Ritesh Raj, Co-Founder and CEO, CuddlyNest

Some founder stories begin in Silicon Valley garages. Others in ivy-covered dorm rooms. Ritesh Raj’s story begins in Bihar — a town most people in India quietly agree is… not exactly glamorous. In the early 2000s, Bihar was not the sort of place one associated with global entrepreneurship. People didn’t leave. People didn’t dream of travel tech. But Ritesh did.

He left his hometown with little more than determination and curiosity. What began as a departure from a not-so-known land became a journey spanning two decades, 700 flights, 400+ cities, and 100 countries across continents. Through years of travel and first-hand experience across every major booking platform, he began to see what worked, what didn’t, and what travelers truly valued.

The process became his education. The insight became his compass. He learned that while technology connects, its simplicity and affordability that truly serve. For most end users, reducing price is the priority, and for founders, successful exits are part of the process — but innovation must come first.

From contact centers to startups, from shared flats filled with global travelers to a serendipitous coffee moment in California, every step led Ritesh closer to reimagining how the world books travel. It was in that moment CuddlyNest was born — a platform born from 20 years of travel tech experience, designed to shape the future of travel as we know it.

BTN - Ritesh, your story begins far from Silicon Valley — in Bihar. What inspired you to dream beyond boundaries and enter the world of travel technology?
I’ve always believed that your geography doesn’t have to define your destiny. Growing up in Bihar, there wasn’t much exposure to global entrepreneurship or technology, but there was curiosity, and that became my fuel. I wanted to understand how people live, connect, and move across the world. Travel was my education, and technology became the tool to make that education accessible to others.

BTN - Growing up in a region not often associated with startups, what were some of the earliest challenges or moments that shaped your entrepreneurial mindset?
When you come from a place like Bihar, you learn early how to make things work with very little. There’s no safety net, so resilience becomes instinctive. My first jobs (selling cinema tickets, working in contact centers) taught me about people, not business models. I learned to listen, to adapt, and to see opportunity where others saw limitation. That mindset has shaped everything since, including how I build teams and products at CuddlyNest.

BTN - You’ve said your real university was the world itself — 700 flights, 100 countries, countless people. How did that journey influence the creation of CuddlyNest?
Those years of travel were my research phase. I stayed in every type of accommodation imaginable, from hostels to luxury resorts, across every major booking platform. I saw the friction points; the hidden fees, the inconsistent customer experience, the lack of transparency, and I began connecting the dots. CuddlyNest was born from that lived experience: to create a travel platform that was simple, human, and trustworthy.

BTN - CuddlyNest was born from lived experience rather than theory. How did your personal frustrations as a traveler shape the platform’s design and mission?
As a frequent traveler, I was tired of complicated processes and inflated prices. Most platforms were built for scale, not for people. CuddlyNest was built the other way around, it’s traveler-first. Major legacy players have massive teams to sustain, often 20,000 or more, and that overhead gets passed on to travelers through higher commissions. We kept our team lean (under 100) and focused on leveraging the latest technology, including AI, machine learning, and automation. While larger companies take years to adapt, we build fast and stay agile. This efficiency lets us shift more of the value back to users, helping them travel more and save more.

BTN - What gap did you see in the travel-booking space that major global players were missing?
Most large OTAs optimize for algorithms over human experience. They prioritize ad revenue and upsells over simplicity and trust. I saw a gap for a platform that could combine scale with empathy, one that respected the traveler’s time, budget, and individuality. That’s where CuddlyNest fits in: we simplify the experience while using technology intelligently to make it personal.

BTN - Can you describe the philosophy behind CuddlyNest’s focus on simplicity, affordability, and inclusivity — and how that differs from other OTAs?
The philosophy is that travel should be for everyone, not just those who can afford premium convenience. Simplicity means intuitive design; affordability means fair pricing with no hidden fees; inclusivity means giving hosts and travelers equal footing across geographies, as well as providing a variety of payment options that transcend boarders, including crypto. Other OTAs often separate these goals, while we see them as one system. The simpler it is, the fairer it becomes.

BTN - Many founders come from well-funded ecosystems; you built yours from the ground up. What lessons did you learn about resilience and resourcefulness?
When you don’t have resources, you learn resourcefulness. I’ve learned to treat constraints as creative catalysts. Every setback forces clarity: what really matters, and what’s just noise. Building through challenges (from the 2020 pandemic to the war in Ukraine, where part of our team was based)  taught me that persistence is a strategy in itself. You just have to keep building, even when no one’s watching.

BTN - How do you balance ambition with patience — especially when building a company meant to last in such a competitive industry?
I see patience as long-term ambition. We’re not trying to chase quick valuations or exits; we’re building something sustainable and totally in-house. I remind myself that timing is as important as talent; you can’t force the world to move faster than it’s ready for, but you can be prepared when it does. That’s what keeps me balanced: staying grounded in the mission, not the metrics.

BTN - Travel tech has seen many highs and lows; how do you keep CuddlyNest agile and relevant amid constant market shifts?
We keep everything lean and in-house. That’s our biggest advantage. We don’t depend on external platforms or plug-ins, we build our own systems, AI, and integrations. This allows us to move faster, adapt to trends, and pivot when the market changes. The team knows that innovation isn’t a department here; it’s a culture.

BTN - What role does technology — particularly AI and personalization — play in shaping the next chapter of CuddlyNest?
AI is at the core of our next phase. It’s helping us move from static booking to dynamic travel — real-time pricing, adaptive packages, and predictive personalization. We’re building systems that understand intent, not just input. The goal is to make every booking experience feel like it was designed for that specific traveler.

BTN - CuddlyNest was built to serve real travelers, not algorithms. How do you maintain that human-centric approach while scaling globally?
We start every product decision with empathy. Data helps us refine, but stories guide us. Our team are real travelers themselves, who also regularly interact with both hosts and fellow travelers — real people, real feedback. That loop keeps us grounded. We believe scale without soul doesn’t last; so no matter how global we become, the human experience stays at the heart.

BTN - You often speak about innovation coming before financial exits. How do you define success as an entrepreneur?
For me, success isn’t just a valuation, it’s validation. When a traveler tells us they booked more easily, paid less, or discovered a place they wouldn’t have otherwise, that’s success for me. Financial milestones are outcomes, not goals. The real achievement is building something that continues to serve, adapt, and inspire travelers long after I’m gone.

BTN - What message do you hope your journey sends to young founders from smaller towns and emerging markets?
That you don’t need to be born in privilege to build something global. Curiosity, resilience, and execution can take you further than geography or connections. If you can see a problem clearly and are willing to commit years, not months, to solving it — the world will eventually meet you halfway.

BTN - How do you see India — and places like Bihar — contributing to the next wave of global tech entrepreneurship?
India’s greatest export is its talent and tenacity. And places like Bihar, often underestimated, are full of untapped potential. Connectivity and education are changing that. The next wave of founders will come from places that were once overlooked. I’m proud to be part of that story, to show that global innovation can begin anywhere.

BTN - Finally, what’s next for CuddlyNest, and what continues to drive you on this incredible journey?
We’re entering the age of AI-driven travel — and CuddlyNest is ready to lead that transformation. The next chapter involves expanding into multi-city travel packages, smarter dynamic pricing, and a unified ecosystem that connects every part of a trip seamlessly.

What drives me is simple: gratitude and possibility. Every traveler who trusts us keeps me moving forward — and I still believe the best journeys, like the best companies, are just getting started.

Leaving Home, Finding Delhi: A Step Into The Unknown
In 2006, an eager Ritesh tried on every Indian metropolitan city he could: Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai. But it was Delhi that felt like the gateway. It was India’s capital, buzzing with possibility.  He wasn’t yet fluent in the world’s common tongue; not being conversant in the language that opened doors became a challenge he wanted to overcome fast. So the obvious next move became work at a movie theatre; an environment where stories spoke louder than textbooks. Among screens, crowds, and conversations, he absorbed more than vocabulary; he absorbed worlds. Each encounter, each narrative, expanded his sense of what was possible — and the idea that connection itself could become his life’s work began to take root.

In New Delhi, he also opened his home to travelers from every corner of the world, creating what would become one of India’s first true co-living spaces. Over the years, seventy people cycled through those rooms — each with stories, accents, and worlds that expanded his own. The friendships and stories shared around that communal table became his compass, igniting a powerful desire to see the faraway places his flatmates spoke of…

Six Years Exploring the Planet
In 2013, Ritesh decided to do something most people would call reckless but he considered essential research: he set out to visit every country in the world. Between 100+ countries & over 400 cities (including months visiting almost every city in India), he spent at least a week in each destination—reconnecting with former flatmates, consulting on projects, and above all, immersing himself in the travel experience. He slept in every type of accommodation imaginable, across every star rating, from budget hostels to luxury resorts, making use of every available platform to book his stays to test firsthand how technology could make or break a journey.

Coffee in California
By December 2019, after so many miles and sky-high routines, he found himself in Sightglass Coffee in a chilly San Francisco. It was here amid the hum of strangers and caffeine, that fate stepped in. Ritesh exchanges words with visionary future Co-founder, Haitham Saead — they discover they share both a love of good coffee and frustrations toward conventional travel booking platforms — and the world shifted again.

Their conversation quickly veered toward shared frustrations: online travel agencies were clunky, impersonal, and riddled with inefficiencies. Both held highly skilled backgrounds in technology and travel. Both had seen firsthand how people wanted something simpler, friendlier, and smarter. By January 2020, they decided to do something about it, and CuddlyNest was born.

Then came March 2020. The pandemic hit. Travel froze. Investors panicked. Teams scattered—Ukraine, one of CuddlyNest’s key hubs, was later disrupted by political upheaval. Starting a travel company at that exact moment was, objectively, the worst timing imaginable. But Ritesh kept his head down, even flying to Colombia just to keep building, only to see it too was shut down within days. Still, he kept building, and most importantly, he believed the world would return to travel eventually.

Building Through the Storm
For two years, CuddlyNest quietly expanded, integrating suppliers to expand inventory, improving systems, building AI models and making a key decision: everything would be built in-house. No outsourcing and no subscription dependencies. If they were going to create something resilient, it was going to be under their control and without scaling issues or restrictions. These were difficult times but their small-but-mighty team pushed on with blind faith and determination.

By 2023, global travel had found its rhythm again. By 2024, artificial intelligence surged into the mainstream, reshaping industries as new leaders like GPT, Anthropic, Perplexity, and Grok emerged. While others scrambled to adapt, CuddlyNest was already ahead of the curve. Years of building through uncertainty had made the team lean, resilient, and positioned to innovate — not just survive.

Today, the platform offers flights, attractions, and stays across the globe, soon expanding into multi-city packages and real-time, dynamically priced travel bundles powered by AI. The same vision that once connected travelers to homes now connects every part of the journey — seamlessly, intelligently, and with a human touch.

Two Decades in Travel, One Clear Mission
Today, Ritesh brings two decades of travel technology experience to the table. His visionary journey—from Bihar to Delhi, from popcorn-fueled English lessons to exits and startups, from 70 international flatmates to 110+ countries via more than 700+ flights—has been anything but ordinary. But that’s the point.

All that to say: CuddlyNest isn’t just another booking platform. It’s the culmination of lived experience: the belief that travel should be easy, human, and smart. And in an industry now primed for AI, it’s a company ready not just to keep pace but to set it.

Just Getting Started
Some will say it’s luck. Ritesh calls it blessings. But beneath it all is something more straightforward: hard work, grit, and a willingness to take risks others wouldn’t. From Bihar to the world, the path wasn’t obvious. But then again, neither was selling cinema tickets to learn English. And look where that led.

CuddlyNest is primed to expand far beyond conventional OTA models in the UK and beyond — including everything from packages to train tickets, bus rides to cruises — staying true to the founding ambition of touching every travel vertical. Today, the company is no longer in the building phase but in the enhancing phase: riding the wave of AI, expanding into flights and attractions, and reshaping how people discover and book travel.

The company is proof of what happens when grit meets timing, when risk meets resilience, and when a kid from an “unpopular town” decides the world is worth exploring—and, lucky for us, worth connecting.