Chris Sheldrick

Chris studied classical music at King’s College London and London’s Royal Academy of Music, but a serious sleepwalking accident left him with nerve damage in his left wrist, spelling the end of his career as a performer. He stayed in the music industry and started a business organising live music events around the world. It was there that issues with addresses became apparent to him, as musicians around the world failed to find venue entrances on a daily basis. Over a cup of tea with a mathematician friend, he shared his frustration with GPS coordinates: they’re very precise, but too complicated for everyday use. Together, they devised a way of giving everywhere in the world an addressthat would be incredibly easy for people to use: they divided the world into 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address. Since what3words’ launch in 2013 Chris has grown the business to a 60-strong team in three countries, and what3words has become one of the most-awarded ideas of recent times.