Kayak story

Kayak is one of those ideas (I may post here others) that I had long time ago but never got to do. As foreigner living in US, I used to travel every year back to my country and I still remember the pain of checking different airlines/combinations, etc... I still remember checking Travelocity and Expedia, and then, using Orbitz when it came up, and all that time thinking: what the heck, can't you guys do that simpler?

Note: somehow I think Orbitz came after the other two, but not sure why made so much news... It is the same kind, isn't it?

Anyhow, this post wants to be a lessons learned so that I can apply this to future ideas. Mental note: one day hopefully I'll stop learning lessons and move my ass. But anyhow, let's analyze what went on my mind and why I didn't do it, and what if I would have...

1/ The idea came from a basic need and suffering. I.e., when you find something that bothers you, instead of getting upset at it, think that this may be your opportunity to create a solution. I actually think that this is a great source for ideas. Only issue is that it is not really creative, so, out of all the other people getting bothered by the same issue, few ones can come up with the idea and become your competitors.

2/ So, who become my competitor? You can find their story here:
http://bostinnovation.com/2010/10/25/boston-tech-mafia-mondays-the-kayak-crew/

Interesting to see that:

1. This were really experienced people on the travel agency field.
2. Lots of funding went behind to start this. So, my biggest question is why? Why so much funding? I can't see really why some of these ventures take so much money. Look (ignorant myself) that one could program an application like this really easy. Yeah, I agree that you would have to have access to the database but still. And I agree the filters are nice and the application fast, but still, we are talking about 100's of million of $$$$.

3/ And myself was trying to do this on my spare time!!

Oh well, I don't think I regret not to have done this myself. I probably would have failed as I have little experience on this field. The biggest lesson is probably that I should have approached some deep pockets with the idea, and probably they would have said "thank you", give me something, and let me move to something else. Again, back to #1, I don't think the idea was that "creative", so, maybe I would not have got even change, but at least, I have to thank Kayak for their site and making my life much easier, because I know that years would have past for me to move and do anything about it (probably the biggest lesson of all).

Mental note: I've never approached external funding, so, that is something I haven't learned (no experience).