The Passion, The Team and The Startup Journey of TravelFlan
3 Key Takeaways from the Fireside Chat with Abel Zhao, CEO & Co-founder of TravelFlan
In collaboration with the Institute for Entrepreneurship of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, WHub held its first-ever fireside chat featuring Abel Zhao, CEO and Co-founder of TravelFlan on February 20, 2018.
Here are the key takeaways from the fireside chat that you should not miss! This article is in collaboration with Chan Ping Tang Khloe.
About TravelFlan
TravelFlan is a lifestyle traveltech company focusing on providing B2B / B2C chatbot and marketing solutions. TravelFlan integrates Artificial Intelligence Technology into the travel ecosystem, allowing users to seek travel advice and information without hurtles.
Launched in 2016, TravelFlan has raised US$3 million in a Series A round in August 2017, currently has offices in Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai, Dahengqin, and the USA. The startup provides services across Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong and plans to expand to other parts of Asia, Europe, and North America in 2018.
All about the team
During the fireside chat, Abel revealed that there are some common traits among TravelFlan’s employees — they are optimistic and open-minded. “They are all dreamers who are willing to try new things and take risks. ” Abel said.
“Out of the 69 people we hired in 3 years, only 1 left to go back to school,” he said.
Building a great team takes time, but it is also crucial to know how to retain talents. Abel told us that trust, fairness, and loyalty are the few ground rules at TravelFlan.
“We don’t hide anything from our team members. When we are going through fundraising, when we are signing a big contract, everybody in the company knows. Without that transparency, they don’t have the sense of direction and belonging,”he explained.
Ideas collide when the fresh minds meet the experienced
As a startup with a lot of young team members, Abel said TravelFlan offers employees the opportunities to grow the company. Abel pointed out that the younger members in the team continuously bring new ideas to the table. He describe the collaboration between the experienced and the fresh minds in the team has been a success. “When you put two minds together, it creates a spark,” Abel said.
Stepping out of the comfort zone
Jumping from the corporate world to running his own startup business, Abel admits that making the switch was tough. However, Abel showed no regret in making the change in his career.
“If you give me a time machine that goes back to three years ago, I would still choose this path. It’s not an easy one…but what you are working on, what you are achieving, that’s not something you can exchange for money.”
Abel also pointed out that even if TravelFlan was not as successful as it is today, the entrepreneurial journey is still rewarding and fruitful. “In the past three years, I met more than 350 investors and talked to thousands of startups and big companies. These are all the assets that I can utilize…If we didn’t make it this time, I probably would start again, but this time make it better, stronger and faster,” he explained.
Share the idea, share the passion
“I never thought about people stealing ideas, if you are good enough, go ahead and do it. If you can do it before me, that means I am not strong enough to do so,” Abel stated.
Gram Milosevic, CTO at WHub, added that idea is not the most valuable thing in a business, as it takes a lot of passion and execution to make the idea comes to light.
“They can clone a website or clone an app just like that, but it does not clone your customer, and it does not clone your knowledge and experience,” Gram said.
People who want to steal your idea will go through the same challenges as you do, but the difference is they might not have the same level of passion to fuel their execution and face the challenges.
“Your passion is what’s going to sell your company more than anything. If you go to an investor, they will look at the metrics, they will care about the data, but they are going to look into how much do you care about the business, how much would you risk everything for it,” Gram said.
Kickstart your business
“Startup is not for everybody, but if you have the passion, you should go for it,” Abel said. Countless hurdles would stop you from starting your own business, but if you are passionate about your project, there’s no better time than now to start it.
There are a lot of resources to help startup founders kickstart the idea, by providing exposure, connection or fundings. Abel suggests startup founders look into accelerator programmes to get mentorship, fundings and connections. (Click here to discover startup resources in Hong Kong with WHub’s Hong Kong startup ecosystem toolbox).
WHub is an online startup community that helps business to showcase their business idea, connects with talents and offers different kinds of startup resources and insights. Join the community for free today.
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