Growth Story of Vagabond Experiences
In conversation with Vagabond’s Co-Founder and CEO, Elton Dmello.
“Logout fulfils our technical requirements. They absorb our problems and make software out of them for travel startups. That’s powerful. Others are generic and provide limited services. For now, all our sales come through Instagram and our website, and tech support is given by logout Studio. Logout Studio helps travel entrepreneurs customise tools precisely for their business.”
Elton handles the business and accounts for Vagabond. All significant decisions go through Elton. Elton has set many dance floors on fire when it comes to fun. In some circles, he is known as the King of Four Chords, owing to his ability to play any song using four chords.
When Mohit approached us, we were working with a different ticketing platform. In 2018, Logout did not have anything that set them apart from the competition, so we could not find any reason to quit our then-current platform and opt for Logout instead. I gave this feedback to Mohit. After a year and a half, Mohit returned and said, “Look, Elton, we took your feedback & have customised solutions for travel companies.”
That’s when I was convinced to switch platforms in 2020.
There were problems that Logout Studio’s products helped us conquer:
We did not believe when Mohit told us having an automated PDF service could be a big boon. These magical PDFs make it easier for people to share and recall information. Plus, with the boon of messaging apps like Whatsapp and Telegram, we could redirect our events to our leads by sending direct PDFs.
Post-sale, immediate automated confirmation/cancellation/modification mail is sent out to people for convenience. Otherwise, it is challenging to keep track of individual emails. This strengthens our relationship with customers and also brings down load off our shoulders.
We are not a Travel Technology Startup. Without a dedicated Tech team, which also involves a lot of input of capital, there are many problems that travel startups face. With Logout’s easy-to-integrate software, we get on a level-playing field that other biggies have advantage of.
Logout is turning into a Full Technology Solution space rather than merely being a marketplace. Earlier, only 10% of our bookings come from secondary ticketing portals; 90% of them were coming through the sites we tied up with. That’s when we thought, either we are going to work on technology ourselves, or we will tie up with a company like logout studio to help build this.
So far, this association has given us incredible results. And even though a small fee is collected from customers as Handling Charges (3%), it is not an issue for our today’s customers; since they focus on the experience. Unless that is good, they are okay with paying this minimal charge.
Vagabond started out as a project by four friends with a disdain for the ordinary. The idea was simple; take people out of their comfort zones. Not like Roadies, but just enough to bond them together through beautiful and authentic experiences. Happiness, as they say, is only real when shared.
The company was founded in 2014. Fueled by being absolutely broke entrepreneurial zeal, we started with small events in the city like heritage walks through Bombay’s old quarters. As musicians and travellers ourselves, we decided to marry these two loves of our lives. That is how the idea for the first Fields of Sound™ came about. Since then, it has only been onwards and upwards for us.
Over the last few years, we’ve made friends like family through our journey. Our little ‘Vaga-Fam’. It’s safe to say, it’s been quite an adventure. One we would like you to join :)
Read more Impact Stories here.
If you are a travel company, have no technical background, and would like a trouble-free website setup, here are the resources to assist you!