How I Got Here, episode 14 - Jerome Touze of WAYN

Jerome Touze, Co-CEO

How I Got Here is a weekly podcast from PhocusWire and Mozio, getting the inside stories behind innovation and startups in travel and transportation.

WAYN (Where Are You Now?) was one of the first travel social networks. Co-founder and former co-CEO Jerome Touze joins hosts, David Litwak of Mozio and PhocusWire's Kevin May.

WAYN (Where Are You Now?) was founded by three young entrepreneurs with a simple concept: create a platform for travelers to connect when on the road.

The U.K.-based brand was a pioneering travel social network that captured a huge amount of attention in the mid-2000s for its rapid growth, bold ideas and ability to attract investment from some of the biggest names in the online travel industry at the time.

Millions of users and a youthful, fairly brash style inspired a string of fellow social travel platforms in subsequent years (whether those later founders will admit it or not).

But the company was inevitably going to find the road would be a bumpy one, with the emergence and omnipresence of Facebook in the world of social networks and a tactical error or two along the way.

After the buzz turned to the reality of maintaining a business in a digital market that was continually evolving, WAYN was eventually sold to Lastminute.com Group in 2016.

Co-CEO Jerome Touze (his fellow boss was Pete Ward) tells the story of WAYN in the latest episode of How I Got Here.

HIGH is a weekly show produced by PhocusWire and Mozio, aimed at getting the inside stories behind startups and innovation in travel and transportation.

It's hosted by our editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.

A full transcript and additional analysis in 5+ languages is available on Mozio.com/move.

You can also tune in via this version from PhocusWire's YouTube channel: