Shefali WaliaFounder of WeTravelSolo Published On: Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Views 2388

"Keep Moving, Rest will Follow. Know your destination, Journey and Path will follow!"

Shefali Walia is an MBA in Marketing/Sales and has served at several positions in Business as Marketing professional. She always had the zeal to travel and has been traveling solo since several years. She has never abated her passion for traveling and decided to feel the pain of traveling solo herself before suggesting it to others. She has been researching and working on this unique concept of solotraveler`s community since last 2 years.

During her professional years, Shefali has worked towards the growth of various startups in different stages of their business. She patiently studied their Business Model, Strategy, Financing structures etc. She has experience of working in various industrial sectors like e-commerce, manufacturing, beauty & cosmetics and retail. A blend of intense travelling and five years professional experience impelled her with an innovative start-up idea – i.e. Wetravelsolo.com that is India’s first solo traveller community.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

We intend to build a Community for the Solo Travellers. 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.

However, there are three aspects in the statement i.e. Community, Solo and Travel. We combined these three aspects with the power of technology and made it as our USP. We plan to have like-minded individual travellers on a platform enabling each other in their passion for traveling in any manner. There are handcrafted trips by more experienced individual travellers on budget for others to join.

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

Explaining and selling the concept of traveling solo with like-minded people/strangers has been the most challenging thing to make people understand about. But at the same time, it has made people pretty excited about the thrill in it too.

How did you overcome those challenges?

Seeding information about our concept to desired people is the best way to overcome this challenge. We keep informing people about the campaigns we initiate on regular intervals through different social and traditional mediums.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service. *

WeTravelSolo is basically India’s first solo traveler community that enables a platform to the travel enthusiast to explore solo travelling with like-minded people.

What is your life mantra?

Passion has to be in everthing you do – When you are passionate and driven, you just keep going and smaller and bigger problems become a daily affair.

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

We have received seed funding from Ccube Angels, a Singapore based angel investors community, and Frontline Strategy Limited, a Mauritius based Investment company. They both have acquired a minority stake in our company.

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

Honesty towards work, hard work and the persistency are the three important qualities that one should have to achieve the success.

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

Mindmaps
Google Apps

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

Waking up Early

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

Multitasking

Answer in less than 50 words

One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

Trying to prove yourself right to others as well as your own self.

One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:

Keep Moving, Rest will Follow. Know your destination, Journey and Path will follow!

What are your plans for next 3 years?

We are coming up with our Mobile application which will enable like-minded people to find each other and plan trips. It is going to be an amazing new feature. We are coming up with many more amazing features in near future.

What are your top three getaway destinations?