Hurry Up and Wait

The blessing and the curse of applying to a start-up incubator before you have an actual product, is that it forces you to think about every aspect of your future company before you might have otherwise.  For a couple of co-founders at our early stage of development, it was hard enough containing our excitement about the possibilities for our bright future, let alone answering 30 tough questions about our business that we hadn't yet considered.

"How have you validated your product market fit?"



We had some serious work to do...


With a looming deadline fast approaching, Ray and I upped our Google Hangout game and fought through our demanding schedules and time differences to race towards the finish line.  The application came down to the wire, (as you might have expected if you knew us in college) and we finished our video at 4:30 am with mere hours to spare.

Following our application submission, spirits were high as we began eagerly awaiting word from Start-Up Chile.  Before we knew it, a couple of months had passed and friends and family began relentlessly asking us when we would find out about our grant.  Ray and I had no idea how or when we would hear anything from this relatively unknown incubator halfway across the world, so we did the only thing that made sense to us at the time, remained cautiously optimistic that we would be hearing any day now...

 I hate to admit this, but after another month passed with no word, and with the questions from our enthusiastic supporters beginning to wane, Ray and I started to lose hope.  Had the opportunity that was going to kick us in the ass and send us on our next great adventure fallen through?  Had we screwed up the application somehow?  Or even worse...had we let our own optimism trick us into thinking we had a great idea?

Wait, why are you moving to Chile?

It has been about a year since the fateful night Ray and I first talked about Wolo at a friend's Vegas bachelor party.  That night ended pretty blurry for Ray (a great story for another time about a super-star DJ and some misplaced cake), but our vision is still as clear as ever.

We are very excited to (finally) share our journey, and even though we're a little late, we figured it would be best to start from the beginning.  We promise to update often so that you can catch up quickly or binge like your favorite shows on Netflix.

To take a step back, I suppose we unknowingly caught the Wolo bug during a last minute backpacking trip to Costa Rica that was inspired by the arrival of our first credit cards (dangerous beginning, we know :)  Ray and I were juniors in college at the time, and over the course of the last 10 years, our bucket lists have only grown bigger and badder, despite checking off some awesome things along the way.

For those of you who are hearing about our project for the first time, the realization that inspired us was the same as the mindset we had been living by for the past 10 years - Money is better spent on enriching life with experiences, and all experiences are more enjoyable when shared with friends.  

The idea had been right in front of our faces all along!  Let's create a platform where people can go to be inspired by, and connect with, other like minded people who share the same passions in life.

Fast forward a few months later when Ray and I met again at the wedding of our friend whose fateful bachelor party got the Wolo train moving (thanks Bao & Jackie!), and our plan started to take form,

After a few whiskeys, I popped the big question, "Ray, what do you think about applying for an incubator in Santiago?"

To which Ray of course responded, "Santiago?  As in Chile?  F**K yeah dude, let's do it!"