Seek Sophie wants to be the “Patagonia” of travel – WiT

Just as a trip to Uganda changed her life, Jacinta Lim wants to do the same for other travellers, which is the reason why she and co-founder Lina Gedvilaite, decided to start Seek Sophie, a travel marketplace that promises to “uncover the unexpected” by offering unusual, local experiences.

“My first solo trip was to Uganda where I spent two weeks camping and it made me realise the magic of travel,” said Lim. “I was sleeping in a tent on the banks of the river which had hippos, and we were advised not to get out of the tent at night because well, the hippos might step on you.

“It was just so visceral an experience.”

In contrast, she said London, where she was living at the time, felt so unnatural, “full of buildings, traffic – not the things that bring us joy. It is when we are connected to things that bring us most joy”.

In a way, she said that trip where she uncovered the unexpected gave her the courage to leave her day job which was then in finance, at MicroEnsure, a global insurtech firm while Gedvilaite, a Lithuanian, was an investment analyst at International Finance Corporation in Ukraine. The two executives met while taking their MBA in INSEAD, Singapore, in 2016.

“We both share the same passion for travel, it is life changing,” said Lim.

In this interview, Gedvilaite said, “Seek Sophie was created out of our mutual passion for travel and the idea that it can be a force for good by promoting understanding and exchange as well as stimulating economic growth at the grass roots level. In practical terms, we are a marketplace where travel and leisure segment entrepreneurs can list their thoughtfully designed experiences for travellers to discover and book.”

Both founded Seek Sophie in 2018, naming it after the Greek goddess of wisdom. It wasn’t unexpected of course that it would be a challenge. They had no knowledge of the workings of travel, nor did they have tech backgrounds. Lim took up coding classes to build the website and, at the same time, they both travelled to places to seek out the experiences to list.

And, Lim laughed, “It’s really hard to start a business with no money.”

She recalled a story from the early days. “We had a customer who had booked a dive tour with us and asked for help with accommodation. We said sure. We called the accommodation to book, sent the money owner. But when the customer showed up, there was no record of the reservation, apparently there had been a scam. Anyway, I paid the hotel – it was only $200 but at that time, it was a lot for us.”

Lim didn’t give up on getting that money back, calling the person every day until finally, she relented. “She must have decided to pay up just to get rid of me.”

She added, “We started the business with our savings. We had 10 interns, and we would sneak into WeWork with one pass, until they noticed it and stopped us.”

It was such persistence and guerrilla tactics that have gotten Seek Sophie to where it is today. From near obscurity pre-Covid, Seek Sophie has catapulted into becoming almost a household name among younger travellers when it comes to intrepid tours in South-east Asia. It was nominated as a finalist for Outstanding Business Innovation at the recent Singapore Tourism Awards.

Lim said it was the pandemic that was responsible for strengthening the business by forcing them to focus on what was essential and teaching them resilience.

“It was traumatic. On hindsight, I probably had PTSD until last year. We had customers wanting refunds, partners struggling. We took on personal loans to pay customers and partners were on credit, some of whom went out of business and so we didn’t get our money back. It was a new strategy every week – you either die or become stronger.

“We fixed the website, grew our listings, got deeper into local experiences because of the swing towards domestic, and kept in touch with customers throughout.

“When we got out of Covid, we grew so much – by 10x – and maybe that was because we kept our eye on the customer.”

Today, it has achieved profitability with a fulltime staff count of 12. Business has been doubling every year and it has staff in four markets – Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. Almost half of its customers are from Asia, the other half from Europe, and it’s grown mainly from social media. On its website, destinations covered include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Said Lim, “Ultimately our vision is to become the Patagonia of travel – to build a successful business with positive impact. We’ve been doubling year-on-year on average and are currently at eight figures of sales. Our goal is to get to (and exceed) 100m in sales by 2028.”

And it intends to do this without any fund raising. “I think when you want to make an impact, it’s difficult to find investor balance. Our challenge is, how do we transform to have the impact – we have to grow in a sustainable, profitable manner.”

(Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard, who started his outdoor apparel company in 1973, has said that “Earth is now our only shareholder”.)

It will grow organically, country by country. “Each time we open a new market, we grow two to three times, so it’s do-able. Every market has done well,” said Lim. “We have to keep looking for new products that are interesting to people. We know our customers well, and the products that will appeal to them. There is so much room to grow, so many low hanging fruit, so many things that can make a difference.”

Most popular tours are around Komodo island in Indonesia, and hikes. Lim said it is looking at venturing into complex multi-day products. “There is not much competition there and people struggle to sell that,” she said.

Both co-founders are clear about their separate roles, which is why the partnership works. “I went to an all-girls’ school and at INSEAD, there were four men to one woman, so it was natural that we gravitated towards each other,” said Lim, who covers product management and marketing while Gedvilaite looks after supply acquisition, new market entry as well as sales channels partnerships.

And, as they scale at their pace, both are passionate about staying true to their core of offering authentic experiences. Said Lim, “We want to sell the human stories behind travel. Tourism is life-changing, you come away a different person. Yet we sell tourism like socks. Why?”

Travel, she believes, has more power to change lives of local communities than any other industry, including micro-insurance. Working in the sector, she spent time in Kenya and realised the limitations of that industry. “It only benefits four to six percent of local communities,” she said. “Every dollar spent on tourism can make a difference.”