About Work Wanderers

The 9-to-5 wasn't built for the life you actually want.

You've felt it. The Sunday-night dread. A calendar that belongs to someone else. The quiet question that won't quite leave you alone.

Is this really it?

It isn't. And you're not crazy for asking. Work Wanderers is a global community for people building a different kind of career, the ones already living location-independent, and the ones standing at the edge wondering if they're allowed to jump. You are. Let me show you how.

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By the numbers

Seven years. One bet on freedom.

7 yrs

building this life

countries

international retreats

10k+

community across platforms

Nomad Week conferences

Andrae Smith, Founder of Work Wanderers, working from a cafe in Bali

7+ Years Remote. 44 Countries.

Founder, Work Wanderers

Meet the founder

Hey. I'm Andrae.

If you want the polished corporate bio that pretends building a global remote business was a straight line, you're in the wrong place.

My path's been all over the shop, and honestly, that's the point. Business person first. Marketer by trade. Community builder. And a digital nomad who fell into this whole life completely by accident. Seven years and 44 countries later, that messy, non-linear road is exactly why I can see the whole map now.

These days I do two things. I help people make the actual shifts it takes to build a free, sustainable life online, the practical stuff, the business stuff, the mindset stuff. And I run large-scale digital nomad events like Nomad Week, where this whole community comes alive in person.

Let's be real. With the 9-to-5 getting shakier by the year, especially with AI moving this fast, building your own income isn't a luxury anymore. It's just smart.

But before any of this, I was a stressed-out Head of Marketing wondering why the whole corporate promise felt like a trap.

From the founder

The Work Wanderers Story

The wake-up call

A lightbulb in Prague.

Early 2018. I was Head of Marketing for a coding education startup in Cape Town, and I'd somehow negotiated a remote contract, which barely existed back then.

Then I was in Prague. First proper taste of working from somewhere completely different. And something just clicked.

I could keep the salary. Keep delivering. And see the world while I did it. I didn't want a holiday. I wanted freedom.

I didn't want a holiday. I wanted freedom.

Here's the thing. As a South African, the normal milestones never felt like mine. Buy a house? On my salary, against those property prices? Travel was the thing you supposedly earned at 65.

So when I realised I could uncouple my income from one office in one city, it cracked something open. I could build a real life now. See the world now. Grow now. Not in forty years.

By the end of 2018 I quit, packed up, and went to build my own thing.

Before AI made anything easy

I sold two spots. Two.

When I started Work Wanderers, the nomad retreat space was tiny. I was honestly one of about four people on the whole planet building proper experiences for remote workers to connect and actually get work done.

Two small problems.

One: I had zero tech skills. Marketing and strategy, that was me. So I built the entire website myself. No AI to write the code or the copy. Just me, a lot of late nights, and stubbornness.

Two, and this one still makes me wince: my first Bali retreat, I sold two spots. Two.

I could've cancelled. Instead I emptied my savings, my actual life savings, to keep the villa booked. I filled it with online influencers in exchange for content (they covered their own flights, I covered the stay), just to get the proof that the thing could work.

Terrifying. But it worked. The energy was unreal, the connections were real, and it set up my next one in Cape Town, a 6-week retreat that completely sold out.

Work Wanderers crew at Lions Head, Cape Town

Then the world stopped

March 2020 took it all in a day.

By early 2020 I had real momentum. Four international retreats booked. Sales coming in. Things were good.

Then March 2020 happened.

In a single day I cancelled every trip and refunded everything. I was gutted. I spent six months on my couch watching the news, watching a travel business I'd built grind to nothing.

But as everyone got shoved into remote work, I realised this space wasn't dying. It was about to explode. So I started making raw, practical content about building a location-independent life, and that turned into my first coaching program.

By mid-2021, even when travel opened back up, I couldn't let it go. Work Wanderers stopped being just a retreat company and became a place people actually learn this stuff. Alternative career paths. Building an income from anywhere. Designing a life on your own terms.

The accidental catalyst

How I accidentally lit up Cape Town's nomad scene.

Stuck in South Africa during lockdown, I started a little WhatsApp group for nomads who'd got stranded in Cape Town.

When we could finally meet up, still doing nervous no-handshake high-fives, I threw a dinner for 20 people.

That one dinner turned into something I never planned.

Twenty people became over 1,500. From one group chat.

I ended up running hundreds of meetups, dinners, beach days, co-working sessions, day trips, you name it. A whole ecosystem, from one group chat.

I'm a Cape Town local, and I've always known the city's special. Getting to put it on the map as a world-class base for nomads exploring Africa? One of the proudest chapters I've got.

The original Cape Town nomads group at the Twelve Apostles viewpoint

Cape Town nomads at a long restaurant dinner

Scaling up

Nomad Week.

As the community grew, retreats stopped being the main event. We ran 12 of them in the end (Turkey and Egypt included, unforgettable), but they became touchpoints, not the destination. What I really wanted was to scale the community and do something big in person.

So I pitched a government organisation in Cape Town on a bold idea. Let's run a massive conference that actually bridges international nomads and local South Africans. Get locals into remote work and online business too.

Government funding as a solopreneur is not for the faint-hearted. So much red tape. But September 2024, it got approved. The catch? Live in five months. And I'd never run a conference in my life.

One employee, brought on in the final month. That was the team.

We pulled off the first Nomad Week in 2025. 200 nomads in one place. Then we did a second. Now we're building the third, scaling to 300 in 2027.

It's super fun and social, with tons of events to connect and world-class speakers.

Nomad Week is all about integration. Travelers and locals building real relationships, getting into the actual history and culture, putting money into local businesses. Not tourism. Connection.

Explore Nomad Week 2027 →

Nomad Week group at the winelands at sunset

Why community is the future

AI can fake almost anything now. It can't fake people in a room.

AI can write, build software, automate almost anything in seconds. That's exactly why the old 9-to-5 feels so shaky now.

But here's what AI can't touch: real human connection.

That's why I'll bang this drum all day. Community-driven businesses are the future. People are the whole point, of any business, any brand. Connect with people in real life and the thing comes alive. That's where real loyalty is born. You can't fake it and you can't automate it.

AI can fake almost anything now. It can't fake people in a room.

So Work Wanderers is becoming a global collective. Through the free community you can apply to become a Work Wanderers Ambassador, and from September 2026 our ambassadors start running official Nomad Meetups all over the world. We're taking the exact blueprint that transformed Cape Town and handing it to leaders everywhere.

Start here

Find your people, free.

The whole thing starts with one group chat. Our global WhatsApp community is free to join, and it's where you meet people who actually get it, and hear about every meetup and event we run. No pitch. No catch. Just the room where it all begins.

Join the Community Free

Ready to make the leap?

When you want more than a group chat.

I'll be honest with you. Leaving a traditional career is lonely, and it's almost never a straight line. It's hard. You need the right people in your corner, and someone who can actually point you in the right direction.

The Work Wanderers VIP membership is built for exactly that. For people in their late 20s, 30s and 40s sitting in career confusion, ready to get out of the 9-to-5 for good. One payment, a full year of momentum.

The Weekly Job Radar

20 hand-vetted location-independent roles every week. Way more comprehensive than the quick drop in the free WhatsApp community, and I check every role myself so you're not wading through "remote-ish" scams and entry-level noise.

The Instant Nomad Library

Over $1,000 of resources waiting on day one, including my Freelancer Freedom in 90 Days course and 8+ country visa guides.

The private community

A tribe of professionals who get it. A travel buddy, a business partner, or just a coffee in Cape Town. This is where you find them.

Monthly community Q&A

Direct, unfiltered access to me and other mentors to troubleshoot your pivot in real time.

And if your goal is to build a community-driven business or a personal brand that actually means something, that's my zone. I've taken my own from one dinner to a 10k+ community and three conferences. I'll help you take yours from idea to a launched, income-generating ecosystem.

Become a VIP Member

This was never just about working from a beach.

The mission's simple. Make location independence something anyone can reach. Your passport, your background, where you happened to start, none of that should set your limits. So don't just watch the movement from behind a screen. Join the community, find your people, and let's build a free life together.

Join Free → Take the Nomad Quiz