Fora: 2026 TIME100 Most Influential Companies

The idea for a modern, tech-savvy travel agency started during the pandemic, when Fora co-founder Henley Vazquez saw her travel business vanish. She was confident the industry would return and, along with co-founders Evan Frank and Jake Peters, she saw an opportunity to reinvent the $100 billion travel adviser industry that was hampered by outdated technology, gatekeeping, and biased commission structures. “We didn’t want to just do something that was a better version of what happened already; we wanted to create a place for new people to enter the industry,” Vazquez says. Anyone can apply to be a Fora adviser, go through online training, and pay a fee to access all of Fora’s tools and accommodation and activities partners that they can book with. Then they plan trips for others and receive a commission from each booking. Fora boasts a growing network of over 15,000 active travel advisers—86% are women, nearly half are parents, and majority new to travel advising. The company has generated around $2.5 billion in sales and raised $60 million in investment last April. “That is the proof that travel agencies are not in any way dead,” says Vazquez.