Startup Open House Spotlight: Busbud, Montreal
Changing the way we travel
With the rapid pace of technology in past years, travel has become easier and more accessible through online travel aggregators. However, most of these aggregators often focus on modes of transport such as airplanes and trains. After experiencing the hardships of traveling by bus during his time in South America, Busbud’s CEO LP Maurice set out on a journey, along with co-founders Michael Gradek and Frederic Thouin, to provide travelers worldwide with a seamless experience for choosing affordable and sustainable modes of transportation.
One company, four values
At the heart of Busbud are four values that resonate and reflect the beliefs of not only the company, but also the people that make up the company. Being super helpful, sustainable, having an independent spirit, and going places are Busbud’s core values, which are integrated not only in the business, but also in the workplace and local community. For example, compost bins were implemented in the office in order to promote sustainability and raise awareness about food waste. A travel map with color coded pins where team members can mark their past travel experiences can also be found within the office. Participants in this year’s Startup Open House will clearly see Busbud’s passion for sustainability and accessibility reflected within the workplace.
“At Busbud, our team is set on an ambitious journey: every day we are committed and motivated to help change travel and transportation by working on a product that is making a difference for travellers worldwide. Learning and discovering are an integral part of the journey. We encourage new ideas and perspectives, autonomy, flexibility, and most importantly a sense of ownership to help us provide the most impact for our travellers.”
Busbud’s company culture is reflected by these values, which have helped to create an environment that breeds creativity and growth. Staff members regularly participate in Hackathons in which they collaborate on various of side projects. These projects are recapped on their blog.
Promoting and raising awareness for sustainability
Sustainability in the transportation industry is crucial to preserve and protect the environment. Busbud has three sustainability-focused goals, the first is to convince travellers to use the bus more. There are many reasons why one would prefer taking the bus to other transportation modes, such as accessibility and affordability. However, the most important one is that intercity buses are the most energy-efficient and sustainable mode of motorized transportation. The second goal is to support environmental initiatives such as the Smart Move Campaign, which aims to reduce CO2 emissions and other sustainable mobility goals through the promotion of buses and coaches. Lastly, Busbud aims to maintain an environmentally-friendly office space.
“Displacing users from fossil fuel based planes, trains, and cars to greener modes of collective transportation; that’s our mission. If we compare buses to trains, planes, and cars, it is the most sustainable way to travel. If more people travel by bus, we will be able to leave this world a little better than we found it, and that is very exciting”
Creating a diverse environment
The Omnibus Project was an initiative created by Busbud to promote diversity in all aspects of tech by being active in the local community and redefining diversity internally. For example, Busbud has hosted a Ladies Learning Code workshop to inform women and young girls about the tech world, participated in diversity panels, and fundraised for those in need in local communities are just some of the many actions the company has taken to create a diverse environment.
“Right now we have 15 different nationalities working here. When I first started at Busbud, there were only 15% of women in the workplace. Now there are 38%, and we are actively working to grow this ratio. The Omnibus Project and our its concrete actions to promote diversity help not only Busbud become a better organization, but the community as well by being more diverse, helping disabled people, people of different cultures, and closing the gender gap. Having a diverse team allows us to learn from different backgrounds and to have different opinions which allow us to understand our users and learn from different perspectives.”
Defining the startup hustle
With its diverse and creative projects, focus on sustainability, and emphasis on autonomy and flexibility, Busbud is a shining example of a company that fully embraces the startup culture. The hustle is truly reflected in the words ‘work hard, have fun’, the company is able to embrace creativity and individuality without compromising quality in anything they do.
“Work hard, have fun. Startups have changed the way we work within an organization; with great flexibility comes great responsibility and having this sense of ownership makes me happy as I have the ability to make an impact within the company.”
Looking towards the future
Busbud has many new and exciting projects for us to look forward to, and continues to work to build the best experience for bus travellers worldwide. The company is also evolving how it works, including their new ‘squad’-based product development process. Squads involve multiple cross-functional teams self-organizing to focus on specific themes within the company. Naturally we can expect to see the company’s values reflected in these new projects as they work to create a sustainable and diverse environment for all. Currently, a challenge that Busbud is facing in terms of future growth is continuing to hire great talent passionate about the travel and transportation space, and that shares its vision .Those interested in joining the team should definitely look forward to this year’s Startup Open House!
“The main challenge we’ve face as a startup is hiring more great talent! Hiring is definitely a challenge in the tech industry in Montreal. There is a lot of growth in the startup ecosystem but we have the ambition to continue growing and so, we need great talent to help supporting our growth. We have more than 20 open positions on our Careers page open mostly in the engineering and product team. We’re looking for developers, product managers, market associates etc.”
Register for Startup Open House and go visit Busbud alongside other companies in Montreal’s vibrant Startup scene!
Busbud makes traveling easy and sustainable.
Busbud is the bus travel booking website with the largest coverage. You can search, compare and buy tickets from 2,200+ bus companies in 17,500+ cities connected by 1,550,000+ bus routes across 79+ countries.
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Busbud/
- Instagram: @busbud_com
- LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/busbud
- Twitter: @Busbud
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClYV62QSFkoODrDrpwjwd4w
- Busbud Blog: https://www.busbud.com/blog
