When you have the vigor to achieve your dream, nothing can keep you back. With the same thought process, Anuradha quit her job to pursue her dream and ended up launching a startup. She has always been crazy about travelling and reading books. She has an expertise in programming and has completed her bachelors in computer sciences. Her startup called travel highway caters to travel industry by helping people discover amazing places and offering information about the same.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
Travel Highway is a travel portal aimed at curating all possible information about a place, organized into various categories for quick and easy access. Be it the history of the place, weather, tourist attractions, things to do, hotels/accommodations, how to reach and places nearby. For example, if you need ideas for an adventurous getaway from Bangalore for a weekend, check out http://travelhighway.com/places-near-bangalore and explore the places. We also craft up itineraries for road trips, weekend getaways, offbeat trips etc in our blog.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
When many people asked us regarding “Places to visit nearby for the weekend”. With the advent of hundreds of travel portals with more focus on bookings (hotels, flights, tours, packages etc) and hardly any on the intended destination, it’s our aim to provide all possible information about travel destinations at one place.
What is your life mantra?
One day at a time.
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
To actually sit and build Travel Highway. And the journey is going to be even more challenging now.
How did you overcome those challenges?
It is indeed very difficult to overcome the mindset of avoiding taking risks. We all live by a clock and nobody knows when it is going to stop. Life is not simply a marathon, sometimes when it is required; you have got to sprint too. Winning is secondary. The thought of “I should at least have given it a try” could turn very fatal in the later part of life, if not handled in the initial stages. I guess that’s what motivates most of us who decide to take a leap of faith.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
Travel Highway is completely bootstrapped by its founders as of now.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
Determination, no doubt. Discipline, a skilled asset. A sailor-like vision, to steer towards the right direction or steer away from wrong.
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
Very few and common tools such as email clients, social media apps, travel related apps etc.
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
The itch to finish a task at hand!
Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.
Procrastination. The habit to put things off until it is out of sight.
Answer in less than 50 words
One tip to success:
Put your best in everything you do.
One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:
The mistake of not learning from the mistakes.
One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:
Do not give up. You will never know what lies around the corner until you see it.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
Work, work and more work! Huge tasks like expansion of database to add more wonderful places, collaboration with great brands and of course more travel
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
I would either enter the current career path I am in right now or start the same way I did back then. Because that is what led me here.
What are your top three getaway destinations?
Europe, Australia/New Zealand and of course our beautiful India.
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
“You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.”