Heena Raheja | Travel Affairs | Start Up | The IndianPreneur

Travel Affairs
We are a team of crazy fun loving people who organise budget trips with random strangers to some beautiful and unexplored destinations across India.
As the name suggests, “Travel Affairs provides a platform to unite like-minded people to fulfil their affair with travel by exploring the real zest of travelling.
Purpose of Travel Affairs is to take people out of their comfort zone and give them the feel of travel with complete strangers (it’s an adventure too) and have ever-lasting memories. We provide our travellers with a variety of activities including nature walks, adventure activities, mountain treks, desert safaris, road trip experiences, camping and much more under one umbrella.

Name: Heena Raheja
Designation: Founder
Company: Travel Affairs

Achievements:
Delivered a TEDx talk
Social Media reach of over 50000 people in 10 months.
Been able to sustain for over a year without any investment.

Links:
Website – http://www.travelaffairs.in/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/affairs.travel/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/affairs.travel/
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJNj4lEGCkzXNh4D4Mjju5g/

1. What gets you out of bed in the morning?
The realisation during my attempt to snooze the alarm for the sixth time that it’s a fresh new day and I still have thousands of lovely places to explore and lakhs of things to do to enable the exploration of those places. Also, at times, it’s anxiety of completing the pending blogs & videos.

2. Why should people choose your product/service?
Travelling with Travel Affairs is like travelling with future Bae’s and Besties. Many a time people make Travel Affairs itself as their Bestie and keep travelling with us regularly. The simple reason being, TA is far too less commercial to make you feel at ease instantly and at the same its commercial enough to take care of end to end logistics without bothering the fellow travellers.

3. What inspired you to start “Travel Affairs” company?
Well, that’s a long story but if I have to sum up, I would say, Travel has impacted my life a lot. It has transformed me completely. The journey from being a “big-time introvert” to “talking at TEDx” was not easy. I realised if I can feel this positive change in me, then why not others. People are scared of coming out of their comfort zone. That’s the problem area and keeping that in mind, I came up with the idea of providing a safe and comfortable space to solo travellers or anyone for that matter, who wishes to travel but is always ditched by friends and scared to step out alone.

4. How much capital do you have and when do we expect cash flow break even?
You know what, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. And I was even sure of one thing that I will start with zero investment. That’s what i did. Till now, I haven’t invested a single penny from my pocket. Also, we are able to maintain the break-even since trip one. We are not making any money out of our startup now but at the same time, we make sure, we didn’t spend anything from our pockets too.

5. Who are the biggest competitors and how are they doing? If there are no competitors, why?
Travel Affairs started with its own concept, vision, and mission. Considering that in mind, I don’t really think we have any competitors. Our startup is a result of pure passion and motivation and when a traveller comes up and say – “I am a changed person after the trip”, we feel proud and that’s when we feel satisfied. Moreover, we believe in creating the community rather than competition.

6. What comes for you first money or emotions?
I don’t even consider it as a choice. Travel Affairs is a baby to me. I keep on thinking about its proper growth & nourishment every day. We work with the idea of turning Hellos into seeing you soon. That definitely can’t be done with money but, emotions. Money is important, no denying the fact but I strongly believe, passion should never get affected with urge of earning money. Sooner or later, money will follow.

7. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
In my early 30’s. And if you talk about Travel Affairs, I foresee it as the biggest travel community where people are connected by their passion for travel, nothing else. By then, we wish to have travelled with at-least 5000 strangers from PAN India. We also have plans to open our hostels and cafes.

8. If you had the opportunity to start this business again what would you do differently?
It’s very good that it’s impossible to go back and start again. Things are the best when they are random. Every day is a new day for Travel Affairs and that’s why it’s exciting too. I have no idea what’s there for me today. Few days are like jackpots, wherein I receive 7-8 calls for collaborations and on the other hand, few days are like, I feel so negative that nothing is going right. This makes work even more exciting.

Given a chance to open business again, I guess I would end up in over thinking and forcing myself to make things happen. It will be pressure, no fun.
I strongly believe in being random over pre-planned.

9. If you sold your company today, what would be the tone of the conversation? What would you want to gain? What would you want to avoid losing?
Never! Why would I even think of selling Travel Affairs? We have plans to expand and make our mark globally. We have been lucky enough to make an impact during one year of operations. People know us now and the plan is – to make India travel. I don’t take even one day break from work. Constantly thinking of ways to expand.

10. What advice would you give to someone starting out?
I would say – Don’t just keep thinking and making blueprints. Just do it. “Being random” works.