15 Years, Still a Start-up

15 Years ago today was the start of an incredible journey that I am immensely proud of. Amongst all the turmoil of a pandemic, this milestone crept up almost unnoticed, but there's still the opportunity for a little celebration ??.

Despite what every business school will tell you, this business did not start with an impressive business plan and private equity investors, it started with the success of iPod Traveller, the first and, at the time, most subscribed travel podcast in iTunes.

Our first client back in March 2006 was TUI (yeah... not bad on reflection) and soon after signing the contract we launched the TUIfly Urlaubspodcast, a German language podcast produced with presenters Frank Brückner and Emily Behr. What an amazing first client that was and an incredible journey, travelling, editing and publishing TUI's first podcast series. Can you believe, I drove to Hannover to sign that contract in person, with a pen? How times have changed!

However, this was one heck of a learning curve. In truth, the business came before the company. I still remember Ela Windels from TUIfly reaching out to enquire about having a podcast like iPod Traveller. I also remember on the day of signing, her walking in the room and saying "I've just been told it has to be in German as it's for the German market" and I also remember that defining moment, where everything could either be won or lost. My response? Not a problem.

For someone with no professional experience, everything about this first step was brand new, exciting and scary. Gumtree brought me to meet Frank, which led to many months of intense editing in a language I barely knew, in his Berlin apartment. It really is amazing what you can achieve when you put your mind to it. The podcast was an overwhelming success and led to so many other great projects over the fifteen years which followed.

Fast forward to today and what an amazing journey it has been. Honestly, we still think, feel and work like a start-up, something which keeps us agile and always on our feet. We all know how important that is post-pandemic.

I will write a longer post about the trials, tribulations, successes and failures of the last fifteen years. For now, it's just incredible to think back on what we've achieved. I would have never imagined it would have led to this; creating one of the most prominent platforms in tourism, working with and guiding hundreds of destinations through transformation in every corner of the world, connecting thousands of people at truly incredible events, all which just started with the spark of an idea.

Looking forward at the end of the toughest year ever for the company, we look forward with more optimism than ever, hopeful that this year will be our best ever.

Last year, I thought we would lose everything. We scaled-up, when the industry shut down and that was one hell of a gamble. We worked hard to limit job losses but also worked like never before to transform the business, to keep it ultra-agile, relevant and most significantly, embrace a culture of service for our customers. We committed to please, to over-deliver, to appreciate and to give back to the industry. This was not a business decision, it was simply a question of realising what we had to do and what we should always do.

We've always embraced digital, advocated it even. We've faced competition from all angles, sometimes from entrants bankrolled with big investors who can afford to make a first or second year loss to carve their place in the market. The philosophy when launching the Digital Tourism Think Tank was to be straight with clients, the industry at large and leave no space for politics. To this day, we continue to stand behind that belief in keeping things edgy and standing up to those who can only play politics.

Having now survived the banking crisis, perhaps having survived the pandemic (it's too early to say), I truly believe that a resilient business can survive anything thrown at it. We've turned this recent corner thanks to the amazing team I have today in Romy Cywie, Rob Palmer, Laura Morello, Julianna Reyes, Edoardo Cantoni.

Personally speaking, I am so excited about what's to come. This is a new dawn, a pivotal moment and you know what? This start-up is only just getting started.