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You and Yours: Gap Finders: Chris Sheldrick from What 3 Words

Gap Finders: Chris Sheldrick from What 3 Words

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Gap Finders: Chris Sheldrick from What 3 Words

We meet the founder of the British location app that's spread to 193 countries.

The founder of the location and navigation app tells us how he spotted a gap in the market that he thinks is bigger than parcels not showing up and curries turning up cold.

In a sign of our times, we’re getting fewer letters each week but increasingly rely on the postcodes designed to sort them to transport ourselves. 

For many of us this isn’t a huge problem. However Chris Sheldrick thinks it is. One that’s bigger than waiting for a parcel that doesn’t arrive, a curry that turns up cold or driving in endless circles looking for a seemingly imaginary car park. 

Although he grew up in the countryside, Chris didn’t give this problem much attention until he his work took him to cities.  After a sleepwalking accident cut short a career as a musician he organised concerts instead.  He quickly found drivers of tour buses carrying orchestras and instruments had recurring nightmares finding the stage doors to even the most well-equipped venues.  Eventually, enough was enough and he decided to do something about it.  

Sitting down with a mathematician friend the pair divided up the globe into 3x3 metre squares and worked out each one could be identified by a unique combination of three commonly used words. 

The result was a system called What Three Words. It was launched in 2013. Since then the app has now been downloaded 50 million times and is available in dozens of languages and 193 countries. Its users range from car manufactures to emergency services.  

We find out how it works, how it makes money and the route Chris plans to take himself for the serious challenges that lie ahead.  

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz

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