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This week on the podcast, we are joined by Karyna McLaren from Kosan Travel. Karyna shares how she first fell in love with travel as a child, and how she continued to travel as an adult. After spending 2 years studying in Australia and backpacking through SE Asia, Karyna was completely hooked on backpacking.
Growing up with parents who owned their own business, Karyna had always been inspired to be an entrepreneur herself. She had always been interested in fashion, but it wasn’t until a friend approached with an idea to create travel gear that she dove into co-founding a travel and fashion company. Now, Karyna works full-time on Kosan Travel, creating products that improve the lives of travelers.
Kosan Travel found a problem in the travel industry, and now they are providing a solution through their first product, a travel backpacking system that allows you to carry a bag on your back and a day pack on your front comfortably and easily. Throughout this episode, Karyna shares the process of designing, creating and manufacturing the Kosan travel pack, and what she learned through building the product. She also talks about the Kickstarter campaign, the challenges of building a business, and tips for anyone who wants to become a travel entrepreneur!
Enjoy!
What we talk about in this episode:
- What inspired Karyna to travel – getting the travel bug at a young age!
- Studying Australia – what it was like over there
- Being inspired to backpack through a trip to SE Asia
- What Kosan is and how it came about
- What makes the Kosan travel system different
- The design, creation and manufacturing process for the Kosan travel pack
- The experience of launching a kickstarter – support Kosan here!
- The process of producing a successful product is slow and you need to be patient – it’s always going to take longer than you planned for or expected
- Spending 2 months in Vietnam to prototype the travel pack
- When it comes to creating a travel product or service, always think about what you would use as a traveler
- How to market your product and service
- What’s next for Kosan!
- Tips for other travel entrepreneurs
You can also check out our new travel community on Facebook where you can ask questions, get travel recommendations, and find community members in your area!
If you would like to support the continued growth of the show and receive cool kickbacks like postcards from around the world and one on one calls with Ryan and Amanda, head on over to Patreon. Thank you so much for your continued support!
Music Credits:
www.bensound.com
You can connect with Karyna and Kosan Travel on Facebook, online!
Photos from this episode:
