Brent Handler is credited by many as one of the pioneers of the "destination club" sector in the travel industry.The idea is that upmarket travelers get access to exclusive private homes or hotel units on resort properties, organized under a membership program that includes services and other luxury elements of a trip.He launched Exclusive Resorts with his brother Brad in 2002, before selling a majority of the business to AOL's Steve Case in 2004.After quitting that business in 2009, they launched Inspirato in 2011 and embarked on a new version of the destination club model whereby they rent the properties and lease them back to travelers for the period of a trip.The company has since gone on to raise almost $80 million in funding.Handler joins us as the latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Roberto Souviron, Alejandro Tamer, Martín Rastellino, Cristian Vilate and Mariano Fiori were five friends from business school who had an idea.They wanted to create Latin America's first regional online travel agency, taking inspiration from the likes of Travelocity, which had burst onto the scene in the U.S. in the late-1990s.Despegar was launched in 1999 and established itself quickly as the premier OTA in its home country of Argentina and, quickly, in other markets throughout the continent.All five members of the co-founding team would eventually leave the business after steering Despegar through a massive funding round from Expedia Group and an eventual listing on the public markets in 2017.Rastellino joins us as the latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Travis Katz launched Gogobot at the height of the "social trip planning" wave in online travel.The ex-MySpace exec knew for the company to succeed after the buzz of that 2010 period that it would take a lot more than a fancy user experience and PR to propel it into a phase of genuine growth.Gogobot's focus on data and mobile was the key element in its push towards establishing itself as a worthy player in the ecosystem.A name change to Trip.com in 2016 set the wheels in motion for what would become a sale to Chinese online travel giant Ctrip in late-2017 (Ctrip later rebranded to Trip.com Group).Katz joins us as the latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MakeMyTrip was not one of those online travel brands that exploded onto the scene.Although it has since go on to become India's biggest OTA, Deep Kalra and his co-founders (including Rajesh Magow) experienced very modest growth in the brand's initial years after its launch.A full-blown focus on its home market in the mid-2000s saw the brand accelerate to establish itself as the country's premier digital travel service.Like other brands that tried to ride an early wave of digitalization in the region, MakeMyTrip faced numerous challenges but stuck to its strategy throughout.The company eventually listed on the U.S. public markets in 2010 and has since gone to make a number of acquisitions of its own and form strategic partnerships (including taking investment) with the likes of the Trip.com Group giant in China.  Magow, now group CEO of the company joins us as the latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Klook has come a long way in six years. The Hong Kong-based booking site for tours and activities was one of a number of similar brands attempting to muscle in on the sector.But then came a string of increasingly large investment rounds and many outside of its Asia Pacific region (i.e. the West) started taking notice.European ambitions, Softbank-backed and an ongoing rivalry with GetYourGuide (also funded by Softbank), Klook has positioned itself as one of the high-profile brands in the tours and activities wing of the industry.Eric Gnock Fah launched Klook alongside his co-founders Ethan Lin (CEO) and Bernie Xiong and is generally the public face of the company.He is the latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You can probably count on one hand the number of entertainment executives who've switched their careers to enter the world of travel startups.Rob Wiesenthal is one such entrepreneur.He left a career with Sony and later Warner Bros to launch Blade, a platform for booking helicopter commutes.The New York, U.S.-based company was created  in 2014 and has got the financial support of some of the biggest names American business (Google's Eric Schmidt, IAC's Barry Diller and AOL's Bob Pittman).Blade has become of the leading arrangers of helicopter flights between downtown New York City and its associated airports (JFK, La Guardia and Newark) and it also operates in other states on both coasts of the U.S. His experience in the corporate world often puts him at odds with some of the thinking that emerges in the startup world from Silicon Valley, thus why his story about building a business and his views on the market are so interesting.Wiestenthal is the latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Free-spirited and never afraid to speak his mind, Bobby Healy is a well-known figure in the travel and transportation sectors.The former-gaming coder spent a few years at SITA and Amadeus before, eager to get out from under the confines of the corporate machine, he joined in 2005 the fledgling Irish car rental startup, CarTrawler.His story is one of making the right decisions at the right time, a fair dose of luck and a lot more.Later years have seen Healy become a thorn in the side of the likes of Google (his views on the search giant are about as vocal from an industry exec as you can get on the record) and now he's moved into the business of drone-based deliveries.Healy is the latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Porter & Sail hit the sweet spot of mobile, personalization, ancillary revenue and hospitality in the mid-2010s.The company launched in 2014 with a vision to provide hotels with a service that could act as a concierge service for guests on their devices.Since creating the business, CEO Caitlin Zaino von During has had to navigate challenges and take opportunities - most recently, at the onset of the coronavirus, pivoting the company to something different entirely.Her story and that of the company is one of seizing chances when they come and not being afraid to move fast when the need arises. Zaino von During joins is the latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The so-called "Brat Pack of Aviation" - under the guidance of Bob Crandall from American Airlines in the late-1980s - have all gone on to become important figures in the U.S. airline industry.But perhaps one of the quartet which also included Tom Horton, David Cush and Doug Parker who emerged as a true innovator is Ben Baldanza.After leaving American Airlines in 1991, he had a string of executive positions at Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines and Avianca and U.S. Airways before landing the stewardship of Spirit Airlines.Spirit's new private equity owner gave Baldanza the freedom to put in place some of the most dramatic changes ever seen in U.S. aviation (mirroring many of those at Ryanair in Europe), giving him a reputation as an innovator with an edge.He left Spirit in 2016 and now has a number of board positions, an academic role at George Mason University and his own aviation podcast, called Airlines Confidential. Baldanza joins us as the latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It takes a lot of effort to be recognized by the mainstream media for your skills and influence within 12 months of creating something.Or does it?A year after creating FlyerTalk, Randy Petersen was being hailed in the press for his expertise on all things related to frequent flying, loyalty programs and the passenger experience.He was a frequent visitor to the headquarters of airlines around the world and had the ear of numerous CEOs in the business.Such access and such influence is hard to come by but the larger-than-life Petersen remains extremely modest about his achievements.Now retired from the day-to-day work of understanding and analyzing the aviation business, Petersen joins us as our latest guest on 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 PhocusWire's editor in chief, Kevin May, and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.