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Trabug - how it all started

This story is being narrated purely from my (Sunali, Co-Founder) perspective and my journey so far.You can expect to get the following answers from this post: How did the idea come into existence? How was the brand name decided? How did the current founders collaborate? Where are we now, i.e. May 2018? Before talking about the history of idea, I would like to tell you that it has changed considerably from the time it was first conceptualised and prototyped. Now, we can see it in real flesh and blood, with all its nuances solved. My partners Gautam and Gurpreet have played a pivotal role in making this dream a reality. Ideas have no value without execution, and you need partners, who have the ability, to look at all its flaws and work towards solving them and making it a viable business. And that is what we have achieved as a team. 1. How did the idea come into existence?The idea came from my visit to Dubai… I was carrying a Matrix simcard ( a service for outbound travelers, very expensive by the way.) and an old feature phone, which I used only for voice and text message. Being an iPhone user I had to carry an additional phone. I assumed I would get wifi everywhere I go and so things should pan out. This trip was not actually planned or lets say I was not prepared for this trip. I did not have the time to do my research online about Dubai and what I could do etc. But since I was travelling in a group I figured it wouldn’t be a problem.Anyways, to my complete dismay, wherever the tour operators took us, there was no wifi. So unless we came back to the hotel in the evening I was totally disconnected with the world (my office). The mistake that I made was, taking an old obsolete phone instead of a smart phone. But my old smartphone did not have a good battery life hence I avoided the burden of charging it etc. In retrospect not such a bad decision.I could not access my office or my team. I couldn’t speak to family or share pictures on the go. Even though I had a great time but this particular problem, kept bothering me. I faced a similar problem in Sydney too.When I came back to India, I decided to give this some more thought. I worked on a mind map, attached here. A typical design thinking exercise starts with defining a problem and then looking at probable solutions. After much deliberation the idea of “A Travel Phone” seemed viable!“What if you could get a phone that has all the information you need and also has data connectivity anywhere you go”?I bounced off the idea to a friend of mine, Lotika, who I thought would be able to look at it more critically. She too found it to be an interesting thought and confirmed that it could be a viable business model.We started the prototyping and Lotika helped me in detailing of product features and content structure. Within a month we managed to build a pretty cool prototype. Have a look…. And that is how the idea came into existence.