#21 Polartern

Everyone loves the idea of being an entrepreneur, but how many people actually take the leap and do it?

Not just as a side hustle, but to actually build something?

It requires great guts and courage to quit your cushy Bain and Company job to fulfil your dreams of traveling the world. Despite having a good work - life balance, Rishab Agarwal, inspired by his digital nomad lifestyle (working remotely from around the country while he was at ZS), finally took the leap of faith and resigned from work. He’s since travelled all across India except North - East, and has lived in over 9+ countries, all while keeping in touch with his pursuits and authoring his second book, “Why I don’t like to travel while I travel”.

Soon after, he started running out of money.

Not wanting to go back to the corporate world, Rishab decided to start up his own start – up.

His intentions, as should be of every aspiring entrepreneur, was to solve three key problems that he came across himself while travelling:

1. Loneliness - Travelling can be extremely lonely at times, and you might not talk to anyone for days, especially when solo travelling.

2. Budgeting - The life we see of influencers on Instagram is a glamorous, one-way story wherein the hotels are often fancy (and often sponsored). The same trips can also be done for a lot less. After all, it’s not about where you stay, but what memories you make. 🤪 

3. Planning - What to do, where to go, and how to get there, planning a trip is a major challenge, both domestically and internationally.

And then a solution was born: Polartern.

Polartern is a one stop solution for all your travel needs. Through Polartern, you can find like - minded people on the same crazy trips you are, see where others are going and how (much) they are spending on their trip, and connect with them to plan your own trips better. In Rishab’s own words, it is a “LinkedIn for travellers.”

The app serves as your digital companion and will soon also feature an inbuilt AI wingman (think Siri but for all things travel), who provides you with recommendations for places to eat, shop and stay, wherever you may be.

As the founder, the team he formed is a result of his network, and by having a Chief Technological Officer (CTO) as a co-founder, he was able to save all the developments costs for the app and the website, spending only on the compliance costs. The company is currently a small team of 3 members and is bootstrapped.

The app is absolutely free to use, as the team intents to make money via advertisements, a common revenue model followed by many apps such as Duolingo.

They are also tying up with colleges all around India, to helps students plan safe, fun and budgeted trips.

In a nutshell, anything travel-related = Polartern.

Here is the link to the website: https://www.polartern.com/

It is important to note that Rishab and his team did not set out to make money. He found something he loved to do, saw the problems in doing that, and then went on to try and solve them.

Here’s a piece of advice he’d like to give to all aspiring founders:

Polartern will soon be available to download for Android users. So, check out the the next long weekend in your calenders and plan your trips! After all, kab tak FOMO* main rahoge?

Rishab is also currently hiring for interns; you can connect with him here!

If you have any feedback, let me know in the comments, or or reach out to me via LinkedIn.

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*fear of missing out incase you don’t know