How Flash Pack built, lost and rebuilt a £50m travel business

How Flash Pack built, lost and rebuilt a £50m travel business

Author: Virgin StartUp April 20, 2022 Duration: 39:03

Radha Vyas and Lee Thompson did not just find love on their first date. They found the idea for a business. Together, they built Flash Pack, a travel company for solo travellers in their 30s and 40s who wanted adventure, comfort and connection.


After a bold viral campaign involving a selfie on top of Christ the Redeemer, the business took off, growing into a multi-million-pound company with a mission to create one million friendships through travel. Then Covid hit.


In this episode of The Jump, Radha and Lee share what it felt like to watch revenue disappear overnight, how they handled administration, why they personally supported customers through the refund process, and how they found the strength to rebuild Flash Pack from the ground up. It is a story about love, focus, resilience, and what founders do when the business they have built is suddenly taken away.

Looking for support to start or grow your business?


Virgin StartUp is here to help with funding, mentoring, and a community of founders building businesses across the UK.


Explore resources, access support, and take your next step at virginstartup.org


This episode is brought to you in partnership with Virgin Money, supporting founders with brighter business banking.



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Behind every new company, there's a moment of decision, a leap of faith that changes everything. The Jump, brought to you by Virgin StartUp, digs into those pivotal moments with the people who lived them. Host Ben Keene sits down with founders to hear the raw, often untold chapters of their journeys. Imagine launching a travel venture right before a global pandemic shuts the world down, or finding the inspiration for a brand from your child, only to see it attract clients like Beyonce. These aren't polished fairy tales; they're real accounts of ideas that began at kitchen tables and grew into multimillion-pound enterprises. Each conversation in this podcast peels back the layers of entrepreneurship, focusing on the human stakes behind the business plans. You'll hear about the doubts, the unexpected turns, and the resilience required to build something from nothing. Tune in for a candid look at the messy, inspiring reality of starting up, where every story is a testament to taking that crucial first step. This is where the business of building gets personal.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 6

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