What do you currently do?
I am the Founder and CEO of Kiwi.com, an innovative and fast growing online global travel agent.
What was the inspiration behind the business?
I was travelling to Portugal with my girlfriend five years ago and i couldn’t find one online site that would enable me to complete my journey with a couple of different airlines, and provide me with boarding passes in one transaction. Due to complex and legacy agreements with airlines there is no smooth way to combine all into one self curated itinerary, so with some smart algorithmic technology we came up with the solution to make this possible – I call it ‘virtual interlining’.
That was five years ago, Kiwi.com now provides access to over 700 airlines, receives over 50 million flight searches a day on our site, and, my girlfriend is now my wife.
What defines your way of doing business?
We focus on our customers. We are not afraid to do things nobody has done before in order for our customer to get the best deal.
We really want to disrupt the way that travel is researched and booked, we don’t want agents to just direct you to the carriers or hotels that they have exclusive deals with, rather we want to be a technology provider that gives you the widest choice and value for you to decide what you want to buy and when.
Who do you admire?
Elon Musk, for his sheer tenacity, boundary challenger and vision. He is redefining transportation on earth and in space.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
Sure, so many things! But given my experience back then, I believe I’ve always done the best thing I could.
What advice would you give to anyone starting out?
Just do it. Don’t waste time with analysis and predictions. Nothing gives you a better feedback than real customers. The best moment to start has just passed, the second best one is now.
