ong>Answer:

Gauri is the Founder of Active Holiday Company, which is an international adventure tour company that specializes in guided and self-guided adventure holidays. Given her vast experience with international travel, she decided to keep her focus on international destinations for INDIAN travellers. Her spotlight was on others who like her are into trekking, cycling, hiking tours internationally and also travelling to run marathons. She started this second venture of hers in 2013.

Life of an entrepreneur

Running ones’ own startup is like a roller coaster ride, according to Gauri. As an entrepreneur she is hard pressed for time and wishes there were more than 24 hours to a day.

She feels the biggest problem in building an enterprise in India and particularly for a niche startup is to ATTRACT the right talent to BUILD the team. She says, “We get a lot of people SHOWING interest but the skill set and quality is rarely a match with what one needs for a startup.”

Another issue Gauri faces as an entrepreneur is the general awareness level of her target SEGMENT. According to her, many Indians simply don’t understand adventure travel. “We still have people coming to us asking for adventure packages to Disneyland and at times like that, for a fleeting moment, I want to hit my head on the wall,” she says.