A facility and service for RV owners to rent, store, and maintain their vehicles when not in use. 

Buena Vista, CO June 2019 to May 2020

Concept: 

The whole idea behind this business was to leverage my passion and knowledge for RVs, collaborating with local RV owners to offer a top-quality, positive, and consistent rental experience to visitors exploring Colorado’s many RV destinations. It was a turn-key service that handled all operational aspects for vehicle owners on platforms such as Outdoorsy and RV Share. The rented vehicles formed a local fleet stored at the rental office. When efficiently managed, this model projected around $50k in gross revenue per van, with an agreed-upon revenue split favoring the owners. Maintenance costs were the owner’s responsibility, while the business bore operational expenses. I aimed to keep it as simple and transparent as possible with vehicle owners, just as I would want it if I were trusting someone with my $100k asset.

With the trust of a few brave asset owners, the model successfully scaled to five vehicles and had the potential for further expansion, with available space and infrastructure ready. Simultaneously, I began sub-leasing the space to other small business owners and remote workers, significantly offsetting the monthly expenses. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen personal circumstances, I had to wind down the business as I had to relocate my family back to CA. Given the early stage of the model and financial constraints, continuing operations was not feasible, but the experience was invaluable.

Flugtag:

This was my first real business. What I mean by ‘real’ is what it meant to me. There’s the reality of doing the binding administrative work, like filing an LLC or understanding liability insurance and risk. However, what ‘real’ meant to me was that I would be depending on this business for my livelihood. Not something fun that can fluctuate passively; this was a tangible thing that demanded intentional energy to survive—for me to survive. It felt like an immense amount of weight on my shoulders and heart.

I found myself in this entrepreneurship situation somewhat accidentally, painting myself into a corner. My wife and I wanted to live an unconventional lifestyle and moved to the mountains of Colorado from the Bay Area of California. After one brief visit the year before, we decided on the resilient 3000-person community of Buena Vista, CO—a mecca of all the brightly colored outdoor equipment year-round, nestled in a mountainous range 8000 ft. up, separated by three hours of sometimes arctic-like highways to Denver.

We both moved there with remote jobs. My wife had been a remote employee for years, but I had just come off the rocketship at WeWork and was now the first employee at a seed-round Agtech startup. My role before moving was very operationally hands-on as the business worked with organic farms, distributors, and buyers in CA. While the founder was incredibly understanding, flexible, and willing to let me try to do all my work remotely, I ultimately called him a couple of months after being in CO to tell him I felt I was not bringing enough value working remotely, and I didn’t want to burn up the runway. We agreed on a day I would phase out, and that was it. I was now cut off in a remote town from my lifeline of comfort in the Bay. Job opportunities were limited and very seasonal. I entertained the idea of piecing together a few different seasonal roles but ultimately wanted to work on something I was proud of, cared about, and paid the bills consistently. This marked the starting line of my entrepreneurial journey as I tried to match my unconventional, swiss-army knife of skills with the opportunities in the area. Van rentals kept reappearing as an option. It was a means of travel I personally loved, and I had done a little bit of personal vehicle rentals in the past, coupled with my previous hospitality and operations roles. Van Rentals it was, and I went for it. In doing that, I found this hidden rhythm and energy of work that I haven’t been able to shake since. It has naturally led to my other ventures and fuels more to come.

Lessons learned

• The importance of balancing building/parking lease costs with fleet size for the fluctuating rental model. The growth of a co-working service helped offset these expenses. 
• Operating in a remote, highly seasonal area presented challenges, particularly in terms of logistics and fluctuating demand. 
• Maintaining a reliable network of RV service specialists was crucial for keeping the vehicles on the road and generating revenue within tight rental turnover timelines.

I remember seeing this building for the first time and thinking it was so unique. 

Signing my first commercial lease on this building was the scariest thing I had done to that date. I lost a lot of sleep debating whether I could actually do this. There were so many unknowns.

The bones of the building were good, but squatters were the previous residents, so it required a good amount of cleaning. 

Stay away from Meth.

Bootstrapping at its finest. 

Sweat equity inside and out. My wife was very generous with her time. 

Volia’!

The building was on the major highway in and out of a popular outdoor destination. I thought this space would be a great place to stop during travels, log in to work, and chat with other travelers about their explorations in the area. 

I know that when I worked on the road, finding a reliable and inspiring place to work was incredibly challenging; I wanted to solve that problem for others like me. 

The vast majority of the furniture was upcycled from the local Habitat for Humanity Restore

Some of my early windshield cards that I peppered all the parked RVs within the area.

I tried to use as many local businesses as possible during the building and operation of my company. From decals to branded apparel, I wanted to make sure my business brought value to the area I lived, not just for me.