Moondeep Aggarwal is the CEO of Backpacker Deals and Travello, with over 25 years of experience in the travel industry. He specialises in building and scaling travel technology platforms that connect travellers with unforgettable experiences. With a practical, results-driven approach, Moondeep focuses on creating solutions that support partners, empower teams, and drive bookings, revenue, and repeat customers.
Company: Backpacker Deals
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
Moondeep Aggarwal: I’m Moondeep Aggarwal. I’m the CEO of Backpacker Deals and Travello. I’ve spent over 25 years in travel, building and scaling digital platforms that connect travelers with great experiences.
Backpacker Deals and Travello are experience-led travel platforms focused on tours, activities, and things to do. We work directly with operators around the world and help them reach a global audience through our own consumer brands, distribution partners, and affiliate channels. Our platforms handle discovery, booking, payments, and fulfillment, so operators can focus on running great experiences while we help drive demand.
A big part of our focus is on performance. We spend a lot of time improving conversion, optimizing merchandising, and making booking simpler across devices and channels. At the same time, we care about operational reality. That means reliable inventory, clear pricing, smooth customer support, and systems that scale as volume grows.
My background is in travel technology and platform businesses, so I tend to take a practical approach. Build things that work, support partners and teams, and measure success in bookings, revenue, and repeat customers.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Moondeep Aggarwal: We sit between tour and activity operators and demand. We handle discovery, booking, payments, distribution, and customer support across our own consumer brands and partner channels. Activity and tour operators focus on delivering great experiences. We focus on filling seats and running the commercial engine.
What makes us different is discipline. We care about unit economics, conversion, and repeat customers, not growth for growth’s sake. We strive to build systems that scale, price correctly, and perform consistently across seasons and markets.
Our biggest strength is execution. We understand both sides of the market, traveler behavior and operator reality. That lets us grow revenue while staying operationally sound. We do fewer things, but we do them well, and we measure everything.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, is an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Moondeep Aggarwal: People disengage when they feel unheard or disconnected from outcomes. Pay matters, but clarity and trust matter more.
What keeps employees engaged is clear expectations, context around decisions, and real ownership. People want to understand why work matters and see the impact of their effort.
At Backpacker Deals and Travello, our goal is to keep teams close to customers and results. Everyone sees how their work affects bookings, reviews, and partners. That connection drives accountability and pride.
We’ve adapted by leading with transparency, reducing unnecessary process, and giving people ownership with clear accountability. Culture shows up in daily decisions, not slogans. When people feel trusted and respected, engagement follows.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Moondeep Aggarwal: Online demand keeps growing, but expectations keep rising with it. Customers want speed, clarity, and confidence. Businesses want reach without added complexity.
For the year ahead, I expect less focus on pure traffic growth and more focus on conversion, retention, and performance. The winners will not be the loudest platforms. They will be the ones that remove friction and execute well at scale.
At Backpacker Deals and Travello, we capitalize on this by tightening the full funnel. Better discovery. Cleaner checkout. Stronger mobile performance. Smarter distribution through partners and affiliates. We invest where bookings happen, not where hype lives.
We also lean into operational discipline. Reliable inventory. Clear pricing. Fast support. Those basics matter more as volume grows. When demand surges, execution becomes the advantage.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Moondeep Aggarwal: The real challenge right now is focus. Demand exists, but attention is fragmented and costs keep rising. Growth no longer comes from adding more channels or features. It comes from doing fewer things better.
For platforms like Backpacker Deals and Travello, the challenge is balancing scale with discipline. Growing supply and reach without adding operational drag. Investing in technology without losing sight of unit economics.
The opportunity sits on the other side of that challenge. Teams that stay close to customers, measure performance honestly, and execute consistently will outperform larger, noisier competitors. Right now, execution beats ambition.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Moondeep Aggarwal: The most underestimated part of running a company is operational and financial discipline. Growth gets a lot of attention, but growth without profitability creates fragility, not strength.
Revenue only matters when it holds up under real operating conditions. Customer support, refunds, seasonality, partner payments, and platform costs all show up after the sale. If those pieces are not designed carefully, scale makes the problems worse.
I’ve seen businesses grow fast on paper and struggle the moment volumes increase. Margins shrink, teams burn out, and cash flow tightens. The companies that last build systems that work at low volume and stay sound as volume grows. Sustainable growth starts with operational reality, not top-line excitement.
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?
Moondeep Aggarwal: I’d pick the ability to see second-order effects instantly. That means seeing the consequences that come after the obvious, not just the immediate result of a decision.
Most choices look smart at first glance. The real impact shows up later. A promotion drives bookings but increases refunds. A feature speeds checkout but creates support tickets. A growth push strains cash flow three months down the line.
That lens now guides how we run Backpacker Deals and Travello. We slow decisions enough to ask what happens next. If the downstream impact does not hold up, we rethink the decision.
