Almost bankrupt. Lots of ideas tested. One breakthrough – $1M to $10M revenue in a year. In 2013, Janis Možeiko co-founded Airguru – an easy travel deals agency. It grew steadily. Then COVID-19 grounded everything overnight. Lesson learned? Lithuania is a small market. Never put all your eggs in one basket.
Next came the RatePunk – a Chrome extension that finds the best hotel prices across travel agencies. It grew fast too. Until Booking pulled the plug on affiliate payments. “You’re sending clients between agencies. We could get them ourselves.” Back to square one.
Execution is everything
Along the way, Janis and his team tested a lot of travel ideas. Some showed promise. Most didn’t survive contact with reality. That’s the point – you test the idea, watch it break, and move on smarter.
In the travel market, the product is the king. No marketing budget, no growth hack, no clever ad will save a product that doesn’t genuinely help people. The moment attention shifts from product to marketing too early, everything stalls. “We learned that the hard way. More than once.”
On nearly losing it all
In 2023, RatePunk’s model almost collapsed. Back then, Janis was running Airguru – profitable, stable, safe. He didn’t have to go back. “I had no other big bets in my life. The painful decisions – they’re almost always worth it.”
He went back. Faced the debt. Then Tadas Burgaila and Žygimantas Surintas from Kilo stepped in. What could have ended in bankruptcy became a turning point.
From Kilo Karolis joined for marketing, Laura – for creatives. Kilo’s people, know how, belief – rebuilt from there. Also, some people from the “old” RatePunk stayed, and they felt the same as Janis – “What do we have to lose?” Let’s try once again, even if the prospects don’t look good back then.
One mindset shift made all the difference in a team, too – radical transparency. Every team member knows everything. Good and bad. “That’s how trust is built. I won’t bullshit you. Ever.”
That’s when the real product was born
What if you didn’t search for a specific flight, but let the algorithm find the best one for you? Not “Vilnius to Tallinn on Friday.” More like: “I’m free. Surprise me.”
RatePunk’s new app now pulls data from the world’s largest flight aggregators. Every route. Every airport. Every day.
The result: 150 million flight options updated daily. Each one scored – airline, price, layover, destination. Users get a ranked dashboard of the best flights from their home airport. Not for people who know where they’re going. For people open to going anywhere.
The result? From near-bankruptcy to a global success. A team of 23 people skyrocketed revenue from $1M to $10M in a year. A Kilo investment deal closing this March – this time, a controlling stake.
All in without burning out
Janis is always on. Slack everywhere. Reachable 24/7 – and he genuinely likes it that way. Dashboards every hour. Probably the new app’s most active tester – more bug reports than the quality assurance team. Not because he doesn’t trust the team. Because after 13 years in the travel business, he can’t look away.
But no 12–16 hours of work. He reads, rests, and moves. Works actively during normal hours – passively the rest of the time. He knows that without sleep, food, and exercise, performance drops. Simple as that.
“I’m not a young co-founder anymore. I’ve seen a lot. Grinding long hours and throwing 150% energy at everything – that’s not the game. Focus is. Tunnel vision towards your goal – that’s where breakthroughs happen.”
