
Behind the scenes at Adioso - Part 2: Stunts - tomhoward
http://tomhoward.co/part-2-stunts
======
oz
More than a 'behind the scenes', this is a 'under the skin' - a raw, honest
tale of what it's like to do battle with the demons of failure, hoping for a
god that can't be found. Awaiting Part 3.

------
6ren
Wow, that was effective story-telling. At first I agreed that accessing the US
market was crucial; and then that growing the present market was crucial. It's
easy to see explosive global growth like dropbox's being necessary; but
usually growth is segment-by-segment, especially with geographically or
socially based businesses (e.g. Airbnb began in US, craigslist began in SF,
facebook began in Harvard).

Melbourne doesn't seem as ideally placed as a world travel center... however,
Australians and New Zealanders are disproportionately world-travellers. It's a
_great_ place to start. Lonely Planet actually started in Australia, and grew
from there (they didn't even have Western European books for a long time,
because not their target). They sold their last 25% stake for $67m - it's not
"a billion dollars", but it's OK, and they made a difference.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planet#The_Wheelers.27_f...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planet#The_Wheelers.27_first_journey_and_publications)
Bonus coincidence: their head office is in Melbourne.

~~~
bootload
_"... Melbourne doesn't seem as ideally placed as a world travel center...
..."_

Antipodeans have to travel a long way to get anywhere. As a result we (Aus &
Kiwis) per capita, search a lot more for cheaper airfares.

------
lifeisstillgood
> everyone knows the only way to make money out of flight search is to add
> hotel search.

Errr, is this true? Then why do the flight search as the main thing.

Recently I have been trying to find a holiday bolthole for my family. Find me
the perfect holiday and I will accept a higher than usual flight - I just want
to fidn a great hotel for two weeks not a nice flight for six hours

------
derrida
Tom, I'm a poor student who has booked 3 trips through you guys, I love it and
don't know why everybody doesn't use it. Feel free to hit me up, I'm in
Sydney.

------
math
I was an early fan of your service - really liked where it seemed to be
headed. Used it about 4 or 5 times and the only reason I stopped is my brother
started a travel agent business. Kind of consistent with your story I just
checked out your site again and my general impression without looking too hard
is "not as good/polished/compelling as it was before". I guess because you've
been trying lots of different stuff out.

Did you get any research to suggest people want to be pinged when good deals
come up? My own use case is generally I've decided I want to go somewhere at
around about some time and I just want to book it. Also most instances of
people travelling that I can think of right now are similar. So I was
surprised to see your front page pushing the alert feature so hard.

Thanks for writing this btw, a good read.

------
unimpressive
I'm sure Howard's laptop had more than just code on it.

Which brings me to my next point: If you use a laptop, do regular backups of
the contents. And keep those backups _in a separate location from the laptop._

This is the 3rd story I can remember reading about people getting their laptop
stolen. And I know someone who had their laptop stolen recently, I was even in
the room where it happened while it happened. (I was doing something else and
didn't notice it's absence.)

When it happens, the backups will be your only consolation.

(And any tracking technologies you may have at work.)

------
TimJRobinson
I love this series Tom! I've been a big fan of adioso for a long time (I've
used it for most flights I've booked in the past 3 years).

I didn't realize how much it was struggling and it's refreshing to see someone
sharing the honest truth about the company, makes me realize that it's not
just me going through these struggles and startups are hard on everyone, even
those who graduate from y-combinator with funding.

------
creamyhorror
What do you guys think of Flocations, assuming you've seen them? They're
Singapore-based and targeting the same market you guys (initially) are -
budget travellers to/within Southeast Asia.

I think both your sites are great and look forward to using them soon. I've
already recommened Flocations to a few people and will do the same for Adioso.
Rooting for you here!

------
glennos
Hi from Sydney, Tom. Really appreciating these posts.

------
nicholassmith
Brutally honest which is refreshing, it sometimes feels like a lot of the time
start ups gloss over the obvious truth that it's just not working, yet.

They seem like smart guys, there's a real problem there and probably as
importantly there's a market. Last holiday I had (and it was my first as well)
took me about 3 weeks to fully book as getting the right options, timing etc
was so non-obvious through some of the incumbents.

Looking forward to Part 3, I'm interested to see where the story goes.

------
alexkearns
Simply a brilliant read. If the business does not work out, perhaps you could
get a publishing deal. Hope things turn out well, and looking forward to the
next episode in what would make an amazing reality TV show.

------
chefsurfing
My favorite quote: "stop pulling stupid stunts and to start listening". Great
post, thank you for sharing.

------
tim_sw
They only have 5 months of burn rate left, they are doing a big rearchitecture
of their site, and they go on a "hacking retreat" in New Zealand?

I understand that taking a break and getting perspective while in the midst of
a lot of work can be effective, but this seems a little bit extravagant.

~~~
biggitybones
As per the first post (part 1), they're from Australia. Can't imagine it being
too much $$ to go to NZ from there.

~~~
batiudrami
Especially if you run a website designed to find you the cheapest airfares.
But seriously, you can get a return flight SYD or MEL to AKL for about
$200+taxes.

