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Since its launch in 2012, findmyfare.com has become Sri Lanka’s largest online travel company, providing the best travel deals available in the market-place. The findmyfare.com site allows customers to search, compare and book cheap flights and hotels around the world. The company was the very first in Sri Lanka to provide an online reservations system that enabled customers to confirm bookings without submitting a credit card payment.
At the time findmyfare.com was launched, many airlines didn’t use this function and customers couldn’t make and confirm bookings online. With findmyfare.com, Thushan and Abishek made a unique mark in Sri Lanka’s travel industry, by giving customers a quick, easy and reliable new way of making travel reservations. As two of Sri Lanka’s youngest entrepreneurs, they did what many others only dream of – they turned their business idea into both a reality and a success.
Back to the beginning
Findmyfare.com is a company with Sri Lankan roots and is going global in an effort to dominate the international travel arena via e-commerce. When they were university students, Thushan and Abishek flirted with the idea of starting a business in the height of the financial crisis. Both firm friends, they met in London and started brainstorming different business ideas. They say that living in London and seeing successful people in their 20s all around them, was truly inspirational and made them realise that age is not a barrier to success.
Thushan is a Royalist who secured an O-Level scholarship at Gateway College and thereafter at the Imperial College of London. Specialising in Mathematics and Trading Finance, he went on to work for a Telecom company after he graduated. At the same time, Abishek, who was a former student of Wycherley International School, had completed his degree in Economics at the University of Manchester. Although they were enthusiastic about creating their own start-up, they realised that they needed to save a substantial amount of money to fund their dream. Thushan continued working in London to save and Abishek returned to Sri Lanka to do the necessary research and ground work for their business.
The eureka moment
The e-commerce industry was growing rapidly at the time the duo graduated from university and both of them realised that travel was the first e-commerce business to take off in most countries. Travel has no logistical requirements, there’s no need to ever make deliveries because all you have to do is e-mail your reservations to customers, this makes it a cost-effective business that’s easy to operate. After setting their hearts on an online travel business, the duo had several mapping and brainstorming sessions to fine-tune their ideas. One day after thinking of over 500 brand name options over Skype, they came up with findmyfare.com. The domain they purchased at $ 6 in 2010 is today worth over $ 75,000 and is growing rapidly in value. Although Thushan and Abishek knew about the technology required to make their website work, the duo knew nothing about the travel trade and embarked on a steep learning curve. They faced many challenges at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey but they consistently kept pushing through every barrier they encountered. First, they had to understand a plethora of travel products, attain Civil Aviation and IATA licenses, hire the correct staff and navigate their way through the highly competitive travel industry.
The rocky road to success
Highlighting the challenges they faced at the beginning Abishek said, “After acquiring a booking engine and GDS system, we put the little money we had left into setting up an internet payment gateway (IPG). In the early days, no airline was willing to partner with us and even the people we hired didn’t turn up for work. We heard comments like ‘how dare you’, ‘you’re too young’ and ‘It took me twenty years to get here, what do you think you’re doing’ every day. It was a difficult time, but we were fearless and did not take no for answer.
“We persevered and soon Sri Lankan Airlines gave us capping and many other global airlines followed suit after realising that our business offered extensive reach and provided a fast and effective channel of communication for selling tickets. Our biggest break came when a reputed local bank partnered with us for a travel promotion. This raised our brand profile and we went from being just a site, to a site with constant transactions.
“Our business slowly started to take off and we did everything in our power to maintain our growth momentum – including answering customer calls until 1 a.m. every morning. The use of interactive social media practices also helped propel our brand to greater heights. By using Facebook competitions, games and constant conversations to promote deals and share information, we were able to engage our customers and build relationships with them. Engaging our customers through social media, helped us to increase our likes from 500 to 30,000 in just one month and today, we connect with a total of 65,000 people on Facebook each day. Today we have partnered with all the major airlines, banks and hotels in the country and our business is steadily growing because customers are truly embracing the findmyfare.com concept.”
A revolutionary new business model
Commenting on the unique business model that findmyfare.com uses, Thushan said, “Our business draws inspiration from the Amazon.com model which uses word of mouth as its main form of marketing. We always knew the only thing that would make someone buy online is a great price point. So we decided to maintain a low price environment to attract people to our site and we continuously enticed them with the best deals and promotions. Our business is focused heavily on delivering complete transparency. If you come in to book a ticket with us, we turn the blue screen used for bookings towards you, so you can see the prices and deals for yourself. This is our way of sharing the reservation experience with our customers, giving them the chance to understand and be part of the entire process.
“At times, we took on big losses so we could make our customers happy and it paid off. One of the most important aspects of our operation is our team. We have a very unconventional working culture, with an open door policy and no traditional hierarchies. We work side by side our employees and encourage their input and opinions. We have a team of 30 people, all of whom have a great vision. Our team members share our passion and therefore they are extremely dedicated to doing a great job.”
A Sri Lankan company with a global vision
Commenting on why findmyfare.com is unique, Thushan said, “We have always envisioned being a global Sri Lankan company. Our offering is different to that of traditional travel agents and we merely complement the services they provide. We are looking to expand our operations to India, Australia and the UK shortly and we anticipate that we’ll hit our revenue target of Rs. 1 billion by 2015. By 2020, we hope to become a fully global online travel agency (OTA) and a one-stop-travel shop, offering the best possible travel deals and services available on a single site.”
Making a contribution to the country comes first
Highlighting their motivation for starting findmyfare.com, Abishek said, “We never wanted to leave the country in search of a brighter future, we always wanted to live and work in Sri Lanka, so we returned to the country as soon as possible. We have never once focused on making money, our focus has always been to make our customers and employees happy, and serve our country. Findmyfare.com is the first e-commerce site of its kind in Sri Lanka, we made the most of an important global trend and I believe that our success has made a positive contribution to our country.
“If there is one other reason behind our motivation, it’s the fact that we want to inspire other young entrepreneurs. The regulations in Sri Lanka are extremely conducive for doing business and young people should make the most of that. I hope we can inspire even a few young entrepreneurs to take the leap and start their own business. I don’t want young people in Sri Lanka to ever consider age as a barrier to success; I want them to know that if we can do it, so can they!”
