Sujan Patel has played a key role in building an array of successful online startups. He established web marketing departments for now-monster sites like Lowfares.com and IdentityTheft.com. His marketing and community building expertise has helped boost traffic for Yahoo! Games, Radar Online and Degrees.com and scores of others.
In the last seven years, he’s become a go-to guy for companies looking to boost their online presence, not to mention their bottom lines.
Now he’s striking out on his own, developing a pair of websites related to his singular passion — travel. After years of helping entrepreneurs flourish, Sujan is taking on the role himself and relishing the opportunity.
He was kind enough to answer a few questions about his new ventures and what young entrepreneurs need to know about leveraging social media and online communities.
Q: You’ve helped build dozens of companies into highly successful ventures. What made you decide to strike out on your own with airlinetickets.org and airportparking.org?
A: My longing desire to challenge myself. I knew there were areas in travel that were “unexplored” and I wanted to take the challenge of building a few websites that can fill in the gaps in the travel industry.
Q: Your pair of new sites grew out of “gaps” you found in the travel industry. What needs weren’t being met?
A: I feel in the travel industry there are plenty of sites that can help you find a cheap flight and other travel accommodations. There are even sites that review specific destinations and hotels that can help people enjoy their vacations or get more bang for their buck. However, no individual website focuses on making the process of traveling more enjoyable (or tolerable). With these new ventures, I plan to focus on creating an easier process and experience from the second you leave for the airport to the moment you land at your destination.
Q: How important is it for entrepreneurs to think about these “gaps” in their own fields and verticals? Is there a way to get better at recognizing them?
A: It’s one of the most important things when starting a business. I believe it is all about solving the little problems.
The way you recognize gaps is by asking questions – start by asking yourself what is missing and what can be better, then talk to your customers and run focus groups. This may sound like a lot of work and very expensive, but it doesn’t have to be…
The way I did it for Airline Tickets was by starting with my friends. I talked to a buddy that traveled for business, another that travel with his family, and another that flew infrequently. I asked them what their biggest frustration about traveling was and various other questions about problems and issues they had while traveling.
I then went on to talk to customers…except for the fact that I didn’t have any costumers! No problem – Trip Advisor has plenty of costumers and all major airlines have Facebook fan pages that have people I could talk to and so I did. Since I fly pretty frequently, I even asked people sitting next to me on flights.
Q:What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far as an entrepreneur?
A: Business development and sales. Now that I don’t have the support and power of a larger company behind me, I’m forced to wear multiple hats.
Q: What’s the key to creating community online for a new start-up? Why is it so important?
A: Ease of use! When building a new community you need users to take action (ask a questions, post a comment, subscribe to your newsletter or RSS feed, etc). It needs to be very easy and appealing for your users to take an action. The most basic way to get your users to take action is to ask them to and if that doesn’t work, incentivize them by hosting giveaways, contests, etc.
Creating an online is community is vital – without a strong community your website will be a ghost town! Starting a community requires users to participate, which creates a snowball effect. By encouraging your online community to become more involved, your user base will grow and your site will naturally spread across the web.
Q: What’s the single biggest mistake fledgling entrepreneurs make when it comes to leveraging social media?
A: Copycats. I’ve seen too many times where startups or entrepreneurs try to copy a successful campaign that a large company or competitor had. To successfully leverage social media it takes creativity, uniqueness and time – there are no shortcuts. There is definitely much to learn from the tactics and concepts behind a successful social media campaign, rather than the outcome itself.
Brant Bukowsky is the founder of GrowthPartner.com, a unique firm that provides angel investment and online marketing expertise to emerging companies. Read more about Brant here.
