GoYaana: How Prasad Patil is Personalizing the Future of Travel with Smart Technology
In the age of instant gratification, planning a multi-day vacation is still one of the most fragmented and time-consuming tasks a consumer can undertake. While airlines and hotel bookings have gone digital, the "connecting tissue" of an itinerary remains stuck in manual spreadsheets and opaque agency quotes. Prasad Patil, Founder of GoYaana, is digitizing this bridge. By building an AI-led, drag-and-drop trip planner, Prasad is ensuring that the "Renaissance of Travel" is defined by personalization, transparency, and a seamless connection between travelers and the agencies that serve them.
Prasad Patil’s transition into entrepreneurship is a story of long-term conviction. An engineer from Manipal Institute of Technology, Prasad spent over 15 years in the corporate world, including a decade-long tenure at GE Healthcare. Driven by a desire to solve the personalization gap in hospitality, he left his stable career in 2016 to build GoYaana. For Prasad, travel isn’t just about the destination—it’s about using technology to honor the individual’s unique journey.
The Marketplace Gap
When Prasad started his journey, he observed that while smartphones were everywhere, the actual experience of planning a trip was still manual. Travelers were often at the mercy of travel agents who used outdated systems. GoYaana was built to provide an "Intelligent Assistant" that puts the power of planning back into the hands of the traveler, while empowering agencies with better digital tools.
The Problem: The Friction of Fragmented Planning
Travel planning today involves juggling dozens of tabs—from Google Maps and TripAdvisor to hotel sites and local blogs. For travel agencies, creating a custom itinerary involves hours of manual data entry and back-and-forth communication. This lack of integration leads to a high "drop-off" rate and a lack of trust between the agency and the customer.
"Everything else in our lives was getting digitized, but travel was still stuck," Prasad explains. "We saw a gap where we could bring intelligence into the trip-planning process, making it faster for the agent and more transparent for the traveler."
The Solution: The GoYaana Smart Trip Planner
GoYaana is a technology-first platform that offers a unique drag-and-drop itinerary builder. It allows users to select destinations, activities, and accommodations, and instantly see a optimized travel plan based on machine learning data points like the "best time to visit" and logical routing.
The GoYaana Workflow
- Discovery: Travelers or agents select their preferred destinations and interests.
- Drag-and-Drop Planning: Use the smart planner to build a day-by-day itinerary in real-time.
- AI Optimization: The system automatically suggests the most efficient path and identifies potential logistical issues.
- Seamless Execution: Travelers are connected with Destination Management Companies (DMCs) to finalize bookings without additional fees.
The COVID-19 Pivot: From Marketplace to SaaS
GoYaana launched its core product in late 2019, only to face the total shutdown of the global travel industry in March 2020. Rather than giving up, Prasad and his team used the lockdown to refine their business model. They pivoted from being a simple marketplace to a Technology Supplier for travel management companies.
By providing their smart-planning tools as a SaaS product to travel agencies, GoYaana found a way to stay relevant even when borders were closed. This shift allowed them to build a robust B2B foundation, ensuring that as travel returned, they were the "digital engine" behind some of India's leading travel brands.
GoYaana Scale & Strategy
- Technology-First Model: Transitioned from a marketplace to a B2B SaaS supplier for travel agencies.
- Zero-Charge for Travelers: Connecting users directly to fulfillment partners without added fees.
- AI-Led Personalization: Using machine learning to suggest the right time and place for every traveler.
- Resilient Scale: Built a network of DMCs and travel partners during the industry's toughest years.
Lessons in Resilience: The Corporate Reset
For Prasad, leaving GE Healthcare wasn't just about changing jobs—it was about changing his world. He defines entrepreneurship as an "emotional and mental workout" that is fundamentally different from the 9-to-5 life. In a corporate job, there is always a "fall-back" or a manager to solve the ultimate problem. In a startup, the pressure is entirely on the founder's shoulders.
"There is no comparison," he admits. "In entrepreneurship, you have nothing to fall back on. You have to be ready for the marathon. You have to be the one to find the reason why your team should keep going when the market is at a standstill."
Founder's Lesson: Find Your 'Why'
Prasad believes that every founder must find a "good reason" for why they are doing what they do. This "Why" is what sustains you during the 'marathon' when the excitement of the initial idea fades and the daily grind of building a company takes over.
The Future: Standardizing Contactless Travel
Prasad’s vision for GoYaana is to become the synonymous platform for smart travel planning in India. With the post-pandemic shift toward "contactless" and digital-first experiences, GoYaana is positioning itself as the standard dashboard that every traveler and agency uses to navigate the complexities of modern travel.
GoYaana is proving that the travel industry doesn't need more "deals"—it needs better intelligence. By bridging the gap between traveler desires and agency capabilities, Prasad Patil is ensuring that the next "Yaan" (journey) is as smooth as the technology that powers it.
About the Guest
Prasad Patil is the Founder of GoYaana. A computer science engineer from Manipal Institute of Technology, Prasad has a rich background in product development and management, having spent over a decade at GE Healthcare. A first-generation entrepreneur, he is passionate about using technology to solve the personalization gap in the hospitality and travel sector. Under his leadership, GoYaana has evolved into a key technology partner for DMCs and travel agencies across India.
GoYaana is a travel technology platform that provides AI-driven trip planning and B2B SaaS solutions for travel management companies. Based in India, the platform helps agencies digitize their operations and provides travelers with a personalized, transparent itinerary-building experience.