We caught up with the brilliant and insightful David Rutter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

David , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My wife and I started our first business, Arte for Elephants, about seven years ago. We started doing the art festival circuit selling my wildlife photography and her portraits of elephants we’d become acquainted with at various elephant sanctuaries around the world. The goal was to support ourselves and raise money for elephant rescue at the same time. To facilitate this and our artwork, we spent a considerable amount of time in Southeast Asia and Africa.

It began to become common for customers at our shows to ask us how they could travel to Africa or Thailand and do so both economically and ethically, showing concern for both animals and indigenous groups in the countries they wanted to travel to. We were happy to provide the benefit of our experience in this area, but at some point somebody asked, “Why don’t you just take people to these places?”

It all clicked then. Both my wife and I had long histories working in hospitality and travel related businesses. My wife, in fact, was already a certified tour director, having graduated from ITMI tour director academy in San Francisco.

Thus our second business, AFE Adventures, was born. We took our first group of twelve to visit Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, which was the first ethical sanctuary for elephants in all of Southeast Asia. Since then, we’ve expanded to host safaris on the Masai Mara in Kenya, as well as elephant-centric trips to Cambodia, Rwanda and India. We now have several hundred thrilled and satisfied customers who have had the time of their lives on the vacation of their dreams.

David , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

AFE Adventures provides customers with a unique and totally ethical experience with both animals and tribal groups in some of the most exciting travel locations the world has to offer. We work very closely with indigenous groups in all the countries we visit to ensure that the money helps the local community. We also sponsor girls education in both Southeast Asia and Africa, having already put several girls through secondary education. In addition, we partner with Eden Reforestation Project to plant 200 trees for every customer who joins us, thereby helping to offset the carbon footprint from world air travel.

We are also about the most affordable option you are ever likely to find. It’s our mission to make adventure travel assessable to people other than the ultra rich. The animals of the world and the beautiful forests and savannas where they roam are for all of us.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

I met my wife and cofounder when we were both child actors. I was acting in a play in a Southern California theater and she was doing a different play. I was 12 at the time and she was 10. I saw her and thought, “Who is that cute girl?” After that, we would run into each other every few years but one or both of us was dating someone else at the time. Ten years ago, we reconnected via Facebook for a date at a coffee house and the rest is history.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

We still do several art shows a year as Arte for Elephants and this is where we meet the majority of our new customers. Word of mouth has also been a huge draw for us, as has repeat business. It’s rare that customers who travel with us don’t both travel with us again and speak glowingly to their friends about the transformative experiences they’ve had traveling with AFE Adventures.

Contact Info:

• Website: afeadventures.com
• Instagram: @arteforelephants
• Facebook: Arte for Elephants
• Twitter: @arteforelephants
• Youtube: Arte for Elephants
• Yelp: AFE Adventures in West Sacramento

Image Credits
All photos by David Rutter