#FriendshipGoals: How the passion for travelling led two friends to begin their own startup

“Of all possessions, a friend is the most precious”- Herodotus

As we will celebrate “Friendship day” tomorrow, let’s take out some time to appreciate one of the strongest and beautiful relations in the world that is not born out of blood ties but from mutual understanding, love and support. True friendship is not limited by age, time or boundaries. Friendship is one of the earliest relationships that we experience, it starts with next-door friends whom we grow up with and then as we keep moving from schools to colleges and then to workplaces our friend circle keeps expanding.

In a world where we are struggling to keep in touch with a handful of friends, here is a story of two friends who despite all odds have not only remained best friends for more than a decade but have been in the news for turning their friendship into a fruitful business association. This is the story of our co-founders Hari and Srinath who met in 2003 while doing theatre as a part of their college activity. They both graduated from the same college and Hari was senior to Srinath. Their personalities are poles apart but their friendship sparked despite all odds. Hari is very expressive and vocal about his views while on the other hand, Srinath is a man of few words. While they enjoyed a lot in college, they had to part ways after graduation. But destiny had other plans, both of them got posted in Bengaluru and they met again!

Hari was always an avid traveller and had been to a few international trips. On the other hand, Srinath always wanted to go for a Europe trip and didn’t find the right company. But as their friendship bloomed, they both went on a self-planned trip to Europe in August 2012. This is also the time when they were bitten by the travel bug. During their trip, they visited places like Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, and France.

Like every Indian traveller abroad, they came across other Indians who were also on their Europe tour. On talking to them, they both realized how they don’t have the freedom to travel to places of their choice but stick to their packaged itineraries. There wasn’t much choice in the hotels or flights either. It was definitely not a pleasant situation for people investing so much money on foreign trips. This sparked an idea and the duo decided to put on some serious thought about the situation. After months of meticulous observation and planning, we launched our first activity marketplace in August. By then, Hari and Srinath had quit their jobs and started investing all their time in building Pickyourtrail. From there till now, we have come a long way and the transformation is just amazing.

We have now planned 6000+ happy traveller vacations with 850+ 5-star reviews on Facebook and our Pickyourtrail is stronger than ever with 70+ members. The most amazing part is all this started with friendship. Friendship – it can move mountains, it can stand the test of time, it can be limitless, and it can turn into something revolutionary. So grab on your best friend and create something impactful. Wishing you a very happy friendship day from Pickyourtrail. 🙂

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