Chris Sheldrick used to work in the music industry, organising live events around the world. He quickly discovered that getting lost trying to find events was pretty common.

He had some pretty bad days, like in Italy, when a driver unloaded all the equipment an hour north of Rome, instead of an hour south of Rome. And a slightly worse day, when a keyboard player called him and said, ‘Chris, don’t panic, but we may have just sound-checked at the wrong wedding’.

After experiencing a few too many navigation nightmares, Chris set about trying to find a way to describe a location that would be as precise as GPS coordinates, but more concise and easier for people to use. Roping in two school friends along the way.

Today millions of people across the world are using 3-word addresses to find, share and describe places faster and more easily.