Effectuation Chronicle #32: Click & Boat, The New AirBnb In The Wind
Effectuation Chronicle #32: Click & Boat, The New AirBnb In The Wind
During the summer months, the call of the sea is felt. So we went to meet Jeremy Bismuth, his team and their dogs in their barge offices in Boulogne, Click & Boat’s headquarters. Even if the Seine was calm, the sailors were active in all directions and in all languages. That’s enough to make you feel completely out of touch!
In a nutshell. Welcome on board.
No need to present them anymore, the AirBnb of boats is on the rise. Created in 2013, with now more than 100 employees, the Click & Boat startup has 40 million euros of business volume. With or without a captain, you can now book the boat (Editor’s note: more than 30,000 units available in May 2019) you want in more than 50 different countries.
The Abandoned ships’ problem
Just as Airbnb optimizes empty apartments, Click & Boat addresses the problem of boats. They are expensive, require maintenance and the owners do not use them much: according to Jeremy, on average only 9 days at sea per year!
Even among rental professionals, both landlords and tenants have difficulty accessing the market, the distribution between supply and demand is not homogeneous. Click & Boat wants to be a revealer of stock through its marketplace. From the small sailboat in Brittany to the yacht of Miami’s insane proportions, everyone can find what they are looking for.
A key idea among many others.
Edouard and Jérémy met at Mazars, in a different sector of activity, but they quickly discovered that they shared the same entrepreneurial spirit. For Jeremy, simple and resourceful business in particular. By the end of his studies in Dauphine, he had already taken over and sold a bankrupt restaurant. « For local shops, he tells us, it only takes three weeks to replenish the number of customers! We do tastings, offers, we even put a sandwich man in front… » Until the resale to Afflelou.
Edouard, passionate about sailing and the sea, was full of ideas and felt that he would not stop there. They often met to confront their intuitions. « No, there’s already Doctolib… that’s too late. »
Finally, the idea of a platform for networking around boats emerged. Edouard le Breton and Jérémy le Marseillais both meet there, even if they were not used to using the same type of boat.
Article to be fully found on Forbes
