Latest / Glovisor Podcast / Ep. 50: She Built a Global Travel Business at 23—Now 400,000+ Customers Later - Roso Travel (Weronika Sipak)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Most travel companies sell tickets. This one built a global
- 0:04Speaker 1: machine for unforgettable experiences. Welcome to the Global Visor podcast,
- 0:11Speaker 1: where we explore business growth, communication and personal development through
- 0:14Speaker 1: real conversations with people that make an impact. Our guest
- 0:18Speaker 1: is the founder Roso Travel, a global travel company serving
- 0:22Speaker 1: over four hundred thousand customers across thirty countries and six continents.
- 0:28Speaker 1: She built the business from scratch at the age of
- 0:31Speaker 1: twenty three and speaks on entrepreneurship, scaling global companies, remote leadership,
- 0:37Speaker 1: and business growth strategy. Global Visor welcomes Veronica Chipat.
- 0:43Speaker 2: Thank you very much for this form invitation and I'm
- 0:47Speaker 2: happy to be here with you today.
- 0:49Speaker 1: All right, so Veronica, we're going to start off with
- 0:51Speaker 1: please share with us a little bit more about what
- 0:53Speaker 1: you do.
- 0:54Speaker 3: Yes, of course, so thank you very much for this introduction.
- 0:58Speaker 2: As a travel organized guided tours in over one hundred
- 1:03Speaker 2: cities all over the world. We started in Poland and
- 1:07Speaker 2: that was the first place when we started in Dince actually.
- 1:11Speaker 3: And then Poland Europe.
- 1:13Speaker 2: Now we have US so America and also we are
- 1:17Speaker 2: starting we are we are launching Asia actually just now Bali.
- 1:22Speaker 2: We organize guide as tours and we do it always
- 1:26Speaker 2: with the expert guide. So this is our mission always
- 1:30Speaker 2: to provide our customers the best experience. That's why we
- 1:33Speaker 2: are doing this with experts who have like huge experience
- 1:37Speaker 2: and a lot of knowledge, so we all can always.
- 1:41Speaker 3: Provide the best experience.
- 1:43Speaker 2: Our mission as a company is to organize the experience
- 1:47Speaker 2: which will give you the memories we will have for
- 1:50Speaker 2: the lifetime. So that's that's our mission. And yes, that's
- 1:55Speaker 2: that's what we do every single day. And we have
- 1:59Speaker 2: the remote team which is based in two countries in
- 2:03Speaker 2: Poland and India, and we hire it now fifty hive
- 2:07Speaker 2: people in the office.
- 2:10Speaker 1: Wow, that's quite a growth. But let me just ask
- 2:13Speaker 1: you a quick question. Here are these preset trips or
- 2:18Speaker 1: can I contact you directly and say I want to
- 2:21Speaker 1: go here and I want to do this? How does
- 2:24Speaker 1: that work?
- 2:25Speaker 2: So basically we have mostly preset strips and I will
- 2:28Speaker 2: tell you why does the business case actually so? First,
- 2:31Speaker 2: when we started, we were doing both like the preset
- 2:36Speaker 2: strips and also more customized strips. But when you want
- 2:39Speaker 2: to scape the company the cases that you know, those
- 2:44Speaker 2: customized tours usually take like a lot of time to prepare.
- 2:47Speaker 2: You have two thousand private stores across all cities when
- 2:51Speaker 2: we offer our tours. So basically each tour can have
- 2:56Speaker 2: a few options like two free for our options.
- 2:59Speaker 3: Depends what you choose.
- 3:00Speaker 2: You can do you know a few things see see
- 3:04Speaker 2: I few thinks more or have like dinner also among
- 3:08Speaker 2: the tour.
- 3:09Speaker 3: So basically it's like this.
- 3:10Speaker 2: That we rather want to give you our expertise and
- 3:15Speaker 2: share with you what we know. That this we have
- 3:18Speaker 2: those and those options, but if you want, we can
- 3:21Speaker 2: also make the customization. But in general we are prepared
- 3:25Speaker 2: this way that the customizations are really not needed because
- 3:29Speaker 2: we already have very good tours prepared.
- 3:32Speaker 1: Before got it. And now for these group tours, are
- 3:35Speaker 1: there a minimum number of people or a maximum.
- 3:39Speaker 3: So we have two types of tours.
- 3:40Speaker 2: First type is private tours and those private tours we
- 3:44Speaker 2: organize in every in every city.
- 3:46Speaker 3: And also we have group tours and those tools a
- 3:50Speaker 3: round like.
- 3:51Speaker 2: This that for example, every single day we have a
- 3:53Speaker 2: few tours in London for Westminster Abbey and you can
- 3:57Speaker 2: join this tour you have a few different groups on
- 4:00Speaker 2: the tour. Those tools are cheaper, but also you know,
- 4:03Speaker 2: you share the tour, you share the guide with others.
- 4:06Speaker 2: But those tours we do in ten cities and in
- 4:11Speaker 2: the rest of the cities we have private tours. Also
- 4:15Speaker 2: depends on the on the language. For example, in Vienna
- 4:18Speaker 2: we offer it tour. We offer tours in twenty nine languages,
- 4:22Speaker 2: but shared like group tours we have in five languages,
- 4:26Speaker 2: because you have some some you know, very specific languages
- 4:29Speaker 2: and there are not so there is no so much
- 4:31Speaker 2: demand for this. So from the business case, from the
- 4:35Speaker 2: it's like this that we don't do it for the
- 4:39Speaker 2: for every single day, but the customer.
- 4:41Speaker 3: Can buy it for the from the private tour.
- 4:45Speaker 2: From my personal experience, private tours are you know, incredible
- 4:49Speaker 2: from this point of view that you can ask everything
- 4:53Speaker 2: and you can adjust the tour to yourself. If you
- 4:55Speaker 2: are tired then you simply want to sit and have
- 4:58Speaker 2: a coffee, you can do it. If you to have
- 5:00Speaker 2: a lunch, you can do it. If you can if
- 5:02Speaker 2: you would like to ask more questions about for example,
- 5:05Speaker 2: culture than history, you can always do it. For the
- 5:08Speaker 2: group tours, you know, the guide has to adjust the
- 5:12Speaker 2: program to big group and that group can can be
- 5:16Speaker 2: you know, combined with the people from a lot of
- 5:19Speaker 2: different countries. So of course the customization is much harder,
- 5:24Speaker 2: so but it's also nice experience. I always recommend to
- 5:29Speaker 2: go for those two types and choose what you like
- 5:33Speaker 2: more personally.
- 5:35Speaker 1: So, now, what inspired you to pursue this career path?
- 5:38Speaker 2: During my faculty which was totally not connected to this
- 5:43Speaker 2: area because I was studying on it faculty, but when
- 5:47Speaker 2: I was a student, I joined the student organization which
- 5:52Speaker 2: was which is called ISAAC, and ISAAC showed me this entrepreneurship,
- 5:56Speaker 2: like how we can create amazing things in the world.
- 6:00Speaker 2: ISAAC it's like the biggest students organization, International Students Organization,
- 6:05Speaker 2: and you know, I met their people, which created one
- 6:08Speaker 2: of the best biggest companies in Poland. They were working
- 6:12Speaker 2: on the top level, you know, management positions in like
- 6:18Speaker 2: the biggest corporations in the world. So basically showed me
- 6:22Speaker 2: what is possible, that everything is possible and if we
- 6:27Speaker 2: set up ourselves like huge goals, then we can we
- 6:31Speaker 2: can do it.
- 6:32Speaker 3: So that was like the first inspiration.
- 6:35Speaker 2: Okay, I don't really need to like simply work like
- 6:39Speaker 2: on the let's say standard path. I can trust something
- 6:42Speaker 2: which is bigger, which will like you know, make me
- 6:45Speaker 2: grow and I can do like amazing thing in this world.
- 6:50Speaker 2: So basically that was the first, you know, idea that
- 6:53Speaker 2: I would really would like to have my own company,
- 6:57Speaker 2: and I set up myself the deadline that on the
- 7:00Speaker 2: fourth grade of my studies, I want to create the company.
- 7:05Speaker 2: So I said to myself the deadline, and I encourage
- 7:09Speaker 2: my boyfriend back in time to join me so we
- 7:12Speaker 2: can start something together. And that's somehow that we started
- 7:18Speaker 2: to think what we can do. And so this is
- 7:20Speaker 2: very unusual path because normally it's like, you know, someone
- 7:24Speaker 2: is just uh, you know, has some passion for for
- 7:29Speaker 2: for some specific area or is like them expert in
- 7:32Speaker 2: some area and then start the business in this case,
- 7:36Speaker 2: in my case, it was totally different. Let's say, it's
- 7:40Speaker 2: kind of funny when I'm talking like right now about it,
- 7:43Speaker 2: you know, nine years later, four hundred thousand customers later,
- 7:48Speaker 2: it's kind of interesting.
- 7:49Speaker 3: But you know, back in time, I was not.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Like, let's say, saying about this like you know so officially,
- 7:56Speaker 2: let's say, because it was like not something which say
- 8:00Speaker 2: I could be proud of that I'm not an expert
- 8:02Speaker 2: and I am doing the company like this. I had
- 8:05Speaker 2: to really work on myself and of course learn a
- 8:08Speaker 2: lot because that was what was needed.
- 8:10Speaker 3: So first I had to learn a lot how to
- 8:13Speaker 3: do it.
- 8:14Speaker 2: And yeah, but I was I was always like, you know,
- 8:20Speaker 2: that's a huge fun of traveling.
- 8:22Speaker 3: So that is like very close to my heart.
- 8:25Speaker 2: And right now that I know that, it's very close
- 8:29Speaker 2: to my heart also, I you know, I like to study.
- 8:31Speaker 2: I like to learn, so like the guided tours are
- 8:34Speaker 2: you know, about exploring the city, getting to know the city.
- 8:37Speaker 2: So this is like very close to my heart. But
- 8:40Speaker 2: back in time, it was like from very different angle.
- 8:43Speaker 2: Let's say, so I'm saying this, that's you know, maybe
- 8:46Speaker 2: maybe someone hasn't any idea for the business yet, but
- 8:50Speaker 2: it doesn't mean that, you know, if you don't have
- 8:53Speaker 2: anybody business idea yet, that you would not start the business.
- 8:57Speaker 3: Simply you need to set up yourself.
- 8:59Speaker 2: That's like, okay, day I'm starting, and I will choose
- 9:03Speaker 2: some ideas and from those ideas, I woul choose one
- 9:05Speaker 2: and then I will check if this idea works works out.
- 9:08Speaker 1: Actually, well, I like that you chose something that was
- 9:11Speaker 1: close to your heart, and I think that's important, right
- 9:13Speaker 1: because it gives you a real basis to really move
- 9:17Speaker 1: forward and to grow from there. What are the challenges
- 9:20Speaker 1: that I can see of starting a business such as
- 9:24Speaker 1: this is scaling to other countries, in dealing with the
- 9:29Speaker 1: different individuals to coordinate all of these moving parts that
- 9:33Speaker 1: a business like this requires. Has that been a challenge for.
- 9:37Speaker 3: You, Yes, that's the challenge for sure.
- 9:40Speaker 2: But first what we did we started to know from
- 9:43Speaker 2: one city in Polant to another city in Poland. So
- 9:45Speaker 2: that was the first let's say growth like more local,
- 9:50Speaker 2: but still to the other cities. So we knew how
- 9:52Speaker 2: to do it online, let's say this on this level,
- 9:57Speaker 2: how we can technically do it. There were other barriers
- 10:01Speaker 2: which we didn't expect actually, and those were connected with
- 10:05Speaker 2: the nationality.
- 10:06Speaker 3: So we are from Poland, we are based in Poland.
- 10:09Speaker 1: And.
- 10:11Speaker 2: You know there were people which didn't have like so
- 10:13Speaker 2: good opinion about Poland. So there were cases like guides
- 10:18Speaker 2: at the very beginning were scared, for example, to work
- 10:20Speaker 2: with us.
- 10:21Speaker 3: But we could do it another.
- 10:23Speaker 2: Way, like this way that for example, we were like
- 10:26Speaker 2: doing this way that we were sending the money to
- 10:28Speaker 2: the guide before the tour, before the tour starts, so
- 10:31Speaker 2: he had the money on the account.
- 10:33Speaker 3: We knew, we knew that we will not cheat on him.
- 10:36Speaker 2: And this way we were building trusts and right now
- 10:40Speaker 2: we have very good opinion. They know that we always
- 10:43Speaker 2: pay on time or even sometimes before before times that
- 10:47Speaker 2: was a process. It's you know, right now we are,
- 10:49Speaker 2: for example in Vienna on the market five years. So
- 10:52Speaker 2: after that five years, we are you know, one of
- 10:55Speaker 2: the best, if not the best, you know company to
- 10:59Speaker 2: cooperate for guides, and they really appreciate work with us.
- 11:02Speaker 3: But at the very beginning they were scared.
- 11:05Speaker 2: It's like, this is the true They were scared because
- 11:08Speaker 2: you know, Points for sure is not known globally from
- 11:12Speaker 2: the travel industry or in general.
- 11:15Speaker 3: Now it's changed, like after that few years.
- 11:18Speaker 2: When I was you know, last this year in Florida,
- 11:22Speaker 2: I you know, I was speaking to a lot of
- 11:24Speaker 2: people from US and had a lot of amazing things.
- 11:27Speaker 2: But you know, back in time, it was like a
- 11:30Speaker 2: little bit different. So people were a little bit scared.
- 11:35Speaker 2: But you know, we get our point and now it's
- 11:38Speaker 2: I would say, now it's easy. But we had the
- 11:40Speaker 2: time and when we had to simply find our way
- 11:45Speaker 2: to build the trust.
- 11:47Speaker 1: I'm sure that's one of the biggest issues that I
- 11:51Speaker 1: wasn't even thinking about when I asked you this question.
- 11:53Speaker 1: I'm thinking just logistically right, just courdating people and all
- 11:56Speaker 1: of that. But trust is a huge thing and I
- 12:00Speaker 1: can see that.
- 12:02Speaker 4: But you're on the other side of that now because
- 12:03Speaker 4: you've proven yourself in many different countries. Now I'm sure
- 12:07Speaker 4: that it's the other way around, where people want to
- 12:09Speaker 4: work with you even before you approach that.
- 12:12Speaker 1: Yes, that's right, that's probably the case.
- 12:14Speaker 4: Now, if one of our listeners wanted to work with you,
- 12:17Speaker 4: what would that journey look like?
- 12:19Speaker 2: We have this kind of fruit that customer can book
- 12:21Speaker 2: the truth today for tomorrow. So like we have a
- 12:26Speaker 2: few thousand guides, let's say, with whom we cooperate with.
- 12:31Speaker 3: So it's mostly works like this that we have.
- 12:36Speaker 2: We are in contact, we are let's say, discussing the
- 12:41Speaker 2: general terms, and we start for one tour, so the
- 12:47Speaker 2: guides can have a look how are our tours like?
- 12:50Speaker 3: How do we work from organizations now side?
- 12:53Speaker 2: And then depends on the city because in some cities
- 12:56Speaker 2: we have more tours and some cities less, like in.
- 12:59Speaker 3: Vienna or or London we have like a lot of tours.
- 13:04Speaker 2: Then for example, the guide can have you know, even
- 13:09Speaker 2: the future, few tours per week when we can cooperate.
- 13:14Speaker 3: What is always important for us.
- 13:16Speaker 2: It's the rate from the customers. So what we always
- 13:21Speaker 2: track is the rate which customer gave gave to the guide.
- 13:26Speaker 2: But it's like officially we always say this because it's
- 13:28Speaker 2: very important for us as the company to provide the
- 13:30Speaker 2: best guy that tours and the best experience to the customer.
- 13:33Speaker 2: So we always track it. We always share it with
- 13:36Speaker 2: the guide so they can have the feedback as well
- 13:38Speaker 2: from the customer. And this is you know, one of
- 13:42Speaker 2: the most important factors for us, which we track every
- 13:46Speaker 2: single day so.
- 13:48Speaker 3: Our so to make sure that our customers are satisfied.
- 13:51Speaker 1: Now, one of the things that just came to mind is,
- 13:54Speaker 1: let's just say taking it for example, the London tour,
- 13:59Speaker 1: do you travel to that.
- 14:00Speaker 4: Location to learn about the subjects, the what would be
- 14:06Speaker 4: interesting to whomever is going to take your tour or
- 14:10Speaker 4: do you just generinely just know this from afar You
- 14:14Speaker 4: just know what's valuable and what needs to be highlighted
- 14:16Speaker 4: and you require that of your tour guides.
- 14:19Speaker 2: Usually like first steps in every single destination we do online.
- 14:24Speaker 3: So that's the first the first twin think.
- 14:27Speaker 2: But we have our you know, patterns because we already
- 14:33Speaker 2: organized like many tours, so we know what our customers like,
- 14:39Speaker 2: what they don't like, and usually we do like, let's say,
- 14:42Speaker 2: similar tools in other cities basically.
- 14:46Speaker 3: So we know how to make the contact.
- 14:50Speaker 2: But what we do that when we have the tools
- 14:53Speaker 2: which are our best sellers. And then from time to time,
- 14:57Speaker 2: I'm going, for example, to Vienna or London as a
- 15:00Speaker 2: silent customer, so I'm joining the tour and checking how
- 15:06Speaker 2: it's how it works, and you know from organizational sites,
- 15:11Speaker 2: I'm checking my tea if they're replying fast to the
- 15:16Speaker 2: to the message that I'm late. For example, I'm late,
- 15:19Speaker 2: I cannot find the guide, what should I do? And
- 15:22Speaker 2: I'm checking what is the reaction as they have as
- 15:26Speaker 2: they reply. What's very important what we do. We do
- 15:28Speaker 2: the tours always with expert guides. To become the licensed guide,
- 15:33Speaker 2: you need to have huge knowledge. You have to pass
- 15:36Speaker 2: like historical exams, et cetera. So you have to really
- 15:40Speaker 2: be preferred prepared for this job. It's like a few
- 15:43Speaker 2: few few years sometimes to pass those exams. So that's
- 15:47Speaker 2: why we are always working with very qualified people. Of course,
- 15:52Speaker 2: not all of them have the same skis if it
- 15:54Speaker 2: comes to the presentation. So from this point of view,
- 15:59Speaker 2: We have some guide guide guidelines for the for them
- 16:02Speaker 2: so they can, for example, they have this kind of
- 16:06Speaker 2: check least what should they how they should start the tour,
- 16:10Speaker 2: what should what should they do do during the tour
- 16:14Speaker 2: and after.
- 16:15Speaker 3: So that's what we do to, you know, make sure.
- 16:18Speaker 2: That we can somehow have those points which are important
- 16:23Speaker 2: from us and for our customers that we already know
- 16:26Speaker 2: from through those years.
- 16:28Speaker 1: Now you mentioned testing. Is this a third party organization
- 16:32Speaker 1: that conducts these tests.
- 16:34Speaker 2: No, usually we do it by our own you know,
- 16:36Speaker 2: simply you can put another you know, remember that we
- 16:40Speaker 2: are working online remotely, so we like we don't know
- 16:45Speaker 2: each other so much if it comes to face to face.
- 16:48Speaker 2: Of course, some people we already know, but we work
- 16:51Speaker 2: with many guides. So sometimes when you will go to
- 16:53Speaker 2: some tour, they will not know who I am, and
- 16:56Speaker 2: then we get to know afterwards, you know. So yeah,
- 16:59Speaker 2: but we onto the first participles.
- 17:01Speaker 4: You really get to see from the customer's perspective what
- 17:04Speaker 4: their experience.
- 17:06Speaker 1: So that makes a lot of sense. I've seen a
- 17:09Speaker 1: lot of independent travel agents. Do you have a process
- 17:15Speaker 1: or a way to collaborate with these independence for them
- 17:19Speaker 1: to send customers in your direction.
- 17:21Speaker 2: Yes, So basically what we what we do personally, we
- 17:25Speaker 2: only organize like a few our experiences and activities. So
- 17:31Speaker 2: how do we cooperate with agencies? They usually work with
- 17:35Speaker 2: us on this way that they buy let's say our
- 17:38Speaker 2: tools and they at our tours today hold like let's
- 17:42Speaker 2: say trip schedule.
- 17:44Speaker 1: Now, would you be able to share with us a
- 17:46Speaker 1: client success story.
- 17:48Speaker 2: Let's say experience from the last two days. So basically,
- 17:52Speaker 2: in our company, you can buy the tours today for tomorrow.
- 17:58Speaker 2: Because we know that usually it's like this that some
- 18:03Speaker 2: people are in the spot and somehow they don't have
- 18:08Speaker 2: the idea what they want to do on the next day,
- 18:10Speaker 2: and we want to really provide them this possibility. So
- 18:14Speaker 2: we got the booking for ninety people in Warsaw in
- 18:18Speaker 2: rational language.
- 18:19Speaker 3: Like in the evening for the next day.
- 18:21Speaker 2: It's really not easy to do the store because we
- 18:25Speaker 2: have also this rule that there must be one guide
- 18:28Speaker 2: for forty people, because for ninety people they would not
- 18:31Speaker 2: hear one guide for sure, So we had to find
- 18:35Speaker 2: free guides in rational language for the for the next day,
- 18:39Speaker 2: and my team managed to do it.
- 18:42Speaker 3: I'm very glad for this.
- 18:43Speaker 1: If listeners remember only one thing from today's conversation. What
- 18:48Speaker 1: do you hope that message is?
- 18:50Speaker 3: What is very important for me personally, especially like last time.
- 18:54Speaker 3: It's like time flows very fast, and either from business
- 18:58Speaker 3: or personal case, it's important that we spend our time
- 19:03Speaker 3: wisely the way that we don't regret every single day.
- 19:06Speaker 3: So if you want to start the business, start the business,
- 19:08Speaker 3: if you want to start the family, do it, but
- 19:12Speaker 3: simply do it this way that you always take care
- 19:15Speaker 3: of your values. If you take for example, for me,
- 19:19Speaker 3: always the value is like health, family, the end business,
- 19:22Speaker 3: those three things, and so I always want to give
- 19:27Speaker 3: my time to those free areas. And I think this
- 19:30Speaker 3: is very important for us as the business owners to
- 19:34Speaker 3: don't forget about our other values, not only about the
- 19:37Speaker 3: business case. Because life is going very.
- 19:40Speaker 2: Fast, so it's good to do everything what we want
- 19:44Speaker 2: to do.
- 19:44Speaker 1: That is great advice and you're totally right. It flies
- 19:50Speaker 1: by and health, love and wealth, those are the major
- 19:53Speaker 1: things of life. Where can our audience connect with you,
- 19:58Speaker 1: learn more about your work and continue conversation.
- 20:01Speaker 2: Yeah, so with me personally, you can connect through LinkedIn
- 20:05Speaker 2: or or for example Instagram, and you can find me
- 20:10Speaker 2: on my personal lane, which is Veronica shippak or Baronica
- 20:16Speaker 2: in this with W and K because it is Polish
- 20:19Speaker 2: spelling and if it comes to my company, Rossot Travel.
- 20:23Speaker 2: You can also find us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.
- 20:29Speaker 2: We share some some more about some destinations when we
- 20:33Speaker 2: do the tours, some tips, et cetera. So if you
- 20:37Speaker 2: would like to connect to be nice to find you there.
- 20:41Speaker 1: Veronica. Thank you so much for joining us and we
- 20:44Speaker 1: appreciate all of your time and the value that you've shared.
- 20:47Speaker 3: Thank you so much. It was so pleasure to be
- 20:51Speaker 3: to be here with you.
- 20:52Speaker 2: Joe. You give amazing value to the to the to
- 20:55Speaker 2: the world and I keep my fingers crossed for for
- 20:59Speaker 2: this and I am sure.
- 21:01Speaker 3: That it will grow more and more in the next
- 21:05Speaker 3: month and years.
- 21:06Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you everyone for listening. If this episode
- 21:10Speaker 1: inspire you, share it with someone who needs it, and
- 21:12Speaker 1: don't forget to follow the Globebiyser podcast for more conversations
- 21:15Speaker 1: that make an impact. Till the next time,