Episode overview

Scott King joins Steve Grace to talk about building Zapme, a global communications platform born from the frustration of juggling SIM cards across countries. The conversation covers Scott’s remarkable background, from Alice Springs to Japanese ski slopes to Carnival cruise ships, and how each chapter taught him the problem-solving instinct behind the product.

A COVID innovation from Lake Lucerne

In March 2020, Scott was consulting for a biometrics company in Switzerland and travelling between Denmark, Sweden, and England. He had SIM cards from multiple countries taped to his passport. When COVID locked everything down, none of the SIM cards worked. Worse, every time he needed to log into banking, social media, or crypto, he needed a one-time password sent to a number he no longer had active. The idea for a unified global communication system was born on the shores of Lake Lucerne.

From Alice Springs to cruise ships to tech founder

Scott grew up in Alice Springs with one TV channel. He went to Sweden as an exchange student at 18, then Japan at 19 to become a ski instructor. A friend of a friend invited him to Miami, where he started welding stainless steel for a guy called Tiger before going fishing with someone whose brother-in-law was the director of operations at Carnival Cruise Lines. A week later he was in the Bahamas in a white uniform. He spent eight years on ships, started the shore excursion department with an old printing press, and tried to convince them to move from a colour book to the internet.