Why Jen Young Quit Her Job to Rent RV's | Leveling Up (Episode 2.1)

So today we're going into Outdoorsy, which is a ridesharing marketplace for RVs. So you can go online, pick out an RV, take your friends and family, and go have fun. So let's go in and learn their story.

Liftoff.

We have Jen Young, who's one of the co-founders of Outdoorsy. Jen, how's it going?

So good. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm really looking forward to the conversation.

This is awesome. I mean, we're in one of the offices of 2 legendary startups in San Francisco. I guess we can start there first. I mean, whose offices are we in right now? Well, we are in Outdoorsy's offices.

Which is great. But before us, some good luck, I think, on our side, because this was the original office for a couple of the developers for both Airbnb and also Heroku. So we got, we got some good vibes flowing through here.

Cool. Break it down for me. What is Outdoorsy? And talk to me like I'm in a bar. What is Outdoorsy?

So Outdoorsy is the largest and the most trusted peer-to-peer RV rental marketplace. So you can rent RVs from trusted individual owners and professional companies anywhere across the United States. And on the flip side, Renters who don't have an RV themselves can easily and simply find the perfect rig for their vacation or holiday, rent it directly. Insurance is covered, roadside assistance is covered, all the add-ons that you would need for the trip, and hit the road.

This sounds to me, because I'm— I can be really disorganized, it sounds like a logistical nightmare to put all this stuff together. So first and foremost, where did the idea come from? And let's start there first.

The idea came from— I remember it pretty vividly actually, in terms of knowing that we wanted to do something different. So my partner and I Both come from pretty big backgrounds in marketing and software tech companies. And we were just, you know, doing the same old thing, investor updates and presentations in large conference rooms. And we just sort of looked at each other and thought, we gotta do something different. And we're both pretty passionate outdoor people and travelers. And so we knew at that point that we wanted to do something. And we were just like noodling around with a couple of ideas. And it was when we came across the insight that there are 13 million RVs in just the United States alone.

Wow.

That pretty much sit unused. So they're sitting unused for most of the year. And that's a market right there. If you take 350 days where an RV sits unused, times it by the 13 million available assets that are out there, you've got over a billion rental days.

Wow.

So we knew that that market, in combination with this huge trend of millennials and baby boomers and all sorts of different people from different walks of life who want to get offline and want to get outside and want to focus on experiences and creating memories, we knew that we had something pretty special. So we quit our jobs and we sold our houses and we got to work building the first prototype.

When you look at, you know, the Outdoorsies of the world or the Airbnbs of the world and you look at cryptocurrency as well, where things are going, you're thinking about monetizing the excess capacity out there and that's where you saw the opportunity, right?

Yeah, absolutely. That, number one, I mean, we absolutely had to have the available assets. And also if you dig a little bit more into RVs, you'll find that they're, you know, they're very expensive to keep and maintain. So aside from it just being an asset asset that somebody owns, it also costs you extra money to be able to use it. So in that case, you want to be actually using the asset, and if not, you got to figure out a way to monetize it. So Dorsey is a perfect solution for owners of these kinds of vehicles.

So for those of you aspiring entrepreneurs, you know, think about there's excess capacity with Wi-Fi, things like that. There's just so much excess capacity out there. How can you monetize that? And Jen's done a great job with that. And what I want to talk about— we actually talked about this before we started— was So I think Jen has a cool case study that she can share around Outdoorsy. What is it?

Well, sure, let me tell you about that case study. But first, yeah, it's, you know, one of the best things about Outdoorsy as a company for both owners and renters is that there's so many different types of people that are really interested in renting vehicles and doing road trips and experiences. But in particular, on the owner side of our marketplace, because of course we've got owners and renters, on the owner side, we've got an owner actually just around Sausalito area and just sort of outside of San Francisco. His name is Jack. An Asian guy, and he's made himself a little business. He started with a Class B Mercedes vehicle, and—

What's a Class B?

A Class B is sort of like a midsize RV. So it is motorized. It's not the big, large Class As that you see, but it kind of looks like an oversized minivan, if you will. But it's fully souped up with a bed and electrical and kitchen and bathroom. And this is one of the vehicles that he has. He's listed it on Outdoorsy. He's made himself a really fast-moving rental business for himself. And at last check, when we checked in with him, I think he's made over $45,000 in just rental income on this one vehicle. So the guy is already looking at how he can maybe save that money for a down payment on a house. And we all know how hard that is to do in a city like San Francisco, and plus other big metropolitan cities. So this is not only a way to supplement income, but this is a way to hit some of your own financial goals outside of just some extra money.

Got it. Okay, so let's say I go to the Outdoorsy website, you know, I'm brand new, I don't know how to use it, you know, how do I— walk me through the sales funnel. How does that work?

Absolutely. So are you an owner or are you a renter?

Let's say I'm an owner and I wanna make more money.

You wanna make more money. Okay. Super easy. Um, you probably will have heard about us, fortunately, because we've worked really hard to get the message out there. And I think the concept of marketplaces, um, is picking up speed. So you'll come to the website and hit the, hit the main graphic. Top right, there's a List Your RV button. Click on List Your RV, and we take you through 4 or 5 very, very simple steps. Where you can enter in the year, make, and model of your vehicle. You enter, obviously, where it's located. You can make yourself a nice little listing ad describing some of the cool features. A lot of our owners like to make extra money by making available their kayaks, or bike racks, or barbecues, or they'll throw in a kitchenette set, or they'll—

So they can put add-ons in?

You can put in all the add-ons you want. So you're sort of, like, customizing it. And there's some real creativity out there. We've got some owners that actually make these, like, little, like, you're ready to go packages. So they'll fill up your refrigerator with food and beer, and a bottle of champagne for, like, an extra $40, or depending on what they put in the kitchen. So, you customize the listing and the experience that you want to have, and we take your VIN number and we qualify you for insurance right then and there.

Mm-hmm.

And you basically publish your listing, and now you've got a profile on Outdoorsy. You've got— of course, you upload your photos. So, you've got a profile on Outdoorsy, you've got your listing of the vehicle, you've described it a little bit, you've created some add-ons, you're published, and you're likely to get some rental requests within 24 or 48 hours.

Right.

So of course owners can always go back and, you know, they work on their profile, getting better photos and getting better listing items. But those are the basics. Takes about 5 minutes and you could be making money, literally cash in your pocket that week.

Wow. Okay, there you go. Well, if you're looking to make some money, if you have an RV, go ahead and list it on Outdoorsy.

Wow, that was incredible. What a cool story. I love Jen. I love her story. And if you're a business owner, you're trying to level up your business, Watch this episode again, or even better, go to the next episode in the playlist. If you enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe, leave some comments, let us know what you thought. If you like this, if you were inspired and you want to go out and start your business, go for it, and we'll see you on the other side. Take care.