"Success as an entrepreneur to me is to build a company that serves for the greater good."
As a serial entrepreneur for the last 22 years, Amit Jaipuria has started multiple companies across industries such as consumer tech, retail, agri tech, fine art and travel. He is passionate about creating and empowering communities to bring about change in the status quo.
He believes responsible travel starts with building empathy and educating people about the people and places they visit. He started Postcard Travel because he found it difficult to find luxury hotels and tours that supported the local community and promoted responsible tourism.
Postcard is a travel media and representation company for mindful luxury travel. They bring together and represent a global collective of established travel writers, luxury hotels and travel designers who are authentic voices for responsible tourism.
They use storytelling to inspire travellers to learn more about their destinations and engage in deeper and more mindful experiences. Postcard’s mission is to build the world’s largest collection of local stories and connect travellers with the people that promote responsible tourism.
Postcard officially launched on Sep 1, 2022. Amit has also authored multiple patents on social media platforms and is a Media Herald and Ally Partner at the Transformational Travel Council.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Amit Jaipuria: Thanks so much for having me.
As a serial entrepreneur for the last 22 years, I have founded companies across industries such as consumer tech, retail, agri-tech, fine art and travel. I am passionate about creating and empowering communities to bring about change in the status quo. I started Postcard when I was having trouble finding luxury hotels and tours that supported the local community and promoted responsible tourism.
Postcard is a travel media and representation company for luxury hotels and tours that support the local community and promote responsible tourism. We invite our member hotels and tours to use storytelling to showcase local stories of people, history, culture, food, nature and wildlife.
With our suite of media products that include an online publication, newsletter, hotel and tour directory and podcast, we showcase these stories to our global community of mindful travellers.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Amit Jaipuria: Covid has been a wake-up call for us. The world cannot continue down the same path as it has been for the last 100 years. We are at a pivotal point where our decisions affect our very survival. We need a mindset change in the way we think for us to course correct and build towards a better more sustainable future. Consumer demand is changing.
More people are choosing products and companies that are more mindful in their industry and have a lower environmental impact and in some cases a regenerative impact. Startups that build their products around empowering communities will have stronger brands and achieve more lasting success. I believe startups across every industry are well positioned to capitalise on this opportunity.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Amit Jaipuria: Stay lean – With several freelancing platforms and boutique service companies, startups have access to a range of high quality talent that they can lean on to optimise their cost structure. With tools such as Linkedin, they can connect with the key stakeholders to better evaluate their product and messaging and improve it till it finds its niche with a minimum viable audience.
Build remote teams – The pandemic has taught us that we can be productive working remotely. Startups need to organise themselves to build processes around remote teams for better use of capital and access to better talent.
Innovate – A new type of consumer is emerging in a post Covid world. They are more mindful with their expenses and wish to encourage companies that are proactive about building for a better world. Innovation is a key to lay the foundation for a more sustainable future for the planet and business.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Amit Jaipuria: Through the pandemic, travel was taken away from people. It was no longer something to be taken for granted and people realised how fragile life was with all the lives lost and curfews imposed.
At this time, we also saw interest for mindful and responsible travel rise among consumers and a number of startups founded to cater to this new and emerging category of travellers. Postcard was founded to use storytelling to empower these mindful companies to connect with a global community of mindful travellers.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Amit Jaipuria: Don’t have an answer for this…
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Amit Jaipuria: Not qualified to comment on this.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Amit Jaipuria: 6-7 hours.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Amit Jaipuria: Being a remote startup, all our team members are located in different parts of the world. To align ourselves we needed a strong story that every member bought into. For us it was about inspiring a new generation of mindful travellers through storytelling.
Once the intent was aligned and each of our products in some form served our vision, we put in place our mission which was to build the world’s largest collection of local stories about people and places.
With these two clear narratives in place, we were able to attract passionate individuals who wanted to help and play a part in helping take our vision forward. Being purpose driven has allowed us to be more transparent, trustworthy and aligned in our work and communications.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Amit Jaipuria: Too many startups are building me-too products and targeting the masses. They are building better versions of competitor products but share the same business models. What we rarely see are companies that are disrupting their industry by attempting to change consumer behaviour. This is risky but herein also lies the opportunity.
Given the information overload that we have with social media and emails, it’s becoming harder and more expensive for startups to stand out in the crowd and be noticed, even if they have a world changing idea. Startups need to find an authentic narrative that aligns with the emerging trends and build products that advance those trends.
In the words of Seth Godin they need to be “Remarkable!”. Building for the niche in an emerging trend and then scaling is more capital efficient and more effective in the long run.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Amit Jaipuria: Through Postcard, I’m looking forward to meeting inspiring hoteliers and travel designers that are promoting responsible tourism and listening to them talk about their land and learning about their people and culture.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Amit Jaipuria: I would also call it the Great Rejection. Many people are living lives and working at jobs that are mundane and often boring. Their salaries refrain them from taking the risk to follow their dreams. People need to be inspired. They need to know that they are contributing to advance a greater cause. They need to feel passionate about their purpose and where and how they work need to be an extension of their individuality.
Founders need to find a strong “Why” behind the business they are building and make sure that it is magnetic enough to attract a like-minded and committed team.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Amit Jaipuria: Can luck be considered a business superpower? That would be extremely useful 🙂
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Amit Jaipuria: Success as an entrepreneur to me is to build a company that serves for the greater good. To be surrounded by inspiring people and have the opportunity to serve and contribute to helping others with similar values succeed.
It is not about the money or the power. It is about the lives we can change through our work. We have one life to make an impact and build a better world. Let’s make it count!
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Amit Jaipuria for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Amit Jaipuria or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
