Welcome to 60 seconds with... where we interview a great business every month.
This month, we met with Mikhail Sokolov, CEO of
OneTwoTrip, to get his best business advice and highlights in a minute or less!
PayPal (PP): In your own words, can you tell us a bit about your business please?
Mikhail Sokolov (MS): We are a multi-product and multi-platform online-travel agency running on our own proprietary IT systems, operating in 10 countries.
PP: How would you describe your customers?
MS: We have two main types of customers. The first are our individual travelers looking to book travel services online through an easy interface at the best prices. The second are our B2B clients looking for a reliable partner for all their corporate travel needs.
PP: What’s been your biggest highlight since starting your business?
MS: Our mobile app. It means our mobile users can book travel services through an easy-to-use and innovative interface with advanced technologies behind. For example, you can change your airline ticket in our app without calling anyone.
PP: What would you say is the one thing your business couldn’t function without?
MS: Our people who work on continuously handling and improving our travel inventory, developing and maintaining our IT platform and providing clients with high quality customer support.
PP: How has the growth of mobile impacted your business?
MS: Mobile represents more than half of our direct B2C purchases. We were early movers in the market to invest resources into building an innovative product meeting the best industry standards globally and we have achieved our goal of mobile sales doubling each year for the past 3 years.
PP: What is your favorite thing about using PayPal?
MS: It is a fast and secure payment solution.
PP: If you were to give one piece of advice to other businesses, what would it be?
MS: Build the right team that will never stop improving to drive the business forward.
PP: Finally, if you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 things would you take with you?
MS: Solar satellite phone, axe and antibiotics.
PP: Thanks Mikhail!