GE 233: How Jen Young Embraced Failure and Built a Thriving RV Marketplace with 100K+ Users & 10K+ Vehicles (podcast)

Hey everyone, in today’s episode I share the mic with Jen Young, co-founder and CMO of Outdoorsy, a marketplace website that allows customers to rent local RVs for memorable adventures.

Tune in to hear Jen share how she did product market research by living in an RV for 8 months, how their customers’ needs forced them to expand their business model, what works for Outdoorsy in terms of marketing techniques, and why she embraces a culture of failure.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How Jen Young Embraced Failure and Built a Thriving RV Marketplace with 100K+ Users & 10K+ Vehicles TRANSCRIPT

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:35 – Before we begin, please leave a review and rating and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast
• 01:15 – Outdoorsy is a peer-to-peer marketplace; it allows users to rent the 13 million RVs that sit idle most of the year
• 02:35 – Outdoorsy has a million dollar liability insurance and has pay-as-you-go/on-demand roadside service, which makes them a more full-service company
• 03:40 – When they realized there were RVs sitting idle for most of the year, Jen and her partner sold their houses and bought an RV and hit the road for eight months. Along the way, they interviewed other RVers to get an idea of their needs.
• 05:44 – Outdoorsy’s original customer development was interviewing other RVers at campgrounds
• 08:45 – The business model expanded because of customer need/feedback. They now facilitate sales of RVs, as well.
• 09:43 – The struggles of building a marketplace: they needed to be national, but had to start small in counties/towns and then states.
• 10:41 – Embracing a culture of failure in order to be successful
• 11:45 – Outdoorsy has facilitated a million interactions this year and a have booked a quarter of a million dollars worth of trips.
• 12:58 – Families have reconnected on road trips, people have proposed marriage, and bucket list trips were made possible because of Outdoorsy
• 14:01 – Adwords and Facebook have worked in terms of customer acquisition, as well as engaging content
• 15:11 – Check out the customer stories and their branding tactics on Outdoorsy.com
• 15:45 – A cool photo and a great story angle go a long way in terms of marketing
• 17:05 – Injecting personality cuts through the repetitive style of advertising being used by other companies
• 17:30 – New tools they have used in the past year and what has worked for them (Quip and Slack)
• 18:45 – Every morning, Jen builds a to-do list and in doing so, prioritizes the most important aspects of the business that day.
• 19:30 – She uses the “getting things done methodology”, which helps her organize her to-do list and evaluate priorities.

Resources From This Interview:

• Outdoorsy
• Outdoorsy on Facebook
• Outdoorsy on Instagram
• Jen@outdoorsy.com

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