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.

Other episodes: on PhocusWire and Mozio.

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