Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikayla Furlan.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I believe my story truly began while in high school when I had the opportunity to participate in several mission trips to places like the Dominican Republic, South Africa, and Bolivia. It was on these trips that I discovered a passion for helping people and a passion for travel.
I moved to San Diego five years ago from a suburban town in Illinois. I studied International Business in college because I have always had a love for the world and the idea of developing a deep cultural understanding of many different countries. My degree required me to study abroad in Spain, and during that time, I visited 28 countries, three continents and 60 cities. In the year following my return to San Diego, I received so many messages, emails, and DM’s asking for my recommendations or being told how much of an inspiration I was. It genuinely amazes me that I have become a person that someone can go to for help or guidance. One of the things I value most about my past experiences is that there’s nothing quite like the feeling when someone tells you that you helped to make their trip incredible with your travel tips and they would have done X, Y, and Z wrong if it weren’t for you. Travel is one of the most valuable things I have ever done for myself. I feel I have made a positive contribution to someone’s life if I can help them avoid making the same mistakes that I did, encourage them to step out of their comfort zone, to experience something new or help them find their own way of incorporating exploration into their life.
Three years later, I have now been to 40 US states and 52 countries, 20 of which I have traveled in by myself. During this time, I have been able to assist over 700 people in discovering new places or giving them advice. All of these past experiences are what have led me to my current job. I am the Chief Marketing Officer at Rayka, a new social app designed to be an easy way to share and source relevant recommendations for nearby food, beverage, and activities from your community and from people with your similar interests. I was a user of Rayka before I was ever an employee because I truly resonated with the problem they were trying to solve, and I wanted to do anything I could to help the company grow. I had a full-time job and was working as a volunteer over ten hours a week for Rayka before they decided to hire me full-time. Rayka was built because there wasn’t a place for people to easily source and share recommendations with their friends/family. For instance, my profile on Rayka has over 700 recommendations that I have put into lists that I can now easily share with my family and friends anytime they need the inspiration to try something new.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Creating a ‘social media’ platform in app format has had both benefits and challenges. It allows us to design the app in ways that are similar to other social media platforms, so we don’t have to ‘reinvent the wheel’ and design something completely from scratch. There are already so many social platforms and apps that compete for everyone’s time, so we are trying to be different and more relative to the way people view exploration and experience new places. We officially launched on January 24, 2019, and have been focusing on refining the product based on feedback from users to better fit this current experience market. Later this year or in early 2020, we will begin to focus on further expansion. Our goal is to help people find unforgettable experiences, whether that is on a trip or right around the corner from where they live. One of our main challenges is educating people about the recommendation system and encouraging them to make a change from the current review platforms they use.
Rayka – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We believe the reviewer is far more important than the review. Different people have different tastes, and each opinion deserves to be honored, not averaged out. On standard review platforms, 4.3 stars is the average ranking, and 40% of the reviews are thought to be fake or paid for. This isn’t helpful as they are averaging out lack of expertise, typically showing the most touristy places in town and hiding a lot of the reviews on businesses pages. They also don’t account for the differences between demographics or the differences in levels of expertise. For example, a bar might get a 5-star review from an 18-year-old, but a 1-star review from an 80-year-old or a review from someone who has been to 150 countries is weighted the same as someone who never left their state. So our platform is based on recommendations from real people – friends, celebrities, experts, and groups of people you might find interesting or relevant. These people include couples travelers, flight attendants, those who have visited over 150 countries, those who seek out vegan meals, etc. Instead of lumping everything together into a 4.5-star review, we focus on highlighting lists and recommendations from trustworthy references, sources, and expertise.
As a company, we are most proud of being able to provide information to inspire the explorer within all of us and creating a platform that serves as a trustworthy community that highlights amazing restaurants, bars, and other hidden gems nearby. I’d say our key differentiator is that we are focused on encouraging you out into the world, rather than deeper into your phone. On other platforms, their goal is to get you to spend three hours scrolling through pages without you even realizing it. At Rayka, we strive to provide instant value and to encourage you to live in the moment instead of for the moment. For us, our goal is for the content of the app to help you spend as much time as possible, experiencing an amazing new restaurant, hidden gem, or experience. Rather than being based on comparison, our content is based on exploration.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rayka-app.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rayka_app/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaykaApp/
- Other: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1255229124
Image Credit:
Rayka
Suggest a story: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
