Arnab Chowdhury was born and brought up in Dimapur, Nagaland which is a beautiful state in the North-Eastern region of India. This place developed him in a way that he wanted to explore new places, experience new culture and meet new people. After his schooling from Dimapur, he went on to complete his engineering from BIT-Mesra and from there he got placed in a reputed IT company. For most people this might be an end but this was not the case with Arnab. He quit his very well paid job and went on to go for MBA and fortunately got admission in IIM-A.
It is very well quoted by Paulo Coelho that: “When you want something, the whole universe conspires to make it happen.” Arnab never thought that he would find his co-founder at IIM-A.
Namita Badwal was born in Delhi and brought up at various places across the country. Owing to the transferable job of her father, travelling and exploring new places became a norm for Namita. She travelled and explored the diversity and culture that our country has to offer and became passionate about building a career in tourism. After finishing her engineering from NIT Surat she worked for 2 years as a software engineer in an international IT company. She felt that an MBA would help her realise her dream and hence she joined IIM A.
During their MBA, they both met each other. They gradually figured out that they both have passion for travelling and that is how the seed Of TravelRoach was sown. They always wanted to travel but did not know about how could they make it sustainable and earn from it. Both of them always wanted to make their living by travelling and sharing knowledge about travel and the rich culture and tradition of India. The two classmates bonded over their passion for travel and while exploring their love for adventure travel they started TravelRoach.
As Uttarakhand is Namita’s native, it was not much difficult for her to explore the tourism sector there. She took help from her family to gather information and did some market research as to how people looked at tourism in her state and it helped her to move ahead with their idea.
Arnab on the other hand is a bike rider and has been travelling all over the India for four years. His solo rides were the most insightful ones as it gave him a lot of food for thought. He was exposed to the ground reality which was quintessential for the creation of TravelRoach. He says when you have to do everything by yourself; you get to know the ground reality of things.
However, a trekking trip to Himachal was their awakening call for Travel Roach. They talked to a guide there and he explained them about how he manages his tours and the challenges he faces in getting business. They did a survey and received similar kind of responses from other service providers. They saw an opportunity here and shared this idea with their well-wishers, took surveys and talked with service providers. They identified the gap in the system and decided to bridge it.
After returning from the trip, the major challenge they faced was to convince their parents about their start-up. After a lot of hurdles they were able to convince their parents. It is not an easy task to convince customers and for that they have built an environment of trust and best service for them. They have always strived to understand their customers and responded very well to their queries as well and tried to serve them in the best way possible. They wish to continue the same and keep their customers happy and satisfied.
To end with Arnab and Namita said that "We all are dreamers and we have to give life to our dreams. Most of the times we are scared that a thing might not work, but we never consider how our world would be if it worked. If you have dreamt something and if you felt something then just stand up and do it!”
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