Compare Trips For Your Budget With Flykt

Learn how Ricardo Camarinha of Flykt.com created a “dating app” between places and travellers to focus on your needs and to understand the world and its diversity matching you to the world.

Ricardo is the a founder and CEO at Flykt.com and part of our Travel Massive Lisbon chapter. He helps travelers to discover the perfect destinations using a specified algorithm to help plan the perfect trip for one individual at a time.

Who is your startup for?

Our startup is for people who love to travel, want to discover the world and share an adventurous, spontaneous and curious spirit.

What inspired you to create this startup?

I moved to Rio de Janeiro, had arrived two months before and had some days off. I realized I had no idea were I could get from there. I was certain something existed in the internet, that could tell me were to go for a certain budget, but after lots of searching, I discovered there wasn’t.

I started thinking about this, only to find out that many had tried before, but all failed. Bad timing and unsufficient products I believe. In truth, so many have tried and failed that nobody in the industry really believes it can be done. The booking funnel is so complex that the established players don’t seem to believe users want something different. We believe our classification algorithms will allow us to create more personal connections, know the user better and understand destinations better.

How did you build your startup?

First I needed to find the right team, that could strengthen my weaknesses. I started with the two co-founders, Pedro a very thorough and data driven academic neuroscientist, and Hélder a ninja developer in a boring company eager for a new challenge. We did a very basic mock, called it Moontrip, shown it to our investors and got the money to build a real MVP. We needed a guy from the travel industry and we got Luis from Lowcostbeds, then the rest of the guys (data science and IT) came according to the needs and funding.

How is your startup disrupting the travel scene today? 

We are letting users search asking them what they all know before travelling, what they want to do, how much they want to spend and their dates, giving them results they were not even aware existed or they could reach. We are allowing them to fully discover the world instead of travelling to the same place their work colleagues, or classmates went.

Do you have any tips for new entrepreneurs who want to create a successful startup?

Resist the voices in your head telling you is to hard, always have a broad view, adapt!

What is the most important thing during your travels?

Time, I like to have time when I travel. Time to really be in one place, I’m not a fast mover, I like to stay and experience. I prefer cafes to museums, although I studied art.
The most important experience I had while travelling, was understanding different cultures, different points of views and way of thinking.

Knowing all that diversity makes you less dogmatic and more sure of your views, because they take a longer and more complicated validation process to build.

Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. Connect with Ricardo and Flykt on Travel Massive, Facebook and Twitter.