— A letter from the founder

We were tired
of spreadsheets.

RIKAR is built by one person who's done the spreadsheet, the Notion doc, and the eleven-tab booking dance one too many times. Here's why it exists, and where we're headed.

Karan DesaiFounder & CEO, RIKAR
— Letter
May 2026

I grew up planning other people's trips. Friends, family, a college roommate who didn't believe Iceland could be done in a week. I built spreadsheets that nobody read, scribbled itineraries on the back of menus, and watched in real-time as every booking confirmation got buried in someone's inbox.

Travel software stopped feeling like travel a long time ago. The big players optimize for conversion. The small ones optimize for screenshots. Nobody is optimizing for the part that actually matters — the trip.

RIKAR is the tool I always wanted: a single sentence in, a real plan out. Days that read like prose. Bookings that find their own way to the right slot. Expenses that don't survive past landing. Miles that work for you instead of the other way around.

We're solo, bootstrapped, and quietly opinionated. We'll never sell your data. We'll never bury fees. And we'll never ship a generic AI itinerary just because the model returned one.

If any of that sounds right to you — come plan something with us.

K.D.
Karan Desai
— What we believe

Two things we'll never bend on.

01

Quiet over loud

No FOMO timers, no fake scarcity, no 'someone in Boise just booked' popups.

02

Plans, not pitches

Every page is for planning the trip — not for upselling adjacent ones.

Come plan something with us.