Hardware Podcasts

Lonely Planet: Maureen & Tony Wheeler

How I Built This · 8 May 2017 · 40m

What this episode covers

Maureen and Tony Wheeler, founders of Lonely Planet, recount how a chance meeting in London led to a backpacking trip across Asia that inspired their first guidebook, printed in their Sydney kitchen. They discuss bootstrapping the company from a cottage industry to a global publisher, the pivotal success of their India guide, and the operational challenges of scaling while raising a family. The episode covers their decision to sell the company to BBC Worldwide in the mid-2000s as it shifted toward digital media, and includes a postscript on Michael Mendicino’s Bottle Flip board game.

Most relevant to

founders before launch, companies scaling up and established companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Lonely Planet, U.S. Bank, BBC Worldwide
Products
Wow in the World, Bottle Flip, Shark Tank, Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Also
Joe Cocker, Leon Russell

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