“We feel strongly that people in this age group are the ones who need to have these travel experiences,” said Wilson. “If we can scale that type of impact, then we really believe that travel has the power to change the world.
It was a shared experience across their generation — feel the glory of graduating with impressive business and finance degrees only to find a dearth of jobs. They saw their friends in similar situations, getting laid off or graduating into a world lacking opportunity. While the site covered rent and beer, it required long hours writing blog posts and building connections. The site grew to an impressive 500,000 monthly visitors before they sold it in 2016.
As Wilson and O’Toole, both 33, begin to outgrow the demographic they serve, they remain focused on the 35-and-under crowd.