Two travelers. A terrible lounge. One transformative idea.
THE WAYPOINT LEADERSHIP
The Waypoint Collective was built by people who have spent years inside premium travel, not managing it from a boardroom, but actually living it. And increasingly, being underwhelmed by it.
It started at the worst lounge in Cincinnati. Possibly in North America. We are not ruling out the world.
THE ORIGIN STORY
It was a particularly brutal February layover. A storm had shut down the airport. Twenty-four inches of snow outside, approximately zero inches of anything resembling hospitality inside. The lounge, and we use that word with enormous generosity, offered what appeared to be the last surviving bowl of hummus on earth, guarded by two wrinkled olives who had clearly also had a rough day.
Chris spotted them first. Sarah got there faster. What followed was a conversation that started casually, and quickly turned into something neither of us had planned: a genuine, deeply inconvenient realization that the premium lounge was one of the most underleveraged physical assets in the entire travel ecosystem, and that nobody was building it the way it should be built.
Two Connecticut-based business owners. Two frequent flyers with strong opinions about wasted potential. One shared conviction that the solution was not more amenitie; it was smarter systems.
And, right in that less desirable airport lounge, The Waypoint Collective was formed.
Built by people who've been in the room.
THE FOUNDERS
Between us, we have built multiple successful global businesses, logged more miles than we care to calculate, and developed a shared allergy to environments that mistake "elevated" for "intentional." The Waypoint Collective is what happens when retail strategy meets travel intelligence.
CO-FOUNDER | DESIGN STRATEGY & COMMERCIAL SYSTEMS
Chris brings over two decades of retail marketing and brand experience, including his work building ProDisplayX into a recognized force in experiential retail and display environments. He has spent his career at the intersection of physical space and commercial performance, understanding how design decisions translate directly into revenue outcomes.
His expertise is in systems thinking: how spaces can be structured to influence behavior, drive engagement, and create measurable value at scale. At Waypoint, Chris leads the commercial architecture, designing the revenue frameworks and brand integration strategies that turn passive environments into active, performing systems.
He is also a frequent traveler with strong and largely justified opinions about what a good lounge actually feels like, and a low tolerance for one that does not know the difference between "nice" and "designed."
Sarah Gallo
CO-FOUNDER | BRAND EXPERIENCE & TRAVEL STRATEGY
Sarah has spent years documenting and dissecting what premium travel actually looks and feels like across 118 countries, building The Five Foot Traveler into a trusted voice in the travel space known for its intelligent perspective on experiences that are worth having and environments that earn their reputation.
Her background spans brand storytelling, experience design, and the specific art of helping premium businesses communicate what makes them genuinely different. At Waypoint, Sarah leads brand integration and the guest experience layer, ensuring that every revenue element introduced feels native to the environment, not imposed on it.
She is a Connecticut-based traveler who has visited more airport lounges than most frequent flyers will in a lifetime, and has developed a refined, evidence-based perspective on exactly what separates the ones that leave you impressed from the ones that leave you negotiating for olives.
WORK WITH US
Ready to build something worth landing for?
Let's start with a conversation during your next layover. No pitch deck required.
Experience the Waypoint Difference
partners@thewaypointcollective.com
Location
New York Metro