This couple moved to the Himalayas to start Xperienceunlimited
Disclaimer: This article is a part of the CitySparks series sponsored by Verisign.
This is a beautiful story of north meeting south: Phurbu, a mountain girl from north India, and Shaun, a Malayali boy from the south. Though the odds are not always in favour of such unions, in this case, fate did intervene. The duo met each other in Bangalore on work, and ended up becoming life partners. And now, they’ve launched a startup, together.
The genesis
Work had brought Shaun and Phurbu to Bangalore, but in their hearts they always aspired to spend their lives away from the din of a city and live closer to nature. “So, we quit our lucrative Information Technology jobs and started living in the quaint villages of Kerala in 2010,” says Shaun. Here and around the country, they explored the local life. “Our life in these serene villages has been enriched with stories of discovery, exploration, and friendly interaction with diverse people and their cultures,” adds Shaun.
“I started exploring tourism in Kerala and worked with a wildlife tour company,” says Shaun. Here he got the opportunity to explore and develop his skills in various experiential verticals. “We had this thought that whether we worked for someone or for ourselves, we put in the same amount of effort. So, we decided to launch our own start-up. This would give us the opportunity to get closer to our dream of experiencing rural life,” adds Shaun. And thus was born Xperienceunlimited – an enterprise centered on rejuvenation and outdoor activities.
Going Online
In the beginning, Xperienceunlimited was completely offline, and they offered services like detox therapy breaks, yoga and wellness programs, camping and trekking, road trips, etc. They partnered with a few offbeat travel companies and started operations. They also started pitching to businesses and corporates directly about their services. But, soon, they felt the need for their own online customer acquisition channel. They knew they had to rely on the Internet to remain connected.
“In this age of the internet, we think anyone can learn anything anywhere. We spent two weeks scrubbing through YouTube tutorials to create our own static website,” says Shaun. Taking cues from their online education, they registered the domain name through a hosting solutions provider called Nettigritty. The domain name had to reflect the experiences they offer. Xperienceunlimited.com reflects their goal to bring innumerable experiences to their customers and .COM was an obvious choice because they have global clients. The duo have now figured out the tricks of managing their online presence and have the business going.
The road ahead
Shaun and Phurbu have been living a village life for five years now. They want to work towards building a platform that provides opportunities to people in rural areas.
Their tour division is stable now and brings in the bulk of the revenue. They are now in the planning stage of their hospitality division wherein they’ll own and manage eco friendly farm-stays in Kerala and Himachal, to begin with. Their upcoming fixed tours this year promise truly unlimited experiences: bike rides, living the village life (with trekking), logistics support for live events and festivals, family holidays, etc.
Going .COM to offer services in the offline world has allowed Xp to reach a wider audience and create a larger impact. They have more plans to leverage this further and so can you, go .COM. go big!
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