From Laid-Off PM to Solo Founder (Again): Why Travel?

I spent years as a PM at tech companies like Domestika, Tinybird, and Belvo. Before that, I had my own companies—but I thought that chapter was over for me. Then I got laid off. The remote PM market is brutal right now—despite my experience, I couldn't land anything. So I'm back to building, not by choice, but by necessity.

At all these companies, I was constantly booking flights—for myself, for team offsites. Every single time was the same nightmare: What's the best flight to arrive on time for my first morning meeting? Can I fly the same day or do I have to go the day before? Which flight should I take if my day ends at 5pm? Hotels near the office that are well-connected to the airport? How do we actually get from airport to hotel to office?

But it was at Belvo where I finally started thinking about this as an actual problem that needed solving.

The tools? Absolute garbage. Every OTA looks identical. They all try to upsell and trick you with hidden fees. Most airline websites are stuck in 2005. And I'm so tired of entering the same passenger details over and over and over again.

I'm obsessed with great UX. I couldn't stop thinking: what if we just made this... better?

Natural language search. Arrival instructions included. Actual useful filters. Smart ranking that understands your preferences. Repeated bookings for flights you take every month. Search by meeting time instead of wasting hours on discovery. Recommend the best airport based on your actual destination.

Avolal exists because I got tired of wasting hours on something that should take minutes. And because apparently, no one else is going to fix this.

So where am I now?

Let's be honest—I love the problem-solving and creative part. I've spent a few thousand euros vibe-coding this thing. Yes, Avolal is 100% vibe-coded with Cursor. And it's not a small app either—it's huge for a solo project. Next.js on Vercel, Gemini as the foundation model (it's so damn good!), HeroUI for visuals, Supabase as the database, Duffel for flight data, and Trigger.dev handling the bulk booking features. I'm not winning any architecture awards, but it works and it's fast.

Marketing? As I read in another indie hacker's post... we builders love to build, and we'll find any excuse not to sell. I'm guilty as charged. I'm posting on LinkedIn (awkwardly), trying some activity on Reddit, and will start testing some ads soon.

It's always tempting to pivot to leisure travel, but I can't compete on price or with Skyscanner and Google Flights. The business travel niche is small, and I don't even know if I can reach it. I'm going step by step with not enough results yet. My expectations are low, and if this works, I think it'll go SLOOOOOWLY.

The brutal truth: I have no idea if this will work. I'm running on savings and hope. I'm still looking for a job, but I'll keep pushing for Avolal to succeed. Worst case? I'll have built something cool and moved on. Best case? I solve this for thousands of people like me.