By: Joshua Finley

RV rentals are surging in popularity, offering travelers flexibility, convenience, and affordability. During a fateful road trip, Paul Kacir recognized this rising trend and brainstormed how to tap into this market. Fast-forward nearly a decade, and his peer-to-peer RV rental marketplace, RVnGO, is bringing RV owners and renters together like never before.

A Spark of Inspiration

The beginnings of RVnGO emerged on a road trip from Scottsdale to Vancouver to participate in a charity bike ride for cancer research. Paul, equipped with a background in law and economics and over a decade as a corporate lawyer and executive, admired the Airbnb business model.

“Basically, what they did was without using any of their own capital, they monetized the utility function of underutilized assets,” Paul explained.

This sparked an idea – what other underutilized assets could be monetized in this way? His gaze drifted to the steady stream of RVs cruising down the highway.

“I came up with the idea of RVnGO,” Paul recalled. RV’s embodied the perfect underutilized leisure assets. With around 11 million RVs across America, most sitting idle approximately over 95% of the time, the opportunity dawned on him. The RV rental concept was born.

Building RVnGO from the Ground Up

After laying the initial framework, the next challenge was insurance. No existing providers offered coverage aligned with person-to-person RV rentals. Undaunted, Paul wrote a white paper and shopped it to underwriters until finding the right fit.

“Our first dollar of revenue was at the end of summer 2018,” he said. Progress was slow but steady. Rather than chase venture capital, the company operated lean and grew organically.

They weathered the storms of COVID-19, even experiencing a surge of interest in RV rentals during lockdowns. As demand doubled, so did their site traffic and investor interest.

“It allowed us to really enter the marketplace and start to establish ourselves,” Paul explained. They’ve roughly doubled year-over-year since and are gearing up for their next major growth spurt.

Bringing RV Owners and Renters Together

At its core, RVnGO aims to connect RV owners and prospective renters directly, bypassing middlemen and their hefty fees.

“We wanted to take out middlemen in the value chain and bring people closer together,” said Paul. This person-to-person model became their secret sauce.

RV owners list their vehicles on the platform for free. RVnGO provides the software, marketing tools, and renters – allowing owners to potentially earn substantial income from their underutilized assets. Renters access thousands of RV options at dramatically lower rates.

“In the exact same transaction, insurance included, all-in is half price or more on our platform,” Paul added. These savings directly result from their focus on creating value, not extracting fees.

Focusing on Organic Traffic and Growth

With the core platform built, current goals center on ramping up organic traffic and continuing optimization. Hundreds of thousands of searches occur daily on RVnGO as they fine-tune the user experience.

Paul also keeps long-term ambitions in sight. “We think we could become profitable by next summer,” he projected. This would empower them to grow rapidly.

“If we’re successful, this space has room for a billion-dollar company. We could become a unicorn in this,” Paul stated, emphasizing this is not just a pandemic-driven trend.

An IPO also remains on the horizon. “We’re comfortable with heading out as a public company,” he said, noting they’ve already received the necessary approvals.

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

For those hoping to embark on their own entrepreneurial journey, Paul stresses foundational business skills: motivation, leadership, and conveying vision.

“You need to have at least some insight into it,” he advised. You need not be an expert coder or developer, but you must understand the realm enough to communicate needs and viability.

Mentors can provide crucial guidance to fill experience gaps according to Paul. “If you don’t have a lot of business experience you need, maybe get that and I think it’s easier to get mentors in that area,” he recommended. Skill-specific matters like legal issues or coding require specialized support.

Additionally, Paul underscores the importance of learning all aspects of your business, even if you hire experts. “I think you’re only as good as your weakest link, and if there are black boxes in your company, that’s where things could go wrong,” he warned.

To learn more about Paul and his approach, visit his LinkedIn profile.

Published by: Khy Talara