( CNN ) -- Peer at the windows and you 'll spot big colorful chairs , plastic plants and a huge bed , but this is no department store . Welcome to the hip headquarters of Skyscanner , Europe 's most popular flight search engine -- a hot-house of IT talent with an average employee age of 32 . Leading the team is CEO Gareth Williams , who broke the golden rules of web start-ups . At first , there was no business model , just a bright idea . And , we 're not in sunny Silicon Valley , California . It 's another damp day in Edinburgh , Scotland . `` We probably went largely on instinct , '' said Gareth , `` you 're supposed to use market research and a business model in mind , and we had neither of those things . `` We did n't know how we 'd make money from the idea and we were just going on instinct that other people would like this , '' he added . Read more : Is Greece finally on the mend after economic crisis ? Frustrated at the time it took to find cheap flights to visit his brother in France , the 44-year-old programmer spent a week building a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet , the first version of Skyscanner . The next step was convincing the airlines to offer access to their schedules and fares . Gareth realized many customers will check Skyscanner first , before choosing to book directly with the airline 's website . That creates valuable leads for the carriers . `` The quantity of traffic leads we send is so high , [ and ] the relative cost of our other distribution channels is so low that it 's a really a great deal for them , '' he said . And the proof is in the numbers . Skyscanner says it 's broadly doubled either users or revenue each year . Twenty-five million people search the site every month , leading to exponential expansion and new offices in Singapore , Beijing , Miami and Glasgow . Read more : Europe would have suffered without single currency . Its future growth will be fueled by investment from Sequoia Capital , which has had a hand in Google and Apple . Sequoia has valued the company at $ 800 million . `` It is recognition of what 's possible anywhere in the world , '' says Gareth . `` But it 's also recognition of what we see , and presumably they do too , that we 've barely scratched the surface . Transport , tourism and hospitality is over 10 % of the world 's GDP , so the information needs are huge . `` We 've barely begun on our journey , and the fact we 're doing it outside Silicon Valley is an indication of an increasing trend . '' Watch more : Supplying Germany with cheap , clean energy . The future , says Williams , is to make travel booking as intuitive as buying a book . In essence , it 's making the web do more of the work . That includes offering suggestions based on previous travel , or even calendar entries , dragged across into the site . Voice recognition is another area of interest . Read more : How saffron could save Greek farmers . Skyscanner sees itself as a global player , rather than a Scottish business . Nonetheless , the country is engaged in a ferocious debate about its future , with a referendum on independence next year . The implications on doing business in Europe are still unclear . `` I ca n't do anything about it , so I ignore it and work on the things that affect me , '' said Williams . `` We 're very proud to have originated in the port area of Leith . In terms of the European and local economies it will do what it will do . Death , taxes , Google and the economy , I have no control over . '' Read more : Serbian confectioner enjoys sweet success . But Williams does have control over his surroundings . With his table tennis tables , meeting pods , barista coffee machines and staff perks like language classes , he has taken a little bit of Google and planted it in Edinburgh . Surrounded by university talent , this employer is helping to stem a brain drain out of the capital . `` We 're right next to Edinburgh University which has one of the best computer science departments in Europe , if not the world , and having access to the graduates and the postgraduates coming out of there is a massive accomplishment for us , '' says Gareth . `` Silicon Valley is undoubtedly a very special place , but the world outside Silicon Valley combined is much bigger . ''
Venture capital firm CNN has valued Skyscanner at $ 800 million . Skyscanner sees 100 million searches a month , half of which are from repeat customers . Employs half staff globally with offices in Singapore , Miami , Singapore and Beijing .