Priyanka Juneja: Founder of Hera
Solo traveling can be liberating and fulfilling, but it can also be rife with safety concerns and uncertainty - especially for women. Priyanka Juneja wants to change that. She’s the creator of travel blog Champagne Flight and founder of Hera, a women-only travel platform that empowers women to travel fearlessly. I spoke with her about how her childhood visits to India influenced her passion for traveling, why women empowerment is important to her, and her experience working on Hera.
Photo courtesy of Priyanka Juneja
Rebecca: Can you tell me about your upbringing, especially regarding your Asian American identity?
Priyanka: My parents had an arranged marriage and immigrated to the States from India shortly thereafter. There was a huge culture shock when they moved to the US. I was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, where racism and, to some degree, segregation were still pretty prominent. Growing up, I was very aware of my differences, and struggled to understand where I fit in. I was American of course, but I was one of the only non-white people in my private school and wasn’t really accepted by my peers. I also didn’t quite fit in with the small town vibe.
Whenever I visited family in India, they would point out mistakes I’d make speaking Hindi, so I didn't quite fit in there either. Growing up, I explored what my identity meant and what it meant to be Asian American. I learned a lot through interactions with my community and my family. My parents wanted to pass down the traditional Indian principles with which they were raised on to me and my sisters, but those principles didn’t quite match my hybrid identity of being Asian American.
Rebecca: When you were growing up, how did you feel about your Asian American identity?
Priyanka: I was much more proud of my identity than other Asian Americans I knew. I'd come home from school, proud of myself for correcting ignorant comments or standing up for myself. I enjoyed being different, even though I recognized it was difficult and struggled to figure out who I truly was. I liked having this additional cultural element to bring to the table and talk to people about. It got better when I moved to Columbia, which is only 45 minutes from Orangeburg. People were more open, and I enjoyed sharing things like Bollywood music. I was a bit of an anomaly, and I had Indian peers who were more embarrassed about or tried to hide their Indian identities. I actually went in the opposite direction as I got older. I was more proud of my Indian heritage as a kid than as a college student.
Rebecca: That’s interesting, because I feel like a lot of Asian Americans experience the reverse and become more proud of their identity during or after college.
Priyanka: The way I felt about my identity had to do with the Indian American community itself. There were a lot of Indian Americans at the University of South Carolina, but they all seemed to have similar career goals, beliefs, etc. I didn’t fit into that mold, both physically and emotionally. At 5’7”, I am much taller than the average Indian woman, so I literally stood out. I was also much more liberal than my peers on controversial topics. I started to feel a little like an outcast. I regressed a little and started hanging out with people who weren’t Indian American. That’s totally fine of course, but I was starting to suppress my Indian side.
Rebecca: Do you resonate with the term Asian American?
Priyanka: I think of myself as “Indian American” first, but I very much relate to “Asian American.” If I walk into a room, for example, where I don’t know anyone and want to find someone who’s similar to me, I’ll look for an Asian American woman. It’s similar when I'm traveling; my brain automatically thinks of Asian Americans as my group of people. I feel like part of the Asian American community, but sometimes the community sees me as different, because I’m Indian American. But to me, we all have roots from the same continent.
There are so many similarities between different types of Asian Americans. For example, my roommate is Chinese American. We have our differences, but we’re also on the same page about many little things, like not having shoes in the house.
Rebecca: How did you like visiting India when you were younger?
Priyanka: It's funny, because whenever my parents said we were going to India, I would kick and scream and not want to get on the plane. You’re seeing family that you don’t see often and don’t know as well and using a language that you don’t speak very often. Flying to India is a challenging trip to make, and it's a completely different world there. But every time I arrived in India, I absolutely loved it. These visits reinforced the amazing and vibrant culture that I’m a part of and sometimes I forget that in my day to day life.
Being able to be immersed in my own culture was important, and that helped me cultivate my love of traveling. I loved being able to see a world that was so different than the one I had in the States. After these trips, I would come back to South Carolina and notice that the streets were so quiet compared to Delhi. Since those two places are so different, it made me wonder how other places are. Part of my love for traveling stems from the fact that I'm Indian American and belong to two vastly different cultures. I had the opportunity to almost pick and choose pieces of the two that mesh with my own personal identity and create this hybrid culture. My second Masters is in International Studies and I’m focusing on Latin America and Spanish. My ethnic background really helped open the door for that. Not fitting in when I was growing up made me want to go everywhere and see if I might fit in elsewhere.
Rebecca: After those trips to India, how did you start getting more into traveling?
Priyanka: When I was in high school, I traveled to Costa Rica as part of a school program and I also went to Turkey with my family. After those trips, I knew I wanted to study abroad in college. Once I studied abroad, I realized I was in love with traveling and I was also good at planning trips. I would plan weekend trips for my classmates in Spain. After that, the amount I traveled really escalated. I traveled for a month before I started working and even when I was at Bank of America full time, I was able to travel quite a bit.
I started a travel blog, partially because people didn’t understand how someone with a full time job could travel so much. With my planning tendencies, I was good at maximizing vacation days and bank holidays. Planning trips is incredibly rewarding and fun, and I like being able to pull off the trips. I always thought that I might get a little tired of traveling, but the more I travel, the more I want to be on the road all the time.
Rebecca: When you’re traveling, are there places where you’re more acutely aware of your Indian American identity?
Priyanka: Definitely and it's something that I'm sensitive to, given my upbringing and a lot of the racism I encountered as a kid. Sometimes I feel better in Latin American countries or places where I can blend in a little bit.
In parts of Europe, I’ve had people ask me why I’m brown, and it makes me feel a little ostracized. It's easier to blend in in places that are more diverse or have people who are brown skinned like the Middle East. Traveling in the Middle East has its own challenges, but I don’t stand out the way I do in parts of Europe.
But I’m so fortunate that I’m able to take these trips at all. Every time I go to India, I see so many women who don't have opportunities for education, let alone leaving their village and seeing the world. I’m grateful to be born where I was and have these opportunities that have shaped the person that I am today. I wish it was possible for more people from my own country to have these experiences.
Rebecca: Do you usually travel with other people or solo?
Priyanka: I've done a mix. Usually I'll plan a trip that I want to take and then leave it open for people to join if they can. I’ve had experiences where I couldn't be happier traveling alone and having that flexibility, and others that I wish something like Hera existed so I could feel comfortable traveling alone more. I did the Philippines solo and it was one of my favorite trips, because I met a bunch of people that I’m still in touch with. I had flexibility and freedom during that trip, but also great people to share the experience with. I felt like I was lucky on that trip. I’ve taken trips before where I haven’t met anyone and I wasn’t sure if it was safe to walk around by myself after dark. These personal experiences made me realize how great the need for Hera is.
Rebecca: How did you start Hera?
Priyanka: I came to Wharton knowing I wanted to start a company in the travel industry. During my winter break in 2019, I traveled for an entire month. For part of it, I was supposed to be alone in Egypt for a couple days before I met up with my sister. But one of my friends is from Lebanon, and he said I probably wouldn’t feel safe exploring Cairo by myself. I ended up flying out of Cairo and meeting up with him in Lebanon instead.
The experience left me a little disappointed and discouraged. I consider myself an expert traveler, but I didn’t know how to make the most of Cairo and what options and resources were available to me as a solo woman traveler. That got me thinking about this gap in the travel industry: it's really challenging for women travelers to find the information they need and a community to leverage. If you stay at a hostel, you can meet other travelers, but hostels are also better suited for certain demographics. I want there to be a community of women travelers who are a support system for one another. That could mean finding people traveling to the same place as you or having a woman in Cairo, for example, saying they’d love to show you around. Before your trip, Hera will also have all the information you need, including transportation and safety considerations. It’s like having a travel companion in your pocket.
Rebecca: What are your upcoming plans for Hera?
Priyanka: We're hoping to launch in May or June, which will ideally coincide with the vaccine rollout and some travel restrictions being lifted. The primary demographic we’re targeting is people in the US, and we’re planning on launching with 10 cities across North and South America. As travel restrictions are lifted, we’re assuming it will be easier for people to travel to places that are closer and in similar time zones as the US. We’re in talks with Mexico City’s Tourism Board; they’re excited about Hera, since women's safety is a huge priority for them. We’re also talking with some women-owned tour companies.
Rebecca: What has been the most rewarding part of working on Hera so far?
Priyanka: It feels great whenever people tell me Hera will help them travel better and feel safer. My ultimate goal is to get more women traveling and remove the barriers that come with solo travel. It’s also rewarding having these conversations with potential partners who are excited about women's safety. Women empowerment is such a passion of mine and it always gives me energy to keep going. Starting a company is so daunting and exhausting, but having my idea and company validated by both potential partners and future customers is incredibly rewarding.
Rebecca: Where did your passion for women empowerment stem from?
Priyanka: It goes back to those trips to India and seeing women unable to achieve their full potential just because of the situation they were born in. In college, I started an organization called Girls for Tomorrow that empowered middle school girls through weekly workshops. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had an innate desire to help other women succeed. I’m always willing to go above and beyond for other women founders; entrepreneurship is a challenging process for women, especially those working on problems focused on women.
Rebecca: What have been some of the most challenging parts of working on Hera so far?
Priyanka: Obviously COVID makes things challenging, but I'm confident the travel industry will come back, even if it's in a different way. Women safety is still going to be an important issue, regardless of how people travel after COVID.
The bigger issue has been explaining to men that this is a real problem. Before I started Hera, I didn't think that that would be the case. There are obviously men who immediately understand the need for this, but it's been disheartening having conversations with men or seeing anonymized feedback that says this would be an awesome solution if they were convinced this problem existed. It makes me a little sad that there are so many people who don’t realize the challenges and concerns women face around safety. As women, we adjust so much of how we live our day to day lives because of safety concerns. If a man had the same problem, the solution would likely already be out there. But there are so many things women put up with, because we’re taught that’s just the way things are. Investors are frequently men, so when I pitch, I have to convince a lot of them of both the problem and the solution. But at the end of the day, it makes me more passionate about Hera and helping women founders.