Rob Karp, CEO & Founder of MilesAhead, a luxury travel concierge, founded the company when he was just a sophomore in high school. Today he’s a 20-year old rising senior at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.
At 14, Rob developed a passion for the travel industry and a drive for delivering a best-in-class customer experience. Self-taught, Rob developed his airline knowledge by learning about points and began helping family and friends with their travel. What began as a hobby and one man operation throughout his high school years developed into MilesAhead. The company grew exponentially during Rob’s freshman year at Cornell University, where he met most of today's employees at the School of Hotel Administration. Today the company is powered by more than ten dedicated and passionate employees located across the country who sold $7 million in travel in 2017. In 2018, MilesAhead is on pace to generate revenues in excess of $1,000,000. Not bad for a company whose founder started with $600 he earned from refereeing soccer matches.
Since hiring his first employee during the fall of 2015, Rob has grown MilesAhead into a ten-plus person organization, employing part-time college students and full-time “adults.” Rob and his team have visited over 300 hotels since 2016, spanning from Italy to Bora Bora to Japan, and utilize their time off from school to travel the world and deliver that first-hand knowledge to their 500+ clients. Rob has been featured in various news outlets, including CBS TV, Fortune, Forbes, Bloomberg TV and various Ivy League and Cornell publications. Named one of Travel + Leisure’s International Rising Stars in 2017, Rob plans to grow MilesAhead after college and follow his dream of creating the world’s best travel advisor.
In this episode Rob talks about MilesAhead, the travel biz, and his one way ticket to Florence, Italy!
Rob is just one of the superb guests featured on The One Way Ticket Show, where Host Steven Shalowitz explores with his guests where they'd go if given a one way ticket, no coming back! Destinations may be in the past, present, future, real, imaginary or a state of mind.
Steven's guests have included: Nobel Peace Prize Winner, President Jose Ramos-Horta; Legendary Talk Show Host, Dick Cavett; Law Professor, Alan Dershowitz; Broadcast Legend, Charles Osgood; International Rescue Committee President & CEO, David Miliband; Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty; Journalist-Humorist-Actor Mo Rocca; Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.; Abercrombie & Kent Founder, Geoffrey Kent; Travel Expert, Pauline Frommer, as well as leading photographers, artists, chefs, writers, intellectuals and more.