Travis Makes Money 674: Ryan Wenger | How to Know When to Pivot
As an entrepreneur, you know that the key to the success of any venture or project is knowing when it’s time to pivot and being intentional about it. Ryan Wenger, LA Magazine featured ‘superlawyer’ turned travel business innovator, is the Founder and CEO of WhereTo, a travel business manager for travel business managers.
Ryan is on a mission to make traveling cheaper and easier for all people. He has raised over $10 million in venture capital, brought together a team of world class engineers and executives, and helped build two platforms used by millions, one of which was acquired by Flight Centre.
Let’s dig into this episode and learn more from Ryan about how to know when it’s time to pivot, and how to do it effectively.
Things you will learn in this episode:
[00:01 - 07:12] Opening Segment
- I introduce today’s guest, Ryan Wenger
- Want better interviews? Go to Guestio.com
- Ryan gives us some background on his story
- Growing up in Woodstock, New York
- Parents’ career and lifestyle
- High School experience
- College experience
- Going into Law
[07:13 - 18:04] How to Know When to Pivot
- Ryan shares about his experience transitioning from law
- Always experimental at heart
- The inspiration to go into ‘travel’
- Getting investors through telling stories
- Building a new platform
- Building and launching process
- Getting passed the learning curves
- The story of going viral and getting millions of users
- Getting key partnerships
- How to know when to pivot
- A glaringly obvious point
- Put your problems into perspective
- A word from our sponsors
[18:05 - 26:44] How to Pivot Well
- Getting into uncomfortable positions to move forward
- The key to success
- Playing the numbers game
- How relationships come into play
- Being a good networker
- Ryan’s partnership experience
- The levels of investors
- How to know when to hand over leadership
- Knowing when someone can do a better job
[26:45 - 34:34] Closing Segment
- What’s next for Ryan?
- Getting acquired by Flight Centre
- Merging strengths
- Seeing it all stand on its own
- Who you know or what you know?
- Your network is what helps or hurts your company
- It’s ok to start from zero if you put in the work
- ThE RanDoM RoUnD
- How to engage with Ryan
- Links below
- Final words
Tweetable Quotes:
“I loved jumping into ideas and seeing if I could bring them to light.” - Ryan Wenger
“You have to take an honest look at your problems and think about the pivot opportunity and weigh the cost and the benefits.” - Ryan Wenger
Resources Mentioned:
Connect and engage with Ryan on LinkedIn and Twitter. Check out https://ryanwenger.com/ to get your hands on some more awesome content and tips.
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