From the Vault, hear about the story of HowMuchTravel Founder Klavdia Malysheva and her 1-way ticket to NYC! Check out the full episode, and don't forget to subscribe and review!
From the Vault, hear about the story of HowMuchTravel Founder Klavdia Malysheva and her 1-way ticket to NYC!
Check out the full episode, and don't forget to subscribe and review!
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EP 03_Klavdia Malysheva Transcript
00:00:00:04 - 00:00:10:16
Klvadia Malysheva
First of all, I will tell you about how we decided to go here, how we find the starter.
00:00:10:16 - 00:00:31:14
Rob Napoli
How much travel is an app made for travelers to calculate the estimated budget of a trip, provide awesome recommendations and save you time and money on planning trips around the world. Klavdia and her co-founders, Anton and Slava built the company because they love to travel and wanted to create something that was easy to plan and manage a trip.
00:00:32:14 - 00:00:49:03
Rob Napoli
Klavdia and Anton bought a one way ticket to the US to build this business and are currently about to finish an accelerator program at it. Startup Ventures. Tell me about the company and what was your inspiration for building this company? Let's let's start there.
00:00:49:03 - 00:01:25:08
Klvadia Malysheva
Oh. First of all, I'm a traveler. I have visited already 50 countries and it all started when I was planning my big trip to Australia. As usual, I watched travel shows, bloggers read guides, went through the site with hotels, flights and entertainment, and I calculated every everything in my home. So in my notes, it took about two weeks and then I bought tickets and go.
00:01:25:08 - 00:01:40:17
Klvadia Malysheva
First time were magical kangaroos, koalas, great waves, bondi beach, amazing nature. But in the middle of third week, I realized that my money completely finished.
00:01:41:02 - 00:01:42:21
Rob Napoli
Happens to us on a long time.
00:01:43:22 - 00:02:22:06
Klvadia Malysheva
So I needed to open new credit card and ask my friends to give me some money. So Australia was much more expensive. The information on the internet told me so It was a really big fail and at that moment I thought, how would be great to create something smart like a website or a help with that helps find out the exact budget of your future trip and help every traveler.
00:02:23:18 - 00:02:59:06
Klvadia Malysheva
So with this idea, I was flying about 26 hours in the plane back home and thought about every minute. After the jetlag, I immediately went to the and to tell my ideas to my future co-founders, the time they won the most famous product developers in our city. And we spent several days in discussions and understood that we need to make a pilot project.
00:02:59:06 - 00:03:31:02
Klvadia Malysheva
So they like my idea and we decided to create a first chat bot in Telegram and Facebook and speed up and reduce the cost of the process. So that moment began the story of how much travel? At this? Yeah, at this moment the name just floated from my head and we decided to be a partners cheers with champagne and start working hard.
00:03:32:13 - 00:03:40:16
Rob Napoli
So just out of curiosity, what was your favorite thing about Australia when you were there? You spent quite a few weeks there. What was your favorite experience in Australia?
00:03:41:24 - 00:03:58:11
Klvadia Malysheva
Amazing nature and amazing animals. Amazing people. The most safe to cough I have ever tried. So and every where is beautiful everywhere.
00:04:00:00 - 00:04:21:00
Rob Napoli
Yeah. It's just nature, beauty. I love that. So, you know, you come from a small city in Russia at Smolensk. So what? You know, what inspires, you know, a small town Russian to want to travel to 50 countries? Like where did this love for travel come from?
00:04:22:06 - 00:04:56:02
Klvadia Malysheva
I don't know. I think it comes from my childhood. I, I love travel all my life. So I also adore to travel my car. So I drive for all Europe by car. So I'm a driver traveler also and a fun thing that I visited 50 countries, but I afraid of flying.
00:04:56:21 - 00:05:08:15
Rob Napoli
Yeah. So you're afraid of flying? Yeah. And literally just before that call, we were talking about how you got in a helicopter willing to sightsee over in New York City.
00:05:09:15 - 00:05:09:21
Klvadia Malysheva
No way.
00:05:09:24 - 00:05:33:01
Rob Napoli
Talk about no wine, no doors on the helicopter. You know, talk about overcoming, you know, overcoming your fears, which is, you know, coming back to that entrepreneur mindset. It's, you know, even if something is scary, do it anyway. Just lean into fear. Yes, lean into that fear because the experience that's usually turn out.
00:05:33:15 - 00:05:45:16
Klvadia Malysheva
Yeah. Yeah. And you just do it and feel so proud after this. Yeah. And you just need to go out from your comfort zone every time.
00:05:46:05 - 00:06:16:17
Rob Napoli
I love that. You know, getting. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is a great place to live as an entrepreneur. Yeah. So, you know, I mentioned this in the intro, and so for context to Bear Nation listening in, Klavdia and Anton are part of the Startup Ventures Accelerator Batch 11. I am a coach at Startup and do a lot of work with, and so I've had a chance to to meet with how much I travel a couple of times.
00:06:17:07 - 00:06:38:10
Rob Napoli
And the first time I sat down with them and we're talking and I asked the question of, you know, why the US? And you know, what is your plan? After the accelerator ends? And Klavdia looks at me straight face and said, We bought a one way ticket when I leave it. And I, you know, to me that was I was amazing.
00:06:38:10 - 00:06:49:08
Rob Napoli
So so tell tell us, you know, tell me your story. Kind of a trip to New York City. What brought you here? And you know why a one way ticket.
00:06:49:23 - 00:07:20:01
Klvadia Malysheva
First of all, I will tell you about how we decided to go here, how we find the starter. So as we are travelers, all our team are travelers. And so we went to the mountains for a ski this winter. And one day I received a letter that our project is interesting to a company in New York City and they want to call us with us.
00:07:20:13 - 00:07:50:10
Klvadia Malysheva
It was to Startup ventures. To be honest, there were too many useless call in my life and letters, but so I didn't expect anything. So I agreed to make a call with them, but did not realize the time. And I called them from the ski lift in the mountains. Yeah. Yeah. I constantly lost mobile connection, no video.
00:07:50:18 - 00:08:19:21
Klvadia Malysheva
And after that call there was a feeling just it was big fail. But they liked our project. They said they will. They help startups to become global at an early stage we making a few more calls with them. So I remember at one call I said that to me and my co-founder. Do has a visa to the United States. Now it's really difficult to get this visa from Russia.
00:08:19:22 - 00:08:57:00
Klvadia Malysheva
It's too hard. And they said, We are waiting for you. So we buy one ticket full of ambitions and hope. And now we're here with my co-founder Anton, and don't know what will come of it, but I am sure that will be interesting and amazing experience and incredible. It's already incredible that so many people that we met here for this just one months is just like a life here.
00:08:58:07 - 00:09:11:11
Rob Napoli
Yeah, that's that's amazing. And how come I'm not surprised that you would take that call from a ski lift like, you know, no big deal. I'm just in the mountains having a ski. Yeah. Let's. Let's. Let's talk right now about this opportunity. Yeah.
00:09:12:09 - 00:09:13:00
Klvadia Malysheva
I can tell you.
00:09:13:01 - 00:09:13:14
Rob Napoli
I love that.
00:09:13:14 - 00:09:16:03
Klvadia Malysheva
You know, it's like.
00:09:16:09 - 00:09:48:00
Rob Napoli
Right? I mean, that's the kind of thing to. Right? Is that as an entrepreneur, you know, especially as a millennial entrepreneur who loves to travel, visited 50 countries already and you're building a product to help others travel, it only makes sense that you'd be taking calls while you're traveling, right? You know that that boundary of work and play really kind of blend together, that person professional and, you know, as an entrepreneur, you're living the lifestyle of the brand that you're building, right?
00:09:48:00 - 00:10:12:24
Rob Napoli
Your brand essence is the way you're living and you're building it out of passion, out of energy. You just that, you know, you have a vision to be here and you're here and seeing what happens and you don't know what's going to happen after this. And I love that that attitude of, you know, we're going to come to New York, we're going to make this happen, we're going to go through this and learn as many lessons as possible and figure it out as we go.
00:10:13:08 - 00:10:33:22
Rob Napoli
And that's how entrepreneurship is. And to see you embody that, I love it. And I know you talk about how much you love your team. And I have to I have to ask and how is it being co-founders with your husband as your partner? What is that experience like? Is that has that been the dynamic of your relationship?
00:10:35:13 - 00:10:56:18
Klvadia Malysheva
We're growing together every day, so at home we are partners in the office, we are cofounders, so we have the we the line between our personal lives and our work life.
00:10:58:05 - 00:11:17:05
Rob Napoli
And I think, you know, I think that's super healthy. Why? I think it's amazing to be able to, you know, run a business with your life partner and one of your best friends and Slava and having that as a co-founder group. But I think it's really important for as millennial entrepreneurs and as entrepreneurs in general, we let work take up so much of our time.
00:11:17:05 - 00:11:42:17
Rob Napoli
And so when you work live every day with your partner as a co-founder, it's really easy to fall into the trap of always be working. And so of setting those boundaries of what is the professional life and what is the personal and grow together. I think it's fantastic. And because I've got to meet the couple together and see, you know, some of their trips and stuff and their ability to to balance that is inspiring.
00:11:42:17 - 00:11:59:02
Rob Napoli
And I know for a lot of entrepreneurs that work life balance is tough. And so to see you do that and build that out I think is really cool. And I know that was a curve ball question, but I just think it's really cool that you get to have your partner and one of your best friends there for every step of your journey.
00:11:59:02 - 00:12:13:02
Rob Napoli
It just it's a it's a unique experience that not many people get, but I also know quite a few do. And it's a super cool thing to see how that's blossomed and grown and will continue to grow from a both personal and professional level and in y'all's lives.
00:12:13:13 - 00:12:14:00
Klvadia Malysheva
Yeah.
00:12:14:07 - 00:12:37:02
Rob Napoli
So and, you know, one of the things that we talk about here is, is challenges, right? Growing a business is not easy. And, you know, you talk about the vision and the team that love and how much fun it's been. But let's talk about what are some of the challenges that you've faced with your business today and getting this started?
00:12:37:02 - 00:12:43:20
Rob Napoli
What are some of the things that you've had to overcome as a company and to know the lessons that you've learned that you can share answers?
00:12:44:05 - 00:13:25:01
Klvadia Malysheva
Yes, sure do. And business and building a startup. It sounds very romantic and cool for many people, but it is. Yeah, but of course, every day we face a lot of difficulties and one of them is the difference between Russian users and Americans. So it's we're trying to understand how work in the US market also here in New York, everything is unbelievable.
00:13:25:01 - 00:14:08:10
Klvadia Malysheva
Everything is unbelievable expensive. So it's it's crazy. It's shocking everybody and everybody here is late for meetings. I don't know why we sometimes and about the one more difficult is to leave your comfort zone and comfort life in a small town and change the country and take one way ticket to build the company here. It's great experience for our entire team, but no doubt, guys, just do it really.
00:14:08:10 - 00:14:29:07
Rob Napoli
I love that even with our challenges, even with the hardships, you know, you learn from that, right? And I think, you know, something that you you talk about and we've talked about before is, you know, failure. It's okay to fail. It's okay to try something. And it doesn't work as long as you learn from it and listen to your customers.
00:14:29:15 - 00:14:51:15
Rob Napoli
And that is something that how much travel embodies every day. So I love seeing that growth and, you know, cultural challenges are tough, right? And you look, I've had the I've had the lucky opportunity to sell into almost every country. You know, most of the countries in the world. There's a few that I haven't, but quite a bit of countries I've sold into talked to, done business in.
00:14:52:02 - 00:15:15:03
Rob Napoli
And there's all these nuances. And so you have to learn and really take into account what that's like. And that's where having an advisor, having mentors and coaches really help lift you up. Yeah, what you get through it. So tell me, tell me a lot about, you know, start a cause and give me this opportunity, you know, what about an accelerator program?
00:15:15:23 - 00:15:43:16
Rob Napoli
Really inspired you to want to go through it and how has the experience been going through and, you know, offline and online accelerator? Because this was a two part accelerator due to the pandemic and travel. So I take the next the next step in the adventure. So so obviously, you know, right now your seed funded looking for a pre-seed fund and looking for angel investors to help scale the business.
00:15:44:01 - 00:15:56:08
Rob Napoli
You know, from a user perspective, what are you looking to accomplish in terms of growth over the next 30, 60 days? What are some of those growth goals that you're looking for and really pushing towards?
00:15:56:08 - 00:16:30:13
Klvadia Malysheva
We want to attract as much users as possible. We want to show our traction that's in my was zero users here. And then in the end of the summer we have 5000 users and to some annual subscriptions and some purchases. So we need to share our growth and I think if the users like the app, we would be great.
00:16:31:23 - 00:16:52:07
Rob Napoli
Yeah. So really looking to get you get new users, get people to test out the app. I show that traction for those out there listening I will I will link the app in the show notes. Go download it. You get, I think one or two free calculations to test out and then yes, there it is two free calculations.
00:16:52:07 - 00:17:21:12
Rob Napoli
Test out of trip. Try it out. I'll have clarity is information that reach out to her. Let her know what you think of it, provide it, you know, offer to be a user feedback survey because they could use that. And that'd be a huge ask out of my community but would love all you and bear nation to to share some share some feedback down on the app test it out for free and share some feedback with the team and we're excited don't be afraid to to make mistakes and just just share that vision.
00:17:21:12 - 00:17:51:24
Rob Napoli
Bring out that personality of the company. Right. What I love about this company is that the co-founders embody the mission of the business, which is travel and the love for travel. So I'm a super excited and really looking forward to that pitch events. And I've loved hearing about your story and how you've overcome fear and failure to build an entrepreneurship endeavor, to build a business with amazing co-founders, one who happens to be your life partner, which is awesome.
00:17:51:24 - 00:18:20:06
Rob Napoli
So as we close this out, you know, we do a few questions that we ask all of our our founders, and it's kind of leaving a lasting message. So my question to you would be what advice would you give Gen Z, millennial entrepreneurs or anybody who is thinking with an entrepreneur in mind and thinking about starting a business, what advice would you give to them right now?
00:18:20:06 - 00:18:52:21
Klvadia Malysheva
My advice for them, for you guys, don't be afraid to be wrong. Mistakes are experience. Life is really to short, not to try something new and try to do it. I would definitely regret if I had to overcome my fear and leaving my hometown hometown here and build a startup. It's better to regret what you did. That's what you didn't.
00:18:54:00 - 00:18:57:18
Klvadia Malysheva
And dreams don't come true if you do nothing.
00:18:58:16 - 00:19:31:12
Rob Napoli
So I love that ride. You know, dreams only come true when you work for them, When you put intentional and authentic action behind them. And you know, I love it because one of the things that you embody from your growth and from the company's growth is this being curious, right? Going out and learning. And in fact, you know, you said to you said he said to me earlier, you know, the thing that I really as you just said, there are you know, you don't want to regret anything.
00:19:31:12 - 00:19:53:14
Rob Napoli
It's nice to do anything for you. Right. You need to not sit still and wait for something to happen. You have to go make it happen. And you said that earlier. I was like, that is such a key thing and that you've embodied that through overcoming so many challenges, challenges in your visa to get here. Just to get here, challenges of cultural diversity and understanding how to best align culturally.
00:19:54:12 - 00:20:14:02
Rob Napoli
The English language is not your native language, so to speak. And here you are about to pitch at a big event at the end of the month and just make things happen. All your fears coming to a head to speak and pitch the company in English and you're leaning into it. So I think that's a wonderful advice for entrepreneurs.
00:20:14:09 - 00:20:25:08
Rob Napoli
Just do it, go out, get it done and don't be afraid. So I always like to ask entrepreneurs this What is your superpower?
00:20:25:08 - 00:20:44:14
Klvadia Malysheva
Oh, my superpower. I'm open minded and really easygoing person. I open for everything, and in my next superpower, I cook incredibly tasty
00:20:46:02 - 00:21:11:12
Rob Napoli
Well, I mean, if you're traveling so much, you have to be learning, you know, amazing dishes and food to cook. And I love that. Be open minded, right? Everything be easygoing, you know, inviting that you can learn from everyone and everything you do. And that kind of goes back to the advice dance itself. If you don't go out and learn, if you don't be open minded, you're never going to be open to what comes back into you and how that can help drive your dreams for it.
00:21:11:12 - 00:21:22:13
Rob Napoli
So I love that. What is one book resource show or, you know, piece of content that you would recommend right now for somebody to read, watch, consume?
00:21:24:01 - 00:21:50:07
Klvadia Malysheva
Now it's two it's really a lot of materials on the Internet. So I read about business and startups on Forbes Inc, Bloomberg and other similar resources. And for travel inspiration, you need to read your letter. And after that, let's go guys.
00:21:50:07 - 00:22:11:22
Rob Napoli
I love it. I love it. Some great resources and materials there for those to tell us. And then I have, you know, Forbes and Business Inc and Fast Company all saved with Google Alert updates. I get, you know, email. I also have, you know, Morning Brew, the Hustle newsletter subscriptions to always be learning as well. So I love that.
00:22:13:07 - 00:22:33:03
Rob Napoli
So as we close this out, what is the lasting message that you want listeners to take away from this episode?
00:22:33:03 - 00:22:35:01
Klvadia Malysheva
Hey, Rob, I can hear you.
00:22:35:13 - 00:22:41:15
Rob Napoli
Okay. And we're going to it's like you froze out you back.
00:22:41:16 - 00:22:43:00
Klvadia Malysheva
Oh, yeah. I'm like, okay.
00:22:44:05 - 00:23:00:13
Rob Napoli
No worries. We can edit that out. So not a problem. So when I ask the question again, so take two of the question. So as we close this episode out, what is the lasting message that you want listeners to take away from today?
00:23:00:13 - 00:23:29:15
Klvadia Malysheva
Oh, don't be afraid. First of all, travel as often as possible, discover new places because travel is an experience. This stays with you forever. Meet people. People are an incredible resource. And of course, before every trip, usually how much travel is to save your time and money.
00:23:29:15 - 00:23:55:18
Rob Napoli
I love it. I love it. Right. You know, as somebody who, you know, I didn't start traveling till later in life, I, you know, waited and my experience moving to Italy and spending two years abroad and traveling the world was absolutely amazing and has opened up to so many people experiences. Thanks. I love that. You know, don't be afraid, be open, be kind, be curious, and travel.
00:23:55:18 - 00:24:18:06
Rob Napoli
Travel and learn. Right. The only way we can grow as a as a people is as as a race, as humans is to interact with others and experience amazing things that travel brings us to. So I love that as a lasting message. So where can where can our listeners find you? What are, what are their socials and places that they should be looking to to reach out and provide some feedback and connect.
00:24:20:20 - 00:24:45:15
Klvadia Malysheva
So they can find me in Instagram or my personal account is honeyklavdia and also, please follow them how much travel underscore app and give me your feedback or some ideas or share your experience. I'm very open to meet everyone and talk with everyone, so I'm excited.
00:24:46:01 - 00:25:07:05
Rob Napoli
I love that. I love that. Such a millennial Instagram. So I'll make sure to have both us Instagram handles tagged in the show notes so you can easily find it. I'll also have the app tagged to the Apple and Google App Store in the show notes for everybody. And yeah, let's let's share some great feedback. Look at the download the app.
00:25:07:05 - 00:25:29:09
Rob Napoli
You get those two free calculations, share feedback. Gloria, thank you so much for being a part of the show, sharing, you know, some of your challenges, some of your fears and talking to us a little bit about, you know, that the wise words of be kind, be curious and don't be afraid, be uncomfortable with being uncomfortable, be comfortable with being uncomfortable in making things happen.
00:25:29:09 - 00:25:34:08
Rob Napoli
So thank you so much, Claudia, for being a part of the Bare Necessities of Entrepreneurship podcast.
00:25:35:08 - 00:25:44:00
Klvadia Malysheva
Thank you so much. It was so fun and so interesting and I am so excited and a little bit nervous. So thanks to you. Invite me.
00:25:45:14 - 00:26:03:00
Rob Napoli
Absolutely. Glad to be glad to have you on. And I can't wait to to come to the pitch competition on the 24th and watch you you know, crush your passion English. So looking forward to it, everybody. Thank you. That's it for this episode of The Bare Necessities of Entrepreneurship. We'll see you soon. Thank you.