Meet Jake Gafner, founder of Wayward — a platform designed to elevate the adventure travel industry and help operators create better experiences for travelers worldwide.
Jake Gafner
is a Chicago-based tourism entrepreneur and engineer at heart with a background in operations, building B2B and B2C software businesses, and a deep passion for travel.
In this interview Jakes shares his story about how an internal tool to manage his adventure travel business pivoted into a global tech platform used on trips in over 130 countries.
I’ve been in the tourism industry since 2018, when we first started by operating our own adventure travel company, Lost Travel. We built the first version of our internal tool (called Wayward) in 2019 to help our business run more efficiently, and it’s grown from there.
Jake Gafner, leading a trip for his adventure travel company, Lost Travel.
The concept came from our own frustration with juggling multiple tools while trying to create amazing adventures for our customers. Since then, it’s been used by operators for trips in over 130 countries for everything from sailing around the world to incredible offroad adventure rallies.
Wayward is an all-in-one platform that helps tour and adventure operators manage trips, connect with travelers, and grow their businesses without the high costs or corporate hassle. Our customers include tour operators, adventure companies, and tourism organizations who want to streamline their operations while providing seamless experiences for their travelers.
We’ve been developing Wayward since 2019, continuously improving it based on real-world feedback from operators. We’re an independent company with an incredible team around the globe who are passionate about travel and genuinely care about solving problems for this industry.
We help our DMO market and support the operators in their reaching who are putting on incredible experiences. Operators in participating regions get free or discounted tools like waivers, registration, and customer management tools while getting access to our global travel network and promotion tools.
The main benefit is that DMOs can finally connect local operators with their marketing expertise and visitor audiences in a way that actually drives real-world visits.
Wayward 3.0’s tour management dashboard.
The idea came from recognizing that operators can always use help with marketing and growth, while DMOs are expert marketers who want to promote great experiences but often lack the tools to connect with operators effectively. We believe Wayward can be the connective tissue that helps DMOs market amazing experiences while providing excellent tools that help operators run their businesses successfully.
See our list of our DMO partners for some examples — including organizations like Sugar River Valley and Unforgettable Forgottonia. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with partners appreciating how easy it is to showcase their region’s experiences and connect with operators.
We work with tourism organizations of all sizes, from small Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) to large established Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs). Our ideal customers are those who want to move beyond just creating awareness and actually turn that awareness into real-world visits to their region by supporting the experience-makers in the region.
We’re genuinely passionate about elevating the adventure travel industry and believe that better tools lead to better experiences for everyone.
Brands can get started in minutes and our team can help convert existing trip content into experiences on Wayward. The ongoing requirements are minimal since changes to experiences automatically sync across partner platforms.
We’re building on Android, iOS and web with React, Next.js, TypeScript, and Laravel on the backend.
The biggest challenge has been creating something that works seamlessly both online and offline since adventure travelers often venture into remote areas with limited connectivity.
Wayward can track tour participants in remote adventure rallies.
One thing we’re excited about is that we just launched a low cost, digital waiver solution that can save operators hundreds per year. Next up is integrated payments, end-to-end customer experience management for operators, and smart maps with a virtual visitor center for DMOs. These features will further streamline operations and enhance the traveler experience.
Start by actually operating in the space you’re trying to serve — you can’t build good tools for an industry you don’t understand. Focus on solving real problems that operators face daily, not just creating features that look good in demos.
— Thanks, Jake for sharing your story!
Learn more about Wayward at wayward.travel or contact support@wayward.travel. Connect with Jake on Travel Massive and LinkedIn.
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Comments
Thanks for the interview! This was fun. Happy to chat with anybody about what we’re building or how we may be able to help DMOs and operators.