiday I had (and it was my first as well) took me about 3 weeks to fully book as getting the right options, timing etc was so non-obvious through some of the incumbents.
Looking forward to Part 3, I'm interested to see where the story goes.
Simply a brilliant read. If the business does not work out, perhaps you could get a publishing deal. Hope things turn out well, and looking forward to the next episode in what would make an amazing reality TV show.
They only have 5 months of burn rate left, they are doing a big rearchitecture of their site, and they go on a "hacking retreat" in New Zealand?
I understand that taking a break and getting perspective while in the midst of a lot of work can be effective, but this seems a little bit extravagant.
Especially if you run a website designed to find you the cheapest airfares. But seriously, you can get a return flight SYD or MEL to AKL for about $200+taxes.
All their hiring ads have emphasized being someone who enjoys traveling as a bonus. They have ran travel based meetups. In some ways it would be hard to stay connected to the audience without also traveling from time to time.
still have to agree with tim_sw, I am amazed startups looking at 5 month window decide to take company retreats (maybe we are talking only 2-3 people?)
If you're burning out and are struggling, sometimes a break and some time to think things through without the pressure is the best thing you could do.
You know how when you have a really tricky bug that's killing you, that you really want to figure out right now. Sometimes, the best way to solve it is to step away for a little bit. Take a walk, go to the gym, and it'll come to you. Same thing.
