From surfing to startups: Ross Veitch on founding Wego, cracking the Middle East, and the AI-driven future of travel
Ross Veitch never set out to be a tech founder. In fact, he was closer to becoming a full-time surfer than a CEO. Yet today, as co-founder and CEO of Wego, one of the leading travel metasearch and marketplace platforms serving the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Veitch is proof that unconventional beginnings can lead to extraordinary outcomes.
Speaking candidly at Travel Tech Thursdays in Kuala Lumpur, a monthly event jointly hosted by WiT and Wego at the latter’s offices, Veitch shared his journey – from the serendipitous origins of Wego to weathering near-collapse during COVID, discovering the hidden potential of the Middle East, and now navigating the accelerating wave of AI in travel.
Ross Veitch with Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder, WiT: “We want to inject the wisdom of a great human travel agent into our products.”
Veitch’s story started not with a polished business plan, but with a passion for technology and exploration. Having spent seven years at Yahoo! building Southeast Asia’s early internet infrastructure, he found himself at a crossroads – career or waves?
He was seriously considering not working full time and just surfing, he admitted. But a conversation with Craig Hewett, Wego’s eventual co-founder, changed the trajectory. Initially, Veitch offered to be a seed investor in the startup, which would be a travel meta-search for South-east Asia, but Hewett insisted, “I don’t want your money. I want you as co-founder and build the product.”
That decision led to a 20-year entrepreneurial journey, marked by hard work, resilience and adaptability — values Veitch openly attributes to Wego’s survival and growth.
While Wego was originally designed for South-east Asia, Veitch quickly realized that the region’s online travel ecosystem wasn’t mature enough at the time. Fragmented supply and low online penetration made scaling difficult.
However, unexpected traction in the Middle East caught the team’s attention. “At first, we thought it was a fluke,” Veitch shared. But deeper analysis revealed a market primed for growth – high-income consumers, strong travel frequency, youthful demographics, and a rising appetite for digital solutions.
“We compared acquisition costs, and while they were similar to Southeast Asia, the revenue was 4-5 times higher,” Veitch explained. The Middle East pivot wasn’t just an opportunistic shift – it became Wego’s growth engine.
Today, Wego is deeply embedded in the region, benefitting from dynamic markets like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are actively investing billions into tourism infrastructure to diversify beyond oil.
Like many travel businesses, Wego was pushed to the brink during the pandemic. “COVID was a near-death experience,” Veitch said. With a million-dollar monthly payroll and travel demand collapsing, tough choices loomed.
While many competitors slashed headcount, Wego took a different path. “We had built a great team, and we knew many of them were supporting extended families,” Veitch explained. Instead of mass layoffs, Wego secured emergency funding — primarily from Gulf-based investors who remained bullish on long-term travel prospects — and kept the team intact through temporary pay cuts compensated with stock options.
“We probably worked harder during COVID than any other period,” Veitch reflected. That grit paid off as Wego emerged stronger when travel rebounded.
Having navigated two decades of tech revolutions – from the early internet to cloud computing – Veitch is excited about AI’s potential but remains pragmatic.
“AI is a massive enabler, but it’s not magic,” he cautioned. The company is actively embedding AI to boost productivity and enhance user experience, from automating back-office tasks like invoice processing to exploring AI-powered customer service and intelligent trip planning.
“Think about the impact: what used to require engineers, designers, and months of work, you can now prototype in a few days if you have the right idea and prompt,” he noted. Yet, Veitch is clear that AI adoption is not just about cost-cutting, but about elevating customer value.
“We want to inject the wisdom of a great human travel agent into our products,” he explained, hinting at AI’s role in personalizing recommendations and enhancing decision-making for travelers.
For Veitch, two key lessons stand out: the importance of resilience and the value of staying global-minded. He encouraged founders not to underestimate markets beyond their backyard. “Most South-east Asian founders think locally first, but from day one, we took a global approach — mapping markets by language, population, and digital readiness.”
Finally, Veitch’s advice for navigating AI echoes his entrepreneurial ethos: “Just start. Experiment. You’ll be surprised how much you can do.”