For most people, securing an All India Rank in Chartered Accountancy is the destination. For Shubham Makhecha, it became the starting point of a completely different journey.
The co-founder of bucketlistt.com chose mountains, adventure, and entrepreneurship over a conventional corporate career after securing AIR 36 in CA Finals. Today, he is building a fast-growing travel experiences platform focused not on hotels and flights, but on meaningful memories — from paragliding and rafting to city tours and spiritual travel experiences.
Long before entrepreneurship entered the picture, Shubham already had an unusual relationship with travel. Before pursuing CA seriously, he took a gap year and solo-backpacked across 21 states in India. During that phase, he learned skiing at the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering and earned his NIMAS P3 paragliding certification after completing more than 30 solo flights. He also led over 3,000 trekking participants, experiences that shaped his understanding of what travel truly means for people.
Despite the prestige attached to becoming a CA rank holder, Shubham realized early that a traditional office career was never going to satisfy him. His passion lay outdoors, in experiences and exploration, not behind a desk.
That passion eventually evolved into bucketlistt.com, a platform designed to solve a major gap in India’s travel market. While hotels, flights, and tour packages were already heavily digitized, the experiences segment remained fragmented and largely offline. Booking activities like bungee jumping, rafting, paragliding, or local city experiences often required travelers to rely on scattered vendors, unreliable contacts, or on-ground negotiation.
Bucketlistt aims to organize and digitize that ecosystem.
According to Shubham, the company is focused on becoming a one-stop destination where travelers can discover and book authentic experiences easily. Instead of selling standard travel packages, the platform focuses on moments that create emotional value — adventures, explorations, and local experiences that people remember long after the trip ends.
Building the company, however, was far from easy.
One of the biggest challenges in the early days was fundraising. Despite having a strong academic background and a promising idea, Shubham entered the startup world without investor networks or entrepreneurial connections. Being only 24 years old with no prior startup experience made convincing investors even harder. He admits that coming from the CA ecosystem also meant limited exposure to startup communities and venture networks.
What helped the company move forward was finding investors who believed in the vision early on. That support gave the team the confidence and stability needed to scale operations.
Today, bucketlistt is differentiating itself by staying sharply focused on authentic experiences rather than becoming another generic travel-booking platform. While much of the industry competes around flights, hotels, discounts, and packages, the company is building its identity around curated experiences such as rafting, paragliding, bungee jumping, religious tourism, and immersive city tours.
The startup’s customer-first approach is also helping it build organic trust. Nearly 20 percent of customers currently come through word-of-mouth referrals — a significant achievement for a startup that is only a few months old. Shubham credits this to a customer support culture where travelers are treated less like transactions and more like guests visiting the city, even if they do not book directly through the platform.
Another important pillar of the business has been technology.
Instead of relying entirely on third-party systems, the team built its own ERP platform to help travel vendors become digitally enabled. According to Shubham, the system now facilitates nearly ₹3 crore worth of transactions every month. Beyond operations, the company uses booking data to personalize recommendations and upsell experiences to users, creating a stronger customer engagement loop.
The entrepreneurial journey also demanded difficult personal decisions.
Coming from a middle-class family, leaving behind a high-paying CA career to start a travel company was not considered a typical or “safe” move. Shubham recalls that many people around him found the decision surprising, even amusing. But strong support from his father gave him the confidence to pursue the venture seriously.
That leap of faith is beginning to show results.
The company recently crossed ₹2 lakh in sales in a single day and now reportedly maintains daily sales between ₹1.5 lakh and ₹2 lakh consistently. Even more importantly, the startup is already operating at EBITDA break-even — a rare milestone for an early-stage travel venture.
Shubham believes the economics of experiences make the business especially attractive. Unlike flights and hotel bookings, where margins are often thin and competition is intense, experiential travel offers healthier margins while also delivering higher customer satisfaction.
Looking ahead, bucketlistt plans to expand aggressively across multiple experience categories. The company is exploring religious tourism offerings such as Ujjain Aarti experiences and Chardham helicopter tours, while also growing its presence in adventure destinations like Manali and Bir. Rajasthan city tours and culturally immersive experiences are also part of the roadmap.
At the core of the vision is a simple but ambitious goal: Shubham wants bucketlistt to become the first platform travelers open while planning a trip — even before booking hotels or flights.
For him, the future of travel lies in experiences first.
And for aspiring entrepreneurs, his advice is equally direct: take the leap. According to Shubham, even failure teaches more than staying comfortable ever can — while avoiding risk often leads only to lifelong regret.
Interview By : Arushi Agarwal
