pilots

Wow! You made it all the way here!

The least we can do in exchange is give you some fun facts, the quick story behind us, and the adventure of starting Wingle.

I’m Iñigo btw, and I’ll be the one telling you the story today:

Here goes the first fun fact: Pol and myself were born on the same day (23rd of October) of the same year (1994)… what are the chances! We were born 600km apart, Pol in Barcelona and myself, Iñigo, in Bilbao.

It wasn’t until 25 years later, almost 6,000km away from our home country, when we both met while working in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. At the time, Pol was working at Careem, a big mobility app in the Middle East, and I was working as a strategy consultant, flying every single week. We met by chance, through friends of friends, and with other people we met there, we ended up building a super cool group of 25-year-olds, eager to make the most of their time in Dubai as expats.

We dived and hiked in Oman, crossed tea plantations, had one of the strangest massage experiences in Kerala, India, got lost in the Azerbaijan mountains, motorcycled across the Vietnam–China border (accident included, but that’s another story), and of course, took tens of other flights for more boring (work) purposes.

Over a hundred flights later, it was time for me to return to Spain, and it was then when the idea struck: There are so many flights taking off and arriving every single day, so many people flying to new places, and especially, so much “wasted” time in the air. At the same time, flights are one of the very rare occasions in our lives when we have undisturbed time to concentrate on something.

So… wouldn’t it be great if we could use that free, undisturbed time in the air to make meaningful connections with other people? Welcome Wingle 😉

Pol and I talked about it, a lot. We loved the idea, but it just wasn’t the right time for either of us to jump head-first into the craziness of building a startup. So the idea stayed there, in hibernation for a couple of years.

Fast forward to 2023. Big, and I mean BIG life changes later (again, that’s another story), we found ourselves living in Germany (Pol) and Dubai (me). And it happened during a reunion trip across Saudi Arabia. We spent a week diving in the Red Sea, visiting Al Ula, and driving across the country. During all those hours together, we began talking about Wingle again.

What began as a quick comment started growing and maturing, as we discussed what Wingle would look like, how it would work, and what services it could offer. We each returned to our homes, but this time, we kept talking about Wingle and began building the basis of what it is today.

Suddenly, it was the end of 2023, and we realized we’d built something that worked. We had a name, an identity, a product, and something clicked. This time, we were ready to go for it. Head first. All in.

Wingle was incorporated in January 2024, we quit our full-time jobs, and began the adventure of launching a startup. We learned as we went, made great decisions, and had a fair share of f* ups** too. Six months later, in July 2024, Wingle was launched for all European flights. The rest is history 😉.

Head over to the Cockpit Diaries to read a month-by-month update of our journey.