Find Asian Culinary Experiences on Cookly’s Marketplace

Benjamin Ozsanay, Co-Founder and CEO of Cookly helps travelers to find the best culinary experiences along their travels and discover a new tasty world. Benjamin is part of our Travel Massive Bangkok chapter and recently hosted a Travel Massive event which explored food tourism at the award winning Bangkok Thai Cooking Academy.

Cookly is a marketplace for culinary activities. They connect traveling foodies and food professionals to enjoy quality culinary experiences such as cooking classes, wine tastings and food tours.

What inspired you to create this startup?

I am a big food lover and I ended up moving to Bangkok after quitting my job in a startup in Berlin. The idea of Cookly came up when me and my co-founder Etienne, who I met during my first week in Bangkok, were looking to book a cooking class in Bangkok with little luck. Most of the cooking schools have an outdated website with no booking system, which really makes those activities difficult to access. On the other side, we found out that most cooking schools were actually looking for an online marketing channel and a proper booking management system. This is how things got started.

How did you build your startup?

We started as two co-founders, both experienced with our own previous startups. Together we had experience in Advertising, Marketing, Product Management, Business & Law. Though a third part was missing – the technical development. Hence, shortly after we found our third co-founder Kowit, who had been working for some startups here in Bangkok. We started really basic, working from home, in cafés or in co-working spaces until we eventually rented our own little office space in a buzzing neighborhood of Bangkok city. This was quite motivating and led us to further grow our team.

What makes your startup different from other similar startups out there?

What makes Cookly unique is our purpose and philosophy. We want to change the way people travel by letting them embark on a culinary adventure. We see food as a bridge between a country and its culture. Furthermore, we are focusing on one vertical, which not only stands for expertise but also credibility.

How did you get your startup off the ground and gaining traction?

We launched our first beta version in November 2015 with activities in Thailand, Vietnam and Bali. We wanted to give our users the impression that we are not only this little startup from Bangkok, offering only activities in Bangkok, but rather a global marketplace that kicks off with Southeast Asia. We’ve been quite successful with this strategy and already counted customers coming from more than 35 different countries.

How is your startup changing the future of the industry or helping to make travel better?

Our generation is moving away from pre-organised holiday packages. Independent travelers are dominating the tourism industry nowadays. They are seeking for authentic and unique experiences while traveling. This is where Cookly comes in.

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

First of all, be passionate about what you do!

Second, do things step by step. We started with cooking classes, with a strategy in mind to cover all kind of culinary activities in the future. However, focusing on one thing allowed us to create a stronger brand identity.

Last but not least, build a team of passionate people, that love what your business is about.

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