While others were still dreaming about the China travel opportunity, Steven Pang, a Singaporean living in Hong Kong, took the plunge back in 2010 to start a travel search business specialising in comparing flights, hotels and package holidays. He chose the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen as his startup base and four years later, his bet paid off when Youbibi was acquired by Skyscanner.
There’s no denying that Youbibi, renamed Tianxun, gave Skyscanner a critical foothold in the China market. Pang speaks to Yeoh Siew Hoon about his journey and what he sees ahead for Skyscanner, where he remains vice president, product management for the China market.
Q: All good stories start at the beginning … with Once Upon A Time. Talk to us about the original idea behind Youbibi.
I was a young man working in London, using pretty much all my long weekends and holidays to travel around Europe. Back in the ‘90s, I’d rock up to some remote village in Spain and feel like an alien – people would look at me as if they’d never seen a Chinese person before. Then, as the years went by, I started seeing Chinese tourists and hearing more and more Mandarin (Putonghua) spoken on my travels. That gave me an inkling into the tremendous business opportunity that would exist in facilitating outbound travel from China.
Q: All good stories must have a hero (you) and a villain – who or what was the first/biggest/baddest villain you encountered in the first years of your startup?
For me, it was a co-founder who chose to leave our company not too long after it started. It’s all water under the bridge now, and I understand why he did it, but at the time it was a severe jolt to my confidence. Having subsequently invested in and mentored other startups, I’ve now realised it’s a more common scenario than one might think.
Q: All good stories must have a saviour – in your case, an acquirer, Skyscanner in June 2014. Tell us about the first approach and what went backstage to make the deal happen?
Youbibi started working with Skyscanner on a B2B basis, exchanging inventory. They realised we had a great local product and an efficient way of enabling flights shopping – using a combination of public fares and private pricing policies. A few months later Gareth Williams, then CEO of Skyscanner, came to China to meet us and the deal followed on from that.
Q: All good stories must have a review score/rating – scale of 1-10, how happy were you with the deal you achieved, 1 being least happy, 10 being most happy. Anything that you felt could have been done differently? Can you share a dollar figure of the deal?
Steven Pang: “Biggest adjustment is becoming part of a broader vision and mission.”
I’d give it an 8. If I’d had a crystal ball I would have asked for a bigger stock component – I didn’t know then that Skyscanner would get acquired by Ctrip.
Q: All good stories have a sequel – some of us are looking forward to Crazy Rich Asians, Part 2, for example? First, how crazy or rich are you? Scale of 1 to 10 for both.
Pretty crazy, rich enough to do what’s meaningful to me.
Q: Second, you chose to stay with the acquiring company – most people say exit, and goodbye. What was the biggest adjustment you had to make post-acquisition? How has staying made you a better entrepreneur?
The biggest adjustment is becoming part of a broader vision and mission. I’ve been fortunate to have had a lot of autonomy and have learnt a tremendous amount about building internet product at global scale.
Q: All good stories have different narratives – Steven, you are still with Skyscanner (4 years after) and you now head product for Skyscanner in China. What’s the motivation for staying? What’s the most exciting development happening in your respective spaces?
Skyscanner has a fantastic culture and huge potential to be even more impactful in travel. I’m really excited by the move towards a fully transactional marketplace and into verticals outside of flights. I’m still really passionate about the mind-expanding benefits of travel and using technology to make it easier and better.
Q: All good stories have a superhero – other than you. Gareth Williams is a pretty charismatic leader – describe your first meeting with him and the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from him.
Gareth and I clicked from the start. He’s taught me a lot, not least that a focus on “Traveller First” tends to pay dividends.
Q: All good stories (Hollywood ones anyway) have a happy ending although real life is messier. What’s the happy ending you want for the business you’re running today?
Skyscanner becomes the single trusted app for most people’s travel needs.
Q: Since we are talking good stories, what’s the best book you’ve read that made you a better entrepreneur/person?
I read “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee in high school. The thing that resonated most with me then was the importance of looking at things from other people’s perspective, putting oneself in the other person’s shoes. That lesson has stood me well when dealing with shareholders, employees, consumers, commercial partners, regulators and all other stakeholders in business.
Q: Finally, if there was a movie made about your life, who would you want to play you?
I’m so confident that a movie won’t get made about me that I’m going to choose someone who’s sadly passed away – Hong Kong film star Leslie Cheung. He was such a cool cat. A friend of mine back in the day suggested that with just a little plastic surgery I could pass for him – I wish!
• Featured image: Founders’ Fireside Chat at WiT Bootcamp, Skyscanner China’s Steven Pang (left) with Voyagin’s Tushar Khandelwal and Mystify’s Mary Li
• Images credit: Shoot My Travel