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Founder notes 5 min read

What twenty years of travel taught us about markups

A markup is not a moral failing. It is a number, and after twenty years the only useful question is what it is buying. Some of it buys a person who will answer the phone at 11pm. Some of it buys a logo on a voucher.

Pascal Founder note · 2026
Pagoda above a city and a mountain
Twenty years of asking what the number is actually buying.

What the number buys

A markup is not a moral failing. It is a number, and after twenty years the only useful question is what it is buying. Some of it buys a person who will answer the phone at 11pm. Some of it buys a logo on a voucher.

We got more relaxed about the first and less patient with the second. The trips that went badly were rarely the expensive ones. They were the ones where the money disappeared before it reached the person standing in front of you.

Pagoda above a city and a mountain

Where the money goes

If we cannot explain the number, we do not pass it on. That has cost us partnerships that looked impressive on paper. It has also kept the list short enough that we still know who is on it.

A markup is not a moral failing. The trips that went badly were rarely the expensive ones. They were the ones where the money disappeared before it reached the person standing in front of you.

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