How I Got Here, episode 1 - Gareth Williams of Skyscanner

Gareth Williams, Chairperson and co-founder, Skyscanner

How I Got Here is a weekly podcast from PhocusWire and Mozio, getting the inside stories behind innovation and startups in travel and transportation.

In this episode we talk to Gareth Williams, one of the co-founders and former-CEO of Skyscanner. Eighteen months after its $1.75 billion sale in 2016 to Ctrip, he moved sideways to become chairperson of the company.

Skyscanner is one of the digital travel era's biggest success stories.

Created by a trio of friends in 2004, Skyscanner started as a simple flight metasearch tool and ended up part of the Ctrip empire following a $1.75 billion sale in 2016.

A lot happened in the intervening 12 years, including a number of acquisitions, a launch into hotel search and the creation of the one of the most popular travel apps in the market.

Gareth Williams found himself in the CEO hot seat and steered the company alongside co-founders Barry Smith and Bonamy Grimes until he took on a chair role in May 2017.

In one of his first in-depth interviews since stepping aside, Williams is the first guest for the new How I Got Here podcast.

In a wide-ranging conversation, he discusses the formation of the company, its funding and marketing strategy, competition, early ups and downs and the sale to Ctrip.

Highlights include his thought process around that acquisition, its initial plans for multimodal by acquiring Zoombu, how he thinks about user frequency, supporting startups with an open API, investment in the age of mega-rounds and the arrogance of technologists.

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 our editor in chief Kevin May and Mozio co-founder and CEO David Litwak.

A full transcript and additional analysis in 5+ languages is available on Mozio.com/move.

You can also tune in via this version from PhocusWire's YouTube channel: