The staff of Entrepreneur.com recently released a list of America's Hottest New Companies. One in particular reminded me of how managing and running a company isn't as complicated as many make it out to be.
It took CEO Steve Hafner, 37, and chief technology officer Paul English, 42, one hour-and-a-half lunch to decide to launch Kayak. They each kicked in $1.5 million of their own money to get the venture into the water. Hafner had been an executive vice president at travel site Orbitz and decided this new company would do things differently. Kayak is a travel search engine that doesn't actually sell any products--it just helps users get connected. Profits come from advertising as well as referral fees paid by the suppliers when Kayak's users click on their sites. "With Kayak, it's fun to use. It's very, very simple, and we'll search over 100 sites for you in real time," says English.
There are three things they say is all they really focus on:
1. An intense focus on customer service
2. Ease of use of the Web site
3. Irreverently fun attitude
Their management and business philosophy has in a very short time earned Kayak over 5 million users a month, and it's growing quickly.
The owners say that "We're building the travel site we want to use and treating our customers the way we want to be treated. It's pretty simple, really."
Doesn't ever make you wonder why those who simplify and focus on the core issues always say it's really not that hard?
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