The monotony of their corporate lives forced these three friends Harshit Patel (28), Mohit Goswami (28), and Oshank Soni (32), to start up a tour agency Trekmunk, that today has a business turnover of 1crore.
The passion to travel, adventure and trekking was a common interest between these three friends who met each other at a job interview as trek leaders in a tourism organisation based in Rishikesh. Again all the three have a stable corporate job background which they were unsatisfied with. Oshank, an investment banker, Mohit an engineering graduate from IIT Kharagpur, and Harshit was a certified mountaineer.
A similar attitude of the three friends
All three friends had a settle corporate life before they thought to start up their venture. Oshank was working earlier as an investment banker. In 2014 he went for a road trip across Sikkim to Gangtok and then a trek to Goechala Summit. This break transformed his thought process, thereby promoting him to leave his job and searching for his passion.
In the same way, Mohit being an IITian Kharagpur knew he had made his parents very proud But personally, he was missing something. After graduating, he changed three jobs within six months. Eventually, he decided to leave everything behind, took up a trek to Leh, and walked up to Chandar Pass all alone.
Harshit was always a solo traveller from the age of 19. Heeven met with an accident injuring his legs. But after getting proper medical attention and physiotherapy, Harshit was good enough to go for a solo trek within a year, in Ladakh. This accomplishment encouraged him to take up a developed mountaineering course. Harshit realised that he was not a 9 to 5 job worker.
How they launched their Start up
Coincidentally, the three men, who resided in different parts of India, met each other at a job interview. They all realized that they were sailing in the same boat and passionate about their love for trekking and adventure. They all were selected for the respective jobs as trek leaders. But Harshit and Oshank quit their job after a few months and went on a bike trek along the Indian coastline. It was during this one-month-long journey they both decided to pursue their passion and that’s when the idea of their start up Trekmunk was born. It was in 2016 November when they registered their company. They also roped in Mohit and the three friends pooled in money to launch their start up. Their vision for this unique your agency was to organise offbeat treks for groups. Further, their parents were not pleased with their decisions.
But the three men were adamant in their decision. To have good work expertise in their newly launched startup, Oshank and Harshit attended a 10-day course called ‘wilderness first responder’ held at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in the USA.
A successful start
Trekmunk organised its first 5-day trek to Harmuk valley in January 2017. There were 3differenttrek teams with less than 10 members in each batch. Their start up venture flourished by word-of-mouth and their work got recognised. more and more trekker enthusiasts joined their expeditions. In 2018, to increase the business they launched their official website and started to build up a team. And today Trekmunk is a brand name among successful start up.
Innovative start up with Social Responsibility
Their motto is not only to promote tourism in new areas, but to generate income for the locals, stimulate sustainability, and lessen pressure on the mountain environment. Again they wanted their trekkers to be eco-friendly ethics. For that, they ask the trekkers to sign a disclaimer for not carrying any disposable plastic material with them. Trekmunk can impose a fine if anybody breaks the same. These three men introduced The concept of ’Trash-free Himalaya’ treks. For the same, Trekmunk takes volunteer on treks to several locations in the Himalayas after the tourist season is over, to clear up the garbage and trash. The volunteers pay half of the actual expedition cost, along with free food and accommodation.
The three friends also organise medical camps on remote mountain residential areas. They take doctors for trekking, who belongs to different specialist fields, from their Sankri basecamp and then on the various destination they conducted health camps. Their first medical camp was in April 2017.
To know more about Trekmunk and the trekking trips they organise visit their social media page.
