Rohith Amruthur - Aspiring Travel Industry Disruptor

Thank you for stumbling upon my post! My name is Rohith Amruthur, and I am the founder/CEO of The Lost Geographer. It's a platform to promote geographic and cultural literacy through education and travel. I'm originally from the DC area and currently live in the fantastic (but frigid) city of Chicago. I've always been an entrepreneur at heart, but have always played it safe per the rules of society and my family's wishes. However, I have decided to commit to the entrepreneurial journey to disrupt the travel industry, and here's a bit about me to show you how I got here.

1994-2001

Born on a snowy day in February in 1994 in northern Virginia, I've always been fascinated by the world. Since a young age, I understood geography, culture, and travel quite well. I never got along with the other kids at school because I always had different interests and kept to myself.

I would always read maps as a child, and that's how I got good at geography. After reading maps, I became curious about the people in specific geographic regions, in addition to the fact that my parents were from another part of the world, which is how I got interested in cultures. Finally, my father would travel a lot for work and would collect lots of miles and points for free flights for the family, and that is how I became immersed in the travel industry at the age of about 7.

2002-2008

Not only did I not get along well with the other kids at school, but I was not the best student either, much to my parents' dismay. I was more interested in my creative hobbies such as drawing my imaginary worlds (J.R.R. Tolkien style), planning my airline and its routes (I told you I was weird), and reading books that piqued my interest rather than what was required by my teachers (such a rebel).

One of my teachers in 4th grade, however, noticed my talent, and instead of chastising me like the other teachers did, took an interest in my odd tendencies. She was incredibly supportive of my passions, and I will be forever grateful for her. I didn't realize it at the time, but I think she knew it would be good for me if we held the National Geographic Bee at my school. I thought it was a just pure coincidence at the time that it was the first year my school hosted it. I was not the most confident person in the world at that age, but after I, as a 4th grader, beat my entire school in the Bee, my confidence shot through the roof.

In 5th grade, I went on to the Virginia state competition, only to be knocked out in the preliminary rounds, while in 6th grade, I finished 5th in the state. Why not first? I got nervous on stage and confused Macchu Picchu with Chichen Itza. That still haunts me to this day, 12 years later. I ended up making it again in 8th grade (my middle school didn't have it in 7th) but got knocked out in the preliminary rounds again.

2009-2012

My middle and high school years were a blur, characterized by massive workloads from school with mounting pressure to get into a good university. I also started to gain weight (I was pretty skinny my whole life until now). My grades still weren't high, and I was beginning to feel trapped.

I wanted to be free, and at the time, college was synonymous with freedom. So, before my junior year of high school, I decided I'd flip the switch and do well in school to get into a good university, as well as lose some weight. And that I did, and I was admitted into the University of Pittsburgh in December 2011, where I would go on to study. I was extremely excited to start this new chapter of my life.

2013-present

College was an exciting time for me. I made a lot of mistakes and learned from them. However, as a result, I became far more confident than I thought possible, and that's where I started my first business. I double majored in chemical engineering and economics and was at an engineering internship where I often didn't have much to do. As a result, I listened to a lot of podcasts. One day, a lightbulb went off in my head. Why can't I start a business related to something I'm passionate about - geography, culture, and travel? And that was the beginning of The Lost Geographer.

It initially only started out as an educational platform started by me at the age of 20. However, I soon realized it would be hard to monetize education without any real credentials. I then started to move more into the travel space. I slowly but surely was loading content onto it and had a lot of ideas, but wasn't entirely committed yet. Then, when I was 22, I decided that I'd take a summer off from classes or internships and spend it in Germany and traveling through Europe while working on my business. While there, I launched my podcast. The ultimate digital nomad combo, right?

Wrong. I had no discipline, spent a lot of money, and came back to my last semester broke and frustrated, and decided to settle on finding a job. I found a job in financial technology, something in which I was interested at the time. I got the job and moved out to Chicago. It didn't take long to figure out this position wasn't meant for me.

Since then, I've been working on The Lost Geographer even harder, and also started a travel consultancy underneath it to progress further. I am quitting my job on April 13, 2018, to pursue my dream. My goal has been, and will continue to be, to disrupt the travel industry to make it easier for people to travel. Travel is the best form of diplomacy, and thus should be accessible to everybody, especially in this day and age. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my story thus far, with the best part yet to come.