We were lucky to catch up with Seth Quigg recently and have shared our conversation below.

Seth, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I have worked in the International Adventure Travel and Outdoor Education fields for 20+ years. For the better part of 15 years, I lead outdoor and cross-cultural expeditions all over the world. In 2015, I started my own International trekking company leading trips to Chilean Patagonia, two destinations in Peru, Ecuador, Canadian Rockies, the Alps, Tanzania, Nepal, Vietnam, New Zealand and more. I sold the shares of my company two weeks before Covid in 2020 and have recently started a philanthropic adventure travel company called the Karuna Project that focuses on leveraging the travel and tourism industry to support the humanitarian sector. My personal and professional ethos is that if we are taking tourists and travelers to destinations abroad, it is our responsibility to give back to the people who inhabit those lands. We just operated our first expedition in Nepal with 15 guests and support a school outside of Kathmandu. Through the participant tuition of the expedition, we have managed to implement a water filtration system into the primary school and are supporting the priciniple of the school with uniforms and jackets for all primary school students. We understand the complexities involved with ‘toxic charity’ and are working on ways to empower the community to create sustainable business ventures that are needed and wanted by the community. Furthermore, we call it Karuna PROJECT, because we understand that we live in a fast paced and forever changing world and want to adapt to meet the needs of the places we work. We are dedicated to making a large impact for those who reside in the places we visit.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My partner and I met leading a NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) course in 2007. She was my big boss and it was my first course teaching outdoor leadership in the Wind River Wilderness for 30 days. I went on to teach for the school for roughly 13 years and she led courses all over the world for 12 years. We reconnected 15 years later to form the Karuna Project, whose ethos is leveraging the travel and tourism industry to support the humanitarian sector. We are both trained as outdoor guides and have large outdoor resumes consisting of 15 expeditions in the Himalaya, 16 expeditions in the Andes, sailing across the pacific ocean, snowboarding down Denali, guiding over 5 times on Kilimanjaro, taking students into remote environments in Borneo, Madagascar, Tibet, India, the Amazon and many many more.

We realize that international expeditioning is about the people who inhabit the land. We could do nothing without their support. Our goal is to give back to those people by supporting sustainable and responsible programs that contribute to community empowerment, while meeting the needs assessment from the local people.

Our goal is to make a large impact for those who do not have adequate systems in place to create thriving environments. We call it the Karuna PROJECT because we will shift our focus on implementation as needs arise.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I am a professional photographer. I am always posting photographs of our adventures and people seem to love them. The act of storytelling helps draw new clientele to travel with us.

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

Yes I have.

I owned a large International trekking business.

Lessons learned.

1. Do not take a salary unless you absolutely need it.
2. Always check your partners and employees work, especially finances.
3. Stay very close to all partners or members.
4. If the goal is to sell your business, think about why you started it in the first place.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.karuna-project.com
• Instagram: sethquiggphotography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seth.quigg/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-quigg-m-a-b3467064/

Image Credits
Seth Quigg Photography