Archive for Travel – Page 2

Scott’s Cheap Flights

Posted by Alec Wichman 
· Tuesday, September 17th, 2019 
· 1 Comment

The service Scott’s Cheap Flights was created by Scott Keyes in 2013. The humble beginnings of this service started as Scott had found an incredibly cheap international flight online. He did not plan to buy the ticket but he didn’t want the incredible deal he found to go unused either, so he shared the details with collogues and friends, and pretty soon he built up an email list with amazing flight deals, marking the beginning of Scott’s Cheap Flights. From here, Scott built a business out of a seemingly random occurrence once he saw the potential market for a business of this caliber. Scott’s team has members all across the globe, with employees in various countries trying to find the best deals for their premium members. The real magic of the service is that they have generated millions in profit since the inception of the company and have only 500$ in marketing!

 

Scott was able to take something completely random and look for ways to turn a profit on it. He capitalized on a specific area of a market in a way that set his company apart from the crowd. What makes his service special is the sheer simplicity of it; all you need to do is select the airports you depart from, put in your email and it’s as simple as that. For a fee, you can upgrade to receive knowledge even more exclusive deals with better fares. Scott Keyes is a prime example of what an entrepreneur should be: one who takes an idea a sees how it can be used to solve a problem.

 

Source: scottscheapflights.com

 

1 Comment
Categories : Airlines, Aviation, Great Ideas, Travel

Brian Chesky- Airbnb

Posted by Rebecca Cloyd 
· Monday, September 16th, 2019 
· 3 Comments

Brian Chesky is the 37 year old CEO of the company Airbnb. The idea for the company started back in 2007 when Brian and his roommate Joe Gebbia struggled to find the resources to pay rent on their apartment. With no ideas left they began to rent out an air mattress in their apartment for $80 a night, and somehow it worked. The small idea grew quickly and by 2008 they launched their company Airbnb. Since the opening of Airbnb the company has been used by over 300 million people in several places around the world,  and is still continuing to grow. As of May 2019 the company is worth $38 billion dollars.

Even after the company took off Brian Chesky still chose to live a fairly modest lifestyle. For several years after the grand opening he still continued to live in the same apartment and rent it out, this time with a lower price and the addition of a couch instead of an air mattress. The story of the founding of Airbnb is a great example of what it looks like to find a need and fill it. While they were not fixing a public need, they did solver their own financial need and went above and beyond what they initial anticipated it to be. They used an entrepreneurial mindset to try and fix the present need at hand.

In an article about the company  found on business on businessinsider.com, Chesky (speaking to kids) states, ” I want to show them that their dreams are not bounded by what they can see in front of them. Their limits are not so limited”. What an encouragement and challenge to this generation of potential entrepreneurs. We can learn from Chesky that no idea is to far off, and that even the simplest things might be worth investing in. Sometimes it takes being bold and putting yourself out there, you never really know what ideas will make a lasting impact on the people around you.

3 Comments
Categories : Travel, Uncategorized

Kidzcationz

Posted by JonesHL1 
· Friday, November 9th, 2018 
· 3 Comments

Bella Tipping is a 13 year old entrepreneur. She has created a travel website but it is not just any ordinary travel website, it’s Kidzcationz. This website is focused around kids and what they think of their trips. The kids are allowed to rate their experience at hotels, restaurants, and attractions.  They rate based on how well these places support their needs. For example, restaurants are rated in regards to food and drinks, friendly staff, kids entertainment, easy access to toilets, quiet area, quick meals, disability access, and caring staff.  This gives children the opportunity to use their voices and they are able to compare places to what other children their age are doing.

Bella Tipping wants to fight for social change because she wants to live in a world where everyone is included.  Her motto says it all. She says that “if you think it, you can do it.”  I think that this is a great example for young entrepreneurs as the world is changing and expanding constantly as they are growing up.

Kidzcationz

3 Comments
Categories : Restaurants, Travel

Wearing the World – Serengetee

Posted by nakhlacn17 
· Tuesday, November 6th, 2018 
· 3 Comments

In 2011, Jeff Steitz was traveling the world with the Semester at Sea program through his school, Claremont McKenna College. Less than a year later, he and a few buddies would have begun a travel-inspired business marketing textiles from around the world in a unique and appealing way, all based out of their dorm room.

Fabrics are a universal product—anywhere people travel in the world, they’ll find cloth being produced and sold in a limitless variety of patterns. Serengetee’s signature product, the pocket tee, is a basic t-shirt sporting an attached pocket made of fabric from another country. Customers can choose from over fifty designs, a selection which is constantly being added to as Serengetee reaches more corners of the world.

“It’s amazing how far you can go in only a year from literally nothing to having a full-fledged brand and business,” Serengetee co-founder Ryan Westberg observes.

Besides supporting vendors, each Serengetee pocket is associated with a specific grassroots organization, to which every purchase gives back a portion.

Ryan says that the business was truly a “product of social networks” in the way they had to depend on individual connections— “our friends and their friends”—to succeed. Their innovative spirit matches that of the international businesses they support, who often struggle to make a profit and progress in their ventures.

“What makes us feel great about the future is that the more products we sell, the bigger the impact will be on our partner causes. These win-win situations are the true benefits of a social venture,” says Jeff Steitz.

The process of founding Serengetee has proved to be rewarding, as the business generates a profit margin between 60 and 80%, with 13% going toward charitable causes. As their products are scattered all over the world, Serengetee’s five sales executives are appropriately spread all over the U.S., with representatives across college campuses working to promote the brand and get their fellow students to “travel more.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnrk3IDnn8_/

Shop their site: https://www.serengetee.com/

3 Comments
Categories : Clothing, Outdoors, Travel, Uncategorized
Tags : , , , ,

Brian Chesky

Posted by demeom20 
· Monday, September 17th, 2018 
· 4 Comments

I am sure nowadays everyone either knows or has in some way heard the name Airbnb or personally used the app. This app has completely revolutionized to travel and hotel industry and was created by some of the youngest entrepreneurs. The co-founder of Airbnb is only 37 years old named Brian Chesky .When he first got started with his business he was only 27 years old. I found him and his business interesting because he completely innovated the hotel business with his business. Before his business if you wanted to stay somewhere you had basically three options. You would have to stay in a hotel, motel, or with a friend or family. If you didn’t have any friends or family in the area you were forced to settle with spending the money. Airbnb changed that.

So far, about 44.8 million adults are using Airbnb worldwide. In 2014 their website surpassed 800,000 listings. That means they have surpassed Hilton Worldwide, the InterContinental Hotels Group or any other hotel chain in the world in logging numbers. The business is only getting bigger and bigger each year as well.

When asked about what he credits his success to he said, “childlike curiosity and wonder…[is] probably the most important trait you can have, especially as an entrepreneur.” His promotion of the importance of a young perspective is inspiring because it gives me hope that I could possibly come up with a successful idea just like he did.

I am also inspired to look for the mashups. He saw people who needed places to stay who also didn’t want to pay a ton and placed them with people who were willing to rent out their own property. They found a way for people to make money using things they already own and to satisfy the need for travelers to have a cheaper more homelike stay.

People like Chesky are helping to inspire young thinkers everywhere to believe in their ideas and try to make a difference in the world every day.

 

4 Comments
Categories : Blog, Business, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Millennial Entrepreneurs, Travel, Youngest Entrepreneurs

Garrett Gee – Scan

Posted by warricknj18 
· Monday, September 17th, 2018 
· 3 Comments

In 2011, Garrett Gee saw a need for a simple QR code scanning app. Many of the ones available at the time were clunky and hard to use. The iPad 2 was being introduced in February, and he thought there might be a blog that showed the top ten apps for the new tablet. He wanted to be the first one with an easy-to-use QR code scanner for the iPad 2. A few days after the release of the device, Garrett launched Scan. It found a place in the blog like he was hoping, and gained a large amount of traction. Three months later, there had been over one million downloads of the app, and 25 million downloads by the end of 2012. The app and website were updated often with new features, including the ability to scan different types of codes and make QR codes to link to your Instagram account.

Scan was able to acquire $1.7 million in investments by 2013, including money from Google Ventures. Garrett also presented on Shark Tank in 2013, but did not secure any investments. Their revenue came mostly from advertisements on the app and website, and in May, 2012, their advertising revenue had risen to over $1,000 each day.

Scan was sold to Snapchat in the fall of 2014 for $54 million. Once this happened, Garrett and his wife Jessica decided to take their (at the time) two kids and travel the world, but they also said that they would not spend any of the money made from the Scan transaction. They put the money away, and pretty much started from scratch again. In the fall of 2015, they sold almost all of their belongings, which totaled to $51,500. They were going to live off of that money from August to December, then figure out what to do from there.

At the end of the time period, they decided to keep traveling, but only if they could find a way to have it be self-sustaining or profitable. From the beginning, Garrett had been working on creating a brand for the family (The Bucket List Family) with things like their blog, YouTube videos, and Instagram. They worked hard to find companies to work with who would support them in exchange for promotion. At the beginning, they had trouble breaking even since they were small, but eventually they started making a good amount of money. Now they get paid anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 for a sponsored YouTube video, and $5,000 to $8,000 for an Instagram post. Companies they have worked with include hotels, clothing brands, Airbnb, and GoPro. They have been able to have some amazing experiences on their travels.

The Gee family, specifically Garrett, put in lots of time and effort to become successful. He did it with Scan, then started all over with a new idea to support their family passion for traveling. There is much that can be learned from him and his family.

3 Comments
Categories : App, Business, Online Companies, Shark Tank, Social Media, Travel

From One Thing To The Next

Posted by woullardcc1 
· Monday, December 11th, 2017 
· 9 Comments

Elon Musk is one of the most influential entrepreneurs of not only now, but of all time. He has been working on countless ways to make the world we win in a better place. Elon Musk doesn’t always just fix problems, but he also makes people realize how the world really should be. The first way he did that was through PayPal. PayPal was his innovative way to help people purchase products safely, securely, and quickly. This product has changed the way people are able to purchase what they want with confidence because of their ability to make sure the money only gets paid if the person paying, gets what they actually wanted.

Another innovative idea he developed was Tesla. Tesla is a car company focused on making cars that are run off batteries and from electric motors. This has changed the world of how cars work. The batteries used to make the cars have also changed the though of how powerful batteries can be and how useful they are. Mr. Musk wants to continue to work on making housing panels that allow ones house to be powered by solar energy, and make more clean, reusable energy for everyday use.

Another one of Elan’s innovations is his SpaceX company. This company is working with NASA to help get astronauts back into space. America is currently a country that cannot send astronauts into space, but Musk is working to change that. He has created new rockets that will allow up to seven astronauts to go into space. His design is based off the Apollo mission designs from when humans first went to the moon.

In the end, Elon Musk has truly changed the world by his ability to be an entrepreneur. He has made life better for humans, and will also continue to change the world by his future innovations.

9 Comments
Categories : Business, Cars, Sci Fi Inspiration, Solar Power, Sustainable, Technology, Transportation, Travel

Scott’s Cheap Flights – Save Hundreds on International Travel

Posted by forddn17 
· Monday, September 25th, 2017 
· 6 Comments

Scott Keyes loves travel. In 2016, he traveled to thirteen countries, and yet only had to pay for taxes. Taking advantage of credit card points and frequent flier miles, he accrued enough points to take the trip virtually free. He combined his skill with credit cards with his knack for finding cheap flights and made possible a flight many can only dream of.

His 2016 trip isn’t the only one he has taken, and it did not take long for his travel prowess to catch the attention of his friends and coworkers. As more and more of them requested that he keep them up to date with deals on flights, he slowly transitioned to a newsletter service and then to a full-fledged for-profit business. His website, Scott’s Cheap Flights, does not sell flights but rather sends daily emails with information on deals that cut down hundreds of dollars on international flights.

In a way, it seems like the business fell into Keyes’ lap. However, the success of such a business seems so easily accomplished only because there was both passion for travel savings and a need for people to take cheaper trips. This business flows from what Keyes was already doing, and doing well. His drive to find good deals and love of travel made him both suited for and willing to run his website. Also, the fact that the business started with people he knew means that demand for his service was high. If the individuals in one’s small personal sphere have interest in your business, then it is highly likely that there is interest in the national realm. Keyes found a niche where what he was good at and ready to do met what other people asked for or wanted.

What make Scott’s Cheap Flights so unique is that everything is done manually. Scott himself as well as a few other employees manually surf websites searching for great sales and errors that result in lower ticket prices. No algorithm exists that can find the deals as well as Keyes and his team does. Finding deals online is more of an art than a science, and has not been developing for very long, as the online market has not existed very long. Although increasingly more people are developing skills with credit cards and deals, Keyes was both talented and ready enough to make one of the initial moves on a fairly open market.

In this service, Keyes mixes his passion with a problem. According to his website, “Scott searches for flights all day every day because he has no life.” He could apply what he already did to an area that other people asked for, and now his business serves more than 530,000 people. Scott’s Cheap Flights displays innovation not in software or technology but rather using what one already knows how to do.

6 Comments
Categories : Millennial Entrepreneurs, Online Companies, Transportation, Travel, Websites
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