The Road Less Travelled Turning slow travel into a scalable, flight-free experience

In a world dominated by fast-paced travel and environmental concerns, Byway offers a refreshing alternative—flight-free, multi-stop trips by land and sea. With innovative technology at its core, Byway is redefining the travel experience while staying true to its sustainable mission.

What strategies did you use to sustain Byway's growth during the pandemic, and how do you continue to maintain momentum in today's competitive travel landscape?
Byway was founded in March 2020 so we had to initiate growth, rather than sustain it, during the pandemic. Initially, there was a full lockdown, so we spent that time on customer discovery and product research and built a waiting list of people who wanted to travel with us when the lockdown lifted. We were able to run our first trips – UK only – in the second half of 2020, and Europe later when things opened up. Initially, we booked people's trains and accommodation separately as our ABTA bond application was delayed because of the various travel companies in crisis so we couldn't offer everything together in one financially protected package like we do now. We were lucky enough to have had great press and high demand from the start, and given how early we were in Byway's life and how much we had to test and learn, it was actually pretty helpful to have travel restrictions limiting demand to a level we could manage as we got up and running.

Today, our momentum continues largely because we offer such a unique product: personalised multi-stop holidays by land and sea, where the journey is part of the experience – and there's not a flight in sight. This sort of travel has always been magical: so many people love the slower, more relaxed pace of train travel and the possibilities to stop off and explore. The interest has continued to grow over the last few years as more people look for rich experiences over cookie-cutter holidays, and of course, more sustainable trips.

However, it can be prohibitively complex to organise and book these wonderful multi-stop trips across multiple countries – and that's where Byway's unique routing technology and expert team comes into their own. Our business growth is thanks to this tech enablement – this is the first time tech has powered multi-stop, multi-modal travel – and the fact that people simply love our trips and the great support that goes with them (see our 96% five star reviews!). A large portion of our growth comes from repeat bookings and referrals.

Related: Tailored for Today

As an eco-conscious startup, how do you balance scalability with your commitment to sustainability and authentic, slower travel experiences?

Our whole business is about scaling sustainable travel – we're more sustainable by design, so as we grow, so does our impact. There's no flight offsetting, as all Byway holidays are flight-free so lower carbon; we prioritise locally-run stays over chains and local transport infrastructure over tourist trains; and we have a 'hotspot penalty' that penalises tourist hotspots when we plan trips. On day one, I founded the company. On day two, I applied to B Corp. This was the company I always wanted to build. We don't judge or flight-shame: many of our customers also fly, and we're happy to offer

one-way trips for people who want to almost halve emissions without going overland both ways (e.g. for a recent customer who travelled overland to a conference in Portugal on a mini holiday from the UK, but flew home to get back in time for work). We also offer trips to American travellers coming to Europe: we help them explore overland and enjoy the wonderful rail network instead of booking short-haul flights while they're here, but, of course, they fly at the start and end.

We see in our data that once you try this sort of travel, you're a convert – you do it again and you refer your friends. It's so much lovelier than flying! So anything we can do to help people take that first step to try flight free is really welcome.

Closing a Series A is a major milestone—what key lessons or surprises came from that fundraising journey, and how are you applying them in Byway's expansion?

We were warned that in this funding climate it would be hard to get backing for a travel company but we were lucky enough to have a lot of interest from existing and new investors in an oversubscribed round. There were a few tricky moments as we closed because we really wanted to get everyone around the table and we weren't sure we could manage it, but in the end our investors were just fantastic, squeezing up to make space for each other, and we could bring in everyone we wanted. The experience really brought home the value of choosing investors for their values and collaborative spirit over cheque size. Having investors that have your back and believe in your vision makes building the company such a delight and generates an extraordinary amount of inbound luck. Many of our investors are also advisors to our company functional leads, and to me, and the value of the challenge and support they provide can't be overstated. Asking for help and listening is not just valuable in fundraising, but in customer discovery, team-building and everything else you can think of. As my children would say: 'team work makes the dream work!'.

What consumer behavior shifts have you observed post-Covid, and how are these shaping Byway's product offerings and growth strategies?

COVID-19 accelerated a lot of the trends that were already growing as we started concepting for Byway in early 2020: the slow food movement, mindfulness, shop local, slow fashion... and of course, sustainability. Byway trips are 'slow travel' holidays where the journey is part of the experience – they're about slowing down to experience more – and they tap into lots of these themes. We choose locally-owned accommodation over international chains; we help our travellers lean into a slower pace, being present and valuing the time spent exploring and pausing along the way; we avoid tourist traps and tourist trails, and all of our transport is much lower carbon than flying. 72% of people this year are considering the environmental impact of their travel plans, up from 64% last year*.

What advice would you give entrepreneurs on turning personal values, like sustainability, into a scalable business proposition in challenging markets?

It's not just about having a more sustainable offering; it actually has to be a better product experience. If you can figure out how to create a loveable experience that's simply better than the alternative for your customers – if you can get to 96% five star reviews with repeats and referrals driving your flywheel – and if at its heart, in its design, that better product is genuinely more sustainable, then you're onto a winner. If customers choose your product because they want to, because they love it, because it's really better than the alternative (not because they ought to, or should do, or they feel it's the responsible thing to do), your wonderful product and your customers' love of it is going to take care of your growth.

Byway trips are how I've always travelled (I've never owned a car) and now I get to share the joy of multi-stop trips by land and sea with all of our customers. As our brand has evolved, our customer-facing messaging has shifted from a focus on what it isn't (flight free) to what it is (a rich, beautiful experience). I suggest that other entrepreneurs with sustainable products focus on the pull motivators ahead of the push ones.

How did you persuade investors to back a slow-travel startup in a fast-paced world, and what lessons can founders take into their own pitches?

The key for us was our first-of-its-kind technology paired with our growth, customer love and fantastic unit economics. Byway has created the world's first 100% flight-free travel tech that routes holidays based on enjoyment. In the end, the defensibility of that technology and the proprietary data it uses was the core of what got people excited. Our tech integrates locally expert place and journey-based data (over two million miles of it) with customer insights and data in a smart dynamic packaging engine that designs unique multi-stop, personalised trips.

Further developing this tech was a key part of our pitch. Sustainability is an accelerant to a macro, general shift in travel back to the journey and the experience. It gave the pitch some extra sparkle, but it wasn't the core driver of most of our investors' decision making.

The biggest lesson I can share is to remember you're choosing your investors at least as much as they're choosing you – hopefully more! Be picky, and do your homework. The pitch goes over easier when you're speaking the same language and you have a shared thesis. Max Niederhofer, who sits on our board (GP at Heartcore, who led our Series A), said "We felt called to support Byway's mission to make tourism both more fulfilling and sustainable, and believe that its technology will become a key pillar for the next generation of online travel." I think that just about sums it up.

Related: The Business Case for Prioritising Sustainable Development