She beat cancer and now she will win your heart; Kanika Tekriwal’s JetSetGo story

The first doctor I met told me: ‘Kanika, you have very little time. I was 22 at that time and I said, ‘Really doc, I am going to come and see you here after 40 years, not for treatment, but to prove that I am alive and kicking.’ I then said goodbye to this doctor and found one who believed in hope, in his practice and most importantly, in me.

This didn’t happen easily, of course. I travelled across the country, meeting numerous recommended doctors. The first major lesson I learned here was that choosing your people right is very important; keep looking till you find them, and believe in them completely and vice versa. My doctor and I fought the disease as a team. That one year of chemotherapy and radiation taught me a lot, and gave me the time I needed to think things over and come up with a plan.

Cancer made me a strong person ready to face any challenge; and most importantly, to never give in. So when we began work on JetSetGo and things didn’t go my way – I didn’t get upset, but just focused on what we could do next.

“Today, when I am unable to sell a plane after investing 6 months of time and considerable resources in a customer — just because the economy is not doing well and he’s had a change of mind – I don’t give in. I don’t get demotivated; I look for more customers. I look for solutions to make these planes cheaper for my customers, and I go to sleep thinking very soon I am going to be on the list of 100 most powerful women in the world,” says Kanika Tekriwal, Founder of JetSetGo.

Meet Kanika Tekriwal, an entrepreneur who is a relentless pursuer of hope, positivity and drive. Her energy is infectious. A marathon runner, a painter, a traveler and more, she is redefining her life every day.

Read her story not just to be inspired but to revisit your own strength and renew your hope.

Jet, set and go

I’ve been working in the aviation industry for the past 8 years since I was 17 years old. I started working when private jets in the country were far and few! Besides India, I have also worked abroad and seen the industry grow (and shrink, of course, over the past year or so) and learnt a thing or two about the industry. JetSetGo is the result of this varied experience.

Over the past few years I noticed the frustration of customers while dealing with charter brokers and operators.

Anyone wanting to use a private jet would ideally contact a broker or an aircraft operator either based on personal recommendations or on the results Google showed them. These brokers recommend jets or helicopters which give them maximum commission irrespective of the client’s requirements. Due to sheer lack of transparency and non-availability of charter planes, customers pay astronomical amounts. Similarly, if the customer contacts an operator, he would be pitched an aircraft solely operated by that operator.

Customers felt that there was a need for a professional and comprehensive charter service providing a variety of aircrafts with a transparent pricing system. Given that the private aviation industry in India is still nascent, users are generally recommended aircrafts that suit brokers more than the users themselves.

JetSetGo endeavors to change this and make private jet charter very economical and simple.

Charter flights online

We launched JetSetGo in mid-March. After 18-20 months of back and forth and many a blip, India’s first online marketplace for private jet and helicopter charter was launched. I had the idea brewing in my head for close to 3 years or so but when I took out my sketch board and started working on it I was diagnosed with cancer which set me back by a year. Luckily for me, nobody else in the country had gotten around to something similar until I finished treatment or for that matter until now!

JetSetGo is an interactive technology driven platform enabling users to search and charter aircrafts and helicopters across India. At JetSetGo, we’ve got on board almost 80% of India’s private jet fleet.