Paul Collins had relocated to the Scottish Borders from tourism management posts in France and established The Way Forward, a service provision business for walkers along the SUW.

After discussing their individual plans for developing websites to promote the SUW to the benefit of their own businesses, Andrew and Paul soon found they had common objectives. They therefore decided to collaborate on the project.

Upon creating the original SUW website they realised its potential, not just for their immediate businesses but for the local economy as a whole. They soon began to amass great support for their initiative.