Back in 2013, Scott Keyes was just a regular 26-year-old guy who loved traveling and finding good deals. He enjoyed finding the cheapest flights possible, and scored a trip from New York City to Milan for only $130. Little did he know, this deal would trigger a series of events leading to the creation of his million dollar company: Scott’s Cheap Flights.
Keyes’ cheap flight to Milan captivated many of his friends who wanted to find cheap flights as well. This prompted him to start an email list to share deals with them and make the process easier. After a couple of years, the email list was growing so much that he has to charge a small $2 fee for a full subscription. Now it is $49 a year for a premium subscription, which is nothing compared to how much you’ll save on flights using the deals.
His newsletter was bringing in thousands of dollars a month, and so he quit his work as a freelance journalist to focus on growing his new business. Today he has over 2 million subscribers and he personally spends hours a day finding good deals for them!
Keyes is very inspiring because he never intended to become an entrepreneur and his business came to be simply because he was doing what he loved and helping others find good deals. His career practically happened by accident! To this day, he’s spent less than a thousand dollars on marketing. His success gives me hope that I can do what I love and let the money come after.
Here is a link to Scott’s Cheap Flights so you can see his success for yourself!
Well done article, I think that it is interesting that Scott Keyes did not have any idea how far this company would take him. I liked that you included his timeline up to today and that he was unsure what his plan was. It was very neat to examine the iterations he went through when creating his company. Is there anything that he is planning to expand on in the future?
With marketing being so important in the modern market, it’s neat that this business has spent so little on marketing. That certainly helps keep expenses low and margin high. It’s also remarkable that this came about as a result of something that Scott was naturally doing, and that he identified it as a problem other people might have also and then turned that “problem + solution” into an entrepreneurial business. Great post!