WIRE was founded in January 2008, during an industry conference in Laguna Beach, with an initial New York chapter. In November 2009 WIRE was incorporated as a not for profit. In 2010, the San Francisco WIRE chapter was launched, merging with the pre-existing WIRE-SF. In 2011 chapters were established in Boston, London and Los Angeles. Within ten years, as of January 2023, additional chapters were established in Austin, Chicago, Philadelphia and Asia Pacific.