This is a follow up story for Pack Up + Go. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 4 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

H! My name is Lillian Rafson, and I’m the Founder + CEO of Pack Up + Go.

We’re a travel agency that specializes in surprise vacations around the United States. Our travelers don’t discover their destination until the day they depart! We’re a bootstrapped business, and since launching in 2016, we’ve sent 43,000+ travelers to 300+ destinations around the country.

We offer five types of surprise vacations: Plane Trips, Outdoors Plane Trips, Road Trips, Outdoors Road Trips, and You Pick Trips. We provide 24/7 in-house traveler support, and offer Peace of Mind Refund Assurance, an in-house alternative to traditional travel insurance to our travelers to make sure their experience with us is the easiest – and most exciting! – a trip they’ll ever take.

Our travelers love embracing the unknown, have a sense of adventure, and travel with an open mind. They know that every destination has so much to offer, and are always on the hunt to have new, exciting, share-worthy experiences!

The metric that I am most proud of is our Net Promoter Score, 94. For reference, airlines have an average NPS of 39, hotels have an average score of 36, and travel websites have an average of 18. Our first core value is to hold the traveler experience above all else, and we work tirelessly to make sure our travelers have the best trip of their lives when working with Pack Up + Go.

Curious how we got here? Here’s our first Starter Story, and here’s our last update!

Stay focused on your goals, the reasons you started your business in the first place, and the impact you want to make on the world.

Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?

This has been a busy year for us. Earlier this year, we launched a new type of trip, Outdoors Plane Trips. We’ve had a great response to our Outdoors Road Trips, which we launched in 2020, and our travelers asked if we could extend that experience to a Plane option where they fly to a mystery outdoors destination, such as a National Park. Since launching in April, we’ve seen a steady number of bookings and positive post-trip results.

Internally, we’ve launched a few exciting initiatives. We onboarded with Hubspot to streamline our marketing efforts and leverage our data to revitalize our customer journey. This has been a major undertaking, but it has allowed us to create much more personalized messaging and understand which of our efforts are and aren’t working so we can continue to test + learn.

Within Hubspot, we've been tirelessly working on refining our conversion funnel and reworking the customer journey to ensure a seamless experience from start to finish. While these developments may not sound as exciting as new product launches, they’ve strengthened our business and set us up for future growth.

This year, we've also formed exciting partnerships with brands like Heineken and Cap'n Crunch. These collaborations have expanded our reach and visibility, enabling us to reach new audiences in fun and engaging ways. You can see us in the cereal aisle on all Cap’n Crunch boxes through August 2024!

Our innovative take on travel has also been recognized by the media, garnering a feature on Good Morning America! They ran a segment in July 2024 about mystery travel, where two of our travelers discovered their destination live on air before heading to the airport. The travel industry has been a rollercoaster since 2020, so seeing the brand on national television was an emotional milestone that made me incredibly proud of the work we have done.

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Our travelers preparing to go live on air on Good Morning America to discover their destination!

Me in a grocery store after seeing my first co-branded box of Cap’n Crunch!

What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?

Over the past year, our bootstrapped travel agency has faced significant challenges, as the travel industry faces headwinds driven by macroeconomic conditions and the increased cost of everyday life. Economic uncertainty has made consumers more cautious with their discretionary spending, impacting our overall growth. After experiencing a remarkable post-pandemic spike in demand, experiencing stagnation was admittedly unexpected and disheartening.

This period of uncertainty forced me to recalibrate and take a hard look at our operations and customer journey. We've dug deep into our metrics to understand where we could make improvements and how we could better serve our customers. This introspection, while tough, has been invaluable.

It's pushed me as a leader to become more transparent with my team, and to make some very hard and uncomfortable decisions that were ultimately in the best interest of the company. As a team, we had to innovate and refine our approach, ensuring that we strengthen the business and control what was within our control, while remaining resilient and adaptable.

Despite the difficulties, I’ve emerged with a clearer vision and a renewed commitment to delivering unique and meaningful travel experiences for our clients. While our growth may have plateaued, our overall traveler satisfaction and net promoter scores have continued to climb, proving that our focus on our core product has been worthwhile.

Always keep your customers at the heart of your decisions. Ask yourself how you can best support them and how you can make your customer service your differentiator.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

In the past year, one of the most significant lessons I’ve learned is that growth isn't always linear. We've faced various challenges and unexpected twists along our journey. I thought that navigating the pandemic would be the toughest, but the years since 2020 have brought more unexpected challenges and tested our agility each step of the way. We've had to navigate through periods of rapid expansion followed by moments of recalibration. Understanding that growth can come in waves has taught me to remain flexible and resilient.

I’ve learned that being a leader during a period of uncertainty is much harder than being a leader during periods of growth, but infinitely more important. It requires transparency, communication, and humility that aren’t always as apparent in periods of growth.

Understanding that the right decision isn't always the easiest one and being able to explain your rationale can go a long way with your team during these times. These decisions, though challenging, have strengthened our company and positioned us for future success.

Lastly, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of staying focused on our own goals and not getting swallowed up in other people's success. The travel industry and startup world is filled with inspiring stories and impressive milestones from other companies, but it's essential to remember that each journey is unique.

By keeping our eyes on our objectives and consistently working towards them, we've maintained our momentum and stayed aligned with our mission. This focus has been key to driving our progress and ensuring that we continue to innovate and grow in a way that is authentic to our company.

What’s the best thing you read in the last year?

The best thing I read in the last year was Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller. A fellow founder recommended it to me, and it completely transformed how I think about branding and positioning my company.

The book drove home the idea that our customers are the heroes of their own stories, and we are simply the guides helping them solve their problems. Before reading it, I often found myself centering our brand's story rather than our customers' needs.

This book was a game-changer, reminding me that it's all about the customer, not us. It's been a profound shift in perspective that has caused us to rethink our messaging throughout our marketing channels.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

My advice to fellow entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business is to avoid the trap of comparing your growth or trajectory to others, especially based on what you see on social media. Remember that social media is a highlight reel - it showcases successes, but rarely reveals challenges and setbacks happening behind the scenes.

Every business journey is unique, and what works for one company may not work for another. Stay focused on your goals, the reasons you started your business in the first place, and the impact you want to make on the world. By staying true to your vision and purpose, you can navigate through challenging times with resilience and determination.

Additionally, always keep your customers at the heart of your decisions. Ask yourself how you can best support them and how you can make your customer service your differentiator. Understanding their needs and continually finding ways to meet them better than your competitors will help you build a loyal customer base and drive sustainable growth.

Setbacks are part of the entrepreneurial journey. Embrace them as learning opportunities, stay committed to your mission, and stay the course.