Our mission

Hello. We’re Pete, Rich and Marcus, the creators of Window Seater.

We believe there are amazing stories everywhere, even on the most common, day-to-day journeys – but too often they’re forgotten or going unnoticed.

As travellers, we want to build better awareness and connections to the people, history and cultures through which we pass.

We think a new approach to storytelling – engaging, entertaining, well researched and trustworthy audio stories, with local voices at their heart – can better connect us to the world and its people.

Our story

We are travellers who met in Burma (Myanmar), when Pete was working on an early version of Window Seater: an ethos and an idea for an app that he had first dreamed up travelling by train in France, desperate to know about the landscape flashing by. Meanwhile Rich was learning Burmese and telling digital stories in Yangon and Marcus was building Go-Myanmar.com, the country’s most popular travel & bookings website.

When we met, we talked stories, and got giddy over the potential of audio for travel storytelling, and of podcasting for understanding world culture. Together we pooled our excitement and experiences and to launch Window Seater, a home for mindful travel and compelling, high quality audio storytelling.

In 2020 we were selected by Transport for Wales to take part in their Innovation Lab programme and in 2021 was awarded funding by the Department for Transport and Innovate UK through their ‘First of a Kind’ innovation competition, partnering with Community Rail Network to draw on local stories from communities around the UK.

In 2023, Window Seater will deliver its first guides for UK Train Operating Companies, starting with South Western Railway and LNER.

It’s a bit of a wild ride – we’ve got plans to grow a network of stories and storytellers across the world and do all kind of other crazy things that lead to more engaging and eye-opening travel experiences.

This website and the Window Seater app are just the start. We hope that you will join us!

Pete


Rich


Marcus

 

~ For the travellers ~