FOF Travel (Friends of Friends Travel) was a travel tech start-up I co-founded and launched back in 2012 in London. A proud member of the Sharing Economy space, we were also the first budget travel solution to combine social networking, hospitality exchange and commercial partnerships all under one roof. Everything we did was rooted in our 3 key pillars: Trust, Philanthropy and Wanderlust. As Chief Enthusiast and FOF-er, conceptualising, setting up and running FOF Travel is my greatest professional accomplishment to date, having already been recognised and featured in publications like TIME magazine, The New York Times, The Times and CBS News/C|NET. Like any start-up founder and entrepreneur will know, your business is your baby and you are inevitably and integrally involved in everything from Business Development, Operations, Marketing, Sales and Product Development. At our peak, we had 30,000 followers across our social media channels and a few thousand sign ups to our platform in over 108 countries across 6 different continents, with strategic partnerships established with the best travel and lifestyle brands around the world, including: STA Travel, Hostelworld.com, World Nomads, Rough Guides, Topdeck, G Adventures, Busabout, RacingThePlanet and more. Unfortunately, we closed the company in 2014 due to personal setbacks and visionary differences between members of the board. That said, it continues to be the biggest “what if” moment in my professional career. The best experience, and the toughest learning curve.