Paul Melhus, Co-founder and CEO
How I Got Here is a weekly podcast from PhocusWire and Mozio, getting the inside stories behind innovation and startups in travel and transportation.
A classic startup launch but an unconventional route through bootstrapping for the next ten years. Mozio's David Litwak and Kevin May of PhocusWire get the story of ToursByLocals from its co-founder and CEO.
In one respect,
ToursByLocals
is a classic startup story.
It was the brainchild of CEO Paul Melhus and chief technology officer Dave Vincent, with them having observed how the tour guide scene was handled during a trip to China in the mid-2000s.
They launched the business - a platform to find and reserve tour guides in numerous countries around the world - in 2008.
But there the typical linear nature of a startup tale ends.
ToursByLocals, based in Vancouver, Canada, expanded quickly for the next ten years but never took a dollar in funding.
This period of bootstrapping ended in January 2020, when it
signed a Series A investment deal for $33 million
.
Melhus joins us at the latest guest on How I Got Here.
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
.
Here is the video version via PhocusWire's YouTube channel:
How I Got Here, episode 50 - Paul Melhus of ToursByLocals
How I Got Here
This is a weekly podcast from PhocusWire and Mozio, getting the inside stories behind innovation and startups in travel and transportation.