From Peace Corps to $7M Purpose: Andrew Motiwalla's Encore Leap – As Featured on the UnLost Cause Podcast

Published: April 15th, 2025

What happens when you finally stop asking "someday" and start asking "why not now?" That's the question at the heart of a recent episode of the UnLost Cause podcast, hosted by David Niu. His guest, Andrew Motiwalla, founder of The Good Life Abroad, sat down for a wide-ranging, deeply personal conversation about what it really takes to walk away from a safe career, bet on yourself, and build something that matters — at 45.

The episode, titled "From Peace Corps to $7M Purpose: Andrew Motiwalla's Encore Leap with TheGoodLifeAbroad.com," aired April 15, 2025, and runs just over an hour. It's a different kind of conversation than you'd hear on a retirement podcast — this one is about the founder's journey as much as the product, and it offers a rare, honest look at what it takes to reinvent yourself in midlife.

A Career Built on Meaningful Experiences

Andrew's path to founding The Good Life Abroad wasn't a straight line — it was more like a lifelong accumulation of experiences that all pointed in the same direction. It started with the Peace Corps, where he spent two years living abroad in Central America, discovering firsthand the transformative power of immersing yourself in a different culture. That experience shaped everything that followed.

Over the next two decades, Andrew worked across international education, nonprofit travel, and family travel — founding companies like Global Leadership Adventures (student travel) and Discover Corps (family and multigenerational travel). He also climbed into senior executive roles, eventually reaching Chief Revenue Officer. From the outside, things looked good. Inside, a quieter voice kept surfacing: Is this really it?

The Leap at 45

At 45, Andrew faced a crossroads that many people encounter and most choose to step back from. He had equity in a company, a title, a clear professional track. And he had a dream that had been simmering for years — something that combined his lifelong love of travel, his belief in community, and the gap he kept seeing in the market for older travelers who wanted something richer and slower than tours and cruises.

Rather than waiting for the "right time," he did what David Niu calls the hallmark of an UnLost Cause: he leapt.

He sold his equity, took $7,000, and ran a lean test before building anything. Using Facebook ads, Stripe, and a Typeform survey — no website, no product, no team — he wanted to know if the demand was actually there. It was. Retirees responded in numbers that validated everything he had hypothesized. The hunger for immersive, slow, community-driven travel abroad was real, and it was underserved.

That test became The Good Life Abroad. In its first year, the company generated over $7 million in revenue.

Building the Right Way

One of the most instructive parts of the episode is Andrew's approach to growth and capital. Rather than taking money from a syndicate of angels — which would have meant managing a long list of voices and expectations — he chose a single strategic investor whose values and vision aligned with his own. It's a decision that reflects the same intentionality he brings to how The Good Life Abroad itself is built: thoughtfully, with the right people, rather than quickly for the sake of scale.

The numbers that have emerged from that approach are striking. The company has a 30% repeat customer rate — meaning nearly one in three travelers comes back for another program. And the NPS (Net Promoter Score) of 82 places it among the most beloved travel experiences in its category. These aren't vanity metrics. They're evidence that what Andrew built is genuinely delivering on its promise.

What The Good Life Abroad Actually Does

At its core, The Good Life Abroad places adults 55 and older in vetted, furnished apartments in some of Europe's most beautiful cities — Lisbon, Florence, Barcelona, Rome, Palermo, and more — for one to two months at a time. The program includes a local Community Manager in every city who serves as a knowledgeable guide, social connector, and support system. Participants live near a cohort of like-minded travelers, joining for happy hours, cooking classes, and neighborhood explorations — while retaining full independence to pursue whatever matters most to them.

The model, as Andrew describes it, is a blank canvas with support. Some participants arrive to paint — literally. Others come to trace their family roots, study a language, cook their way through a regional cuisine, or simply experience what it means to live somewhere rather than visit it. Everyone paints their own picture.

What Every Midlife Reinventor Can Take Away

David draws out the universal lessons in Andrew's story throughout the conversation, and they're worth sitting with regardless of whether you're thinking about founding a company or simply wondering whether it's too late to pursue something you've put off.

Andrew's journey demonstrates that an honest inventory of your genuine strengths — not just your resume — is where reinvention begins. For Andrew, those strengths were a deep passion for travel, a natural talent for building community, and a decades-long understanding of what makes people feel truly at home somewhere new. The Good Life Abroad didn't come from nowhere. It came from all of him.

The episode also speaks directly to the fear that stops most people from making a leap: the worry that it's too late, that the window has closed, that the smart thing is to stay put. Andrew's answer to that fear isn't a motivational slogan — it's a $7M business built on $7,000 and a willingness to test before committing.

As David puts it in his write-up of the episode: your encore chapter is waiting. And like Andrew, you may be just one leap away from your UnLost Cause.

Watch the Full Conversation

📹 Watch the episode here: Building a Multi-Million Travel Business After 40 | Andrew Motiwalla's and TheGoodLifeAbroad.com

About the UnLost Cause Podcast

UnLost Cause is hosted by David Niu, entrepreneur and author, and focuses on stories of people 40 and older who have turned perceived "lost causes" into lives they love. Each episode explores the courage, creativity, and self-honesty required to reinvent yourself in midlife — through second acts, new businesses, bold pivots, and the pursuit of dreams that were shelved but never forgotten. Subscribe at unlostcause.substack.com or find UnLost Cause on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

About The Good Life Abroad

The Good Life Abroad is a travel program designed for adults 55 and older who want to experience Europe not as tourists, but as temporary locals. With vetted furnished apartments, on-the-ground community support, and a built-in cohort of like-minded travelers, The Good Life Abroad makes extended travel in Europe more accessible, social, and meaningful than ever.

Ready to explore what a month abroad could look like for you? Browse our destinations or request a free brochure to get started.