Right from the start, Kanika has been known to be a risk taker and a go getter. Her mission is to be on the list of 100 most powerful women in the world. This actually sums up the whole personality of Kanika Tekriwal, who hails from a typical Marwari family. Her brainchild, Jetsetgo is growing at an astounding rate of 70% year on year. Her success story starts after she was diagnosed for cancer at the age of 22. This was the first time when she told herself that she would not take no for an answer. After beating cancer, she took it upon herself to capture the general aviation business in India.
A few years later, she is now aiming to revolutionize the private aviation industry and to make Jetsetgo a Uber of the skies. She has worked in the aviation sector both in India and abroad, seen the overall industry grow and has gained a lot from her experience. According to her, she never get demotivated and is yet to face a setback both in professional and personal life.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
JetSetGo provides Indian air charter customers for the first time choice, transparency and flexibility to book a private jet online on both web and mobile platforms. For single leg trips, through our demand aggregation model we maximizethe chance for sale of empty travel legs to other customers enabling a Pay as You Fly business model instead of travelers having to pay for a return fare even when flying just one-way.For aircraft operators, JetSetGo provides a cloud based enterprise management tool which combine scheduling, advanced trip pricing and business intelligence capabilities with an in-built global market place for services and parts that will soon also have transactional capabilities.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
JetSetGo was born out of a need of the market, from the learning’s of interacting with customers and the shortcomings we saw in this space which we knew if addressed well, meant having a trusted customer base of the movers and shakers of India. With such a customer base, opportunities to scale up and expand into other offerings are only limitless.
What is your life mantra?
Use every no as a stepping-stone to success. Turn every no into a yes through your journey.
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
When life as I always knew it nearly came to an end when I was diagnosed with cancer just after returning from the UK when I was 22.
How did you overcome those challenges?
Forever strong and motivated, I didn’t give up that easy. Through the process of my treatment I conceptualized JetSetGo and knew that I will one day come out stronger than ever to make this and something out of my life work.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
Initially I had the thought of running business with personal savings but soon I realized that getting funding from third parties was a more pragmatic way to run a startup. With the support of my co-founder Sudheer’s support, we luckily got associated with YouWeCan ventures and it added great value to our venture. Although it’s difficult to get such funding but in our case we went through the process quite lithely. After garnering preliminary interest the discussion then was literally a phone call of some 50 mins through which the synergies from this investment were very clear to all including us and the brand-Yuvraj Singh.
How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?
Thankfully we are still not that large an organization to worry about the problem of brain drain. For now we are a small close knit team who are all passionate about what we do and the impact we are creating in our target market. With clear alignment of the employee interest with the organizations including through a stock option plan- we all hope to grow together and be in this for the long run.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
- Passion and belief in the cause for what one sets out to do in life.
- The ability to communicate effectively and be transparent whether it is with the team, customers or suppliers.
- Being resilient in the face of challenges and having a positive attitude to life.
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
- Ola – makes life so much simpler and I would much rather push an Indian startup rather than an international one despite the comparative inconveniences.
- Power 20 Fitness Trainer
- Winstreak
- Evernote
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
I always prefer to be on top of my game, communicating pro-actively and always keeping the ball rolling.
Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.
To have more patience as I expect Rome to be built in a day.
Answer in less than 50 words
One tip to success:
Going lean will never go out of fashion – irrespective of whether it’s your money or your investors. Fancy offices, snazzy cars and big ticket spends never gets you customers. Watch every expense and focus on getting more than what you planned out of every rupee spent.
One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:
Shortcuts may be tempting but will never get you glory.
One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:
Tears, blood, sweat are all part of the game – no one said it was going to be easy.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
As a trusted travel partner, and a brand like none other making JetSetGo the face of luxury travel and unique experiences that money alone cannot buy.
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
Nothing really. I am happy where I am and don’t think have any regrets on how my life has shaped up so far.
What are your top three getaway destinations?
1. South America
2. The Caribbean
3. My hometown – Bhopal
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
“Never Give In”.
