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Divegraphy Introduces a New Scuba and Travel Booking Platform

Haryanto Soemito, Brainchild of Divegraphy, helped build a scuba booking platform that allows consumers to search for the best scuba deals around the Asia Pacific.

Haryanto is the Founder and CEO of the startup, as well as a member of the Travel Massive Singapore chapter. Haryanto wears many hats in the business which includes marketing, conceptualizing and working together with a team to put together one of Asia’s first scuba booking and travel booking platforms.

Here’s a neat fact: the name was derived from “scuba diving and geography of the ocean”.

Founder photo 2

What inspired you to create Divegraphy?

What really drove me to start Divegraphy is my passion for traveling and scuba diving. Being underwater not only allowed me to explore parts of the ocean but teaches me about different types of marine life as I learn about their habitat and protecting them.

I have been diving for over 5 years and diving in the ocean is the only place I can find true peace. I would like to introduce it to more people.

What gap did you find in the travel industry that inspired you to create this startup?

Back in 2015, I was looking up on all the necessary information I needed to plan for my dive holiday. I was overwhelmed and confused by the sea of information on the Internet. One of the major turn-offs for me was the communication barrier and insecure payment methods.

There are many travel apps and websites that solve these problems for general travel (e.g. business travel) but none for adventure travel, especially on scuba diving.

How did you build Divegraphy
?

The idea began over a casual chat with beers with one of my co-founders in early 2015. By the beginning of 2016, we had 5 people in the founding team with a background in programming, UI/UX design, and former founders.

The team started building the product from scratch in March 2016. During the last 6 months, we were blessed to hire interns from US and Japan who enquired to join us for the summer.

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

Divegraphy disrupts the traditional method of booking through travel agents. What sets us apart from similar startups is that we provide a marketplace that allows consumers to book on-the-go while getting some of the best prices. We also listen to what our consumers need and that helps us built the products.

divegraphy team photo

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

We started off by introducing our concept and booking platform to the communities of scuba divers and dive operators locally and in overseas through social media and dive trade shows within the region.

As this concept is relatively new in the dive industry, our presence in both trade shows and online social platform sparked a curiosity and got people talking about it within the larger community.

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

Divegraphy is the official partner of Greenfins and Reef World Foundation, a UK registered charity company in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that focus on environmentally friendly scuba diving in Asia.

We want to do our part in protecting the environment and involve the people in the community, by having every dive operator who signup with us to participate in Green Fins practices. If they are keen, they can be assessed and certified annually by qualified Green Fins Assessors that can be beneficial to they business and operations.

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

Being in a startup you have to be ready to take risks and do things out of your comfort zone.

New entrepreneurs have to be resilient with the right mindset and attitude. Understanding your market, listening to your consumer and knowing the odds against you will help you build a better product and be a visionary leader. Do not let rejections and roadblocks pull you down. Instead, turn that into a learning journey or opportunity to do something even better.

Be that hungry man to learn more and every day will become a new discovery.

As a startup, what benefits have you seen from being a part of Travel Massive meet-ups?

I’m extremely glad to have found and joined Travel Massive. Being part of the large community allows me to connect and meet industry leaders and innovators.

During a recent meet-up, I had the opportunity to meet with Australia-based travel startup that builds interactive travel maps for city tours. Over beer and casual chitchat, we realized that there is a possibility for us to collaborate as we share a similar idea on the future of travel mapping.

It’s amazing how such events and beer can help!

divegraphy dive expo photo


Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. You can connect with Haryanto and Divegraphy on Travel Massive, Facebook, and Twitter


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