What are the strategies of Cloud Runners

05th March 2022 – Cloud Runners The sun was setting down in Dehradun. Abhijeet had just finished a call with a potential customer. It was the seventh such call for inquiry and there were many DMs on his Instagram page that still need to be responded to before he can call it a day. Abhijeet had just posted a new travel package for Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The response received from his followers was a sort of adrenaline rush for Abhijeet. The phone rang again as Abhijeet received the call and introduced himself, “Hello this is Abhijeet from Cloud Runners. How may I help you? ” Abhijeet imagined himself as a fish that was always swimming against the tide. Surely it was tiring, but it had the reward of autonomy. He had been his boss for more than two years, with no fixed working hours and a flexible work location. Abhijeet had only two passions – trekking and trying to headstand at exotic and scenic locations. Although he had not found any ingenious way to monetize from headstanding at different locations, he had stuck at the sweet spot when he decided to pursue his passion for trekking into a business venture when he started Cloud Runners. Cloud Runners, started by Abhijeet Sen in November 2020, catered to the trekking activists, adventure seekers, and adrenaline junkies. Abhijeet used his years of Himalayan trekking experience and his few reliable contacts spread across the mountainous regions of Himachal, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, and Kashmir to design tours that took limited people for treks across the length and breadth of Himalayan trekking hotspots. He decided to grade the treks according to difficulty and season – keeping him busy all year long with intermittent breaks between treks. After a few treks, Abhijeet soon realized that the demand for customized treks, solo trips, and treks to exotic locations was high and it would be impossible for him to manage such treks alone. He reached out to his network of fellow trekkers who operated their own Instagram and Facebook pages. An informal understanding was reached where Abhijeet would collaborate with other trekkers who would collaborate and organize treks on behalf of Cloud Runners in locations where they were comfortable. Thus, Cloud Runners would act as a funnel that would channel interested customers to the “specialist” trekkers for the given locations. Within a year, Cloud Runners was organizing tours in Rajasthan, Andaman Nicobar Islands as well as in Nepal. Another strategy that Cloud Runners used was to find “homestays” at the trek location. Such homestays were usually ignored by traditional tour agencies as they provided limited facilities (some of these homestays lacked wifi and had little or no network coverage) but provided an astounding view of the valley and mountains. The trade-off worked well for trekkers who were willing to experience the local cuisine, the rustic experiences as well as the thrill of living away from the common tourist areas. Abhijeet is now trying to integrate local guides and trekkers into his collaborative network of Cloud Runners. These freelancers would be able to help travelers in deciding their travel itinerary, provide guidance and assistance in their treks as well as give the travelers the satisfaction of completing the treks mostly by themselves. Cloud Runners dreams of a future where trekkers would be able to trek all by themselves by following predefined maps and destination points (which have been set up across many trekking locations in western countries) and Cloud Runners would act as a website that provides a comprehensive list of these locations for trekkers to plan and enjoy their experience.