Travel Planning is one complex problem to comprehend. Most of us end up spending hours going through different travel portals, hotel bookings finding the best combination to suit our needs. What If I tell you that you don’t have to go through this pain anymore? Well, we at Inc42 have got the perfect solution for you in form of MyGola.com.
Started by IIT Bombay Alumni Anshuman Bapna, MyGola.com is a travel planning service that lets you reach human guides to do all the online research for your trip. The general hypothesis behind this idea is that most hard problems are solved by a combination of 90% technology and 10% human acumen and travel planning is one of them.
MyGola.com redefines “Personalization” in its own way. MyGola.com realized that there was a need for high touch of personalization that a human can only provide but at the same time the human can be empowered by web.
These two concepts of Personalization and Use of Technology gave them the impetus to set out for two goals:
1) Build a technology platform that will basically aggregate tons of data from the web.
2) Find and give the right tools to people who are travel enthusiasts then they can become definition experts for any place. To achieve that, MyGola.com make applicants undergo online tests and training to keep the quality up to the mark.
Still confused how this combination works? Well, let’s go about it then.
Step 1: You ask MyGola.com a question
Like other travel portals that ask for questionnaires, tick boxes and more. MyGola.com keeps it simple. You ask need to ask them a question.
Step 2: MyGola server digs out the necessary information
As soon as your question reaches the designated guide, He/She scour the web using MyGola’s technology tools to search for the most credible information.
Step 3: You get Great Answers
The guide takes into account your needs and sensibilities. After that, he posts you will the valid answers.
Have a look at a sample trip plan to get convinced yourself.
Since its inception, MyGola.com has planned over 30000 trips over 100 countries. The startup is presently funded by Bloomberg Capital and Dave McLure of 500 Startups.
The company presently offers two subscription plans – $99 for full year and $30 per trip.
It also do booking as well but doesn’t charge from user for that and rather take commissions from hotels etc.
We quizzed MyGola Founder on future plans for this unqiue startup and this is what he had to say, “In terms of people, we might hire 1 or 2 people especially in marketing. The vision is ultimately to have tens of millions of travelers on one side and literally 100000 guys on the other side. So that’s the scale we want to reach.”
Needless to mention that the travel industry in India is poised for an exponential growth. The market in India is estimated at USD 22 billion and multiple factors like online travel, bookings, tourism, infrastructure etc. will play a crucial role.
We hope to see MyGola.com pushing the envelope constantly and creating a complete Travel Business Option.
Planning your next vacation soon? Try not to miss the MyGola.com experience and send us your feedback!
