We started kimkim just 5 short months ago, and we are very excited about the progress we’ve made so far. While the vast majority of the journey is still ahead of us, we’ve already made a positive impact on the lives of several dozens of travelers, local experts and local operators in our destinations.
Why start a new travel company right now?
There are many reasons to start a new travel company today, including our passion for travel, our belief that travel has a positive impact on the world, and the fact that we believe that the travel business is ripe for disruption.
Let me talk about how we see our mission as it relates to our key stakeholders.
Our mission for our Travelers
Traveling matters more and more to people, as our desire to own more and more “stuff” gives way to a strong desire for meaningful experiences.
Since traveling breaks our daily habits we often have deep, intense thoughts and new perspectives on aspects of our lives, big and small. When we travel we tend to see things differently, meet new people, taste unfamiliar food and create lifelong memories, no matter whether we take a short trip nearby, or travel to faraway places at the other end of the world.
We aim to contribute by removing friction that exists in today’s typical ways of planning and booking travel. Instead of leaving it to the traveler to figure out everything on their own, as is the case for most of today’s leading travel sites and apps, the conversation-based process at kimkim fits better with how travelers naturally think about planning their trips.
We hope to enable more people to take more adventurous trips, and have more meaningful experiences when they travel.
Chat with a local specialist who can help organize your trip.
Our mission for our Local Experts
Whether they were born and raised in the destination they operate in, or are “global nomads” who moved there later in life, our local experts are entrepreneurs who make their living helping travelers have wonderful experiences in the destinations they know and love. Providing additional business opportunities for this community of passionate entrepreneurs is something we deeply enjoy and take very seriously. We do this by bringing them new travelers, by sharing best practices and by building tools that allow them to work more effectively.
Our mission with respect to our Destinations
Each destination has its unique characteristics and welcome travelers with open arms. Travelers bring economic opportunities, perspectives and connections to the outside world. Done the right way, tourism has the potential to bring positive change and prosperity.
It is our ambition to not only drive economic opportunities to our destinations, but also to be good citizens, practicing sustainable travel and where possible invest in projects that improve the long-term well-being of our destination countries.
Our journey
It is certainly going to be an epic journey. In fact, it already is. We’re inventing new ways for people from all over the world to plan and book travel. We’re moving lightning fast and ship new features every day. We’re up against some formidable competition. Many “industry experts” believe that it’s virtually impossible to start a successful new travel company today. Yet, we are optimistic and focused on achieving what we set out to do.
As I am writing this, our local experts are busily chatting with travelers to plan and book their trips and travelers are creating lifelong memories in far away destinations. Me and my team are excited to keep moving forward on a path that we deeply enjoy and we believe will lead us to a worthwhile place. We’ve taken our first steps along our path. The rest, as they say, is the future.