The startup rents ski and camping gear online, and has raised over $300,000 in an ongoing funding round. Photo courtesy of GetOutfitted.
A Colorado Springs-based startup that rents skis and parkas to out-of-state visitors is looking to raise $1 million, as it adds more summer gear and lets customers use rentals as a credit toward buying equipment.
GetOutfitted customers book ski and camping gear on the startup’s website, pick it up on their doorstep or at their resort destination, and return it to GetOutfitted for the next customer.
CEO Julian Flores, 33, said the challenge is to ensure GetOutfitted has plenty of products in stock, customers ready to rent and employees filling new orders.
“One (investment) is to expand our inventory base, the second is in people,” he said. “And the last part is customer acquisition and marketing.”
The company raised $385,000 in its current funding round, according to an SEC filing on June 24.
GetOutfitted buys skiing and camping equipment wholesale, then rents it for between 10 and 15 percent of the retail price. Flores said most customers are millennials from Florida, Texas and other markets a plane ride away from the nearest ski mountain.
The startup’s gear inventory has more than doubled to $500,000 in the last year, Flores said. GetOutfitted projects sales will grow 160 percent year over year by the end of September and has raised about $1.2 million, he said.
Flores started GetOutfitted in 2013, taking calls on his cellphone and packing ski gear in his garage.
Today, GetOutfitted has two 4,000-square-foot warehouses, in Colorado Springs and Dillon. The company trucks gear to nearby mountains like Keystone and Breckenridge, and ships the rest.
GetOutfitted also built software to manage its inventory, including a tool to spot which items are available for rent and another to identify when orders need to be filled.
Last summer, the startup started renting warmer weather gear. The catalog includes hammocks and an electric skateboard, but Flores said the hottest ticket this summer is the Oru Beach Kayak, a 12-foot plastic boat that can fold into a messenger bag, which is booked through September.
The business is still seasonal. GetOutfitted brought on 22 employees last winter, but is down to 13 people working full or part time this summer. Flores says the most popular winter rentals are Patagonia and Burton outfits, which can go out as many as seven times a season.
GetOutfitted is not the only local company specializing in gear rentals. Denver-based Outdoors Geek also rents sleeping bags, backpacks and snowshoes, among other camping supplies.
Last year, Oru Kayak approached GetOutfitted about a rent-to-own program in which customers could count the price of a kayak rental as a credit toward purchasing one.
The idea is to entice customers too hesitant to purchase a $1,200 kayak by letting them try it out over six days for $150. GetOutfitted launched similar programs for other vendors in May, Flores said.
Inbound links from suppliers like Oru and ski resorts like Aspen Snowmass often push customers to GetOutfitted, but Flores’ goal is to gain clients before they travel – or even when they’re in flight.
“I want to be in a place where anyone in the world can pull out their smartphone and get their gear through us or through our partners on the ground,” said Flores.
To do that, the startup is working on a mobile site to make renting from a phone easier. And it’s ironing out deals with local ski rental shops to stock gear closer to popular destinations.
The startup rents ski and camping gear online, and has raised over $300,000 in an ongoing funding round. Photo courtesy of GetOutfitted.
A Colorado Springs-based startup that rents skis and parkas to out-of-state visitors is looking to raise $1 million, as it adds more summer gear and lets customers use rentals as a credit toward buying equipment.
GetOutfitted customers book ski and camping gear on the startup’s website, pick it up on their doorstep or at their resort destination, and return it to GetOutfitted for the next customer.
CEO Julian Flores, 33, said the challenge is to ensure GetOutfitted has plenty of products in stock, customers ready to rent and employees filling new orders.
“One (investment) is to expand our inventory base, the second is in people,” he said. “And the last part is customer acquisition and marketing.”
The company raised $385,000 in its current funding round, according to an SEC filing on June 24.
GetOutfitted buys skiing and camping equipment wholesale, then rents it for between 10 and 15 percent of the retail price. Flores said most customers are millennials from Florida, Texas and other markets a plane ride away from the nearest ski mountain.
The startup’s gear inventory has more than doubled to $500,000 in the last year, Flores said. GetOutfitted projects sales will grow 160 percent year over year by the end of September and has raised about $1.2 million, he said.
Flores started GetOutfitted in 2013, taking calls on his cellphone and packing ski gear in his garage.
Today, GetOutfitted has two 4,000-square-foot warehouses, in Colorado Springs and Dillon. The company trucks gear to nearby mountains like Keystone and Breckenridge, and ships the rest.
GetOutfitted also built software to manage its inventory, including a tool to spot which items are available for rent and another to identify when orders need to be filled.
Last summer, the startup started renting warmer weather gear. The catalog includes hammocks and an electric skateboard, but Flores said the hottest ticket this summer is the Oru Beach Kayak, a 12-foot plastic boat that can fold into a messenger bag, which is booked through September.
The business is still seasonal. GetOutfitted brought on 22 employees last winter, but is down to 13 people working full or part time this summer. Flores says the most popular winter rentals are Patagonia and Burton outfits, which can go out as many as seven times a season.
GetOutfitted is not the only local company specializing in gear rentals. Denver-based Outdoors Geek also rents sleeping bags, backpacks and snowshoes, among other camping supplies.
Last year, Oru Kayak approached GetOutfitted about a rent-to-own program in which customers could count the price of a kayak rental as a credit toward purchasing one.
The idea is to entice customers too hesitant to purchase a $1,200 kayak by letting them try it out over six days for $150. GetOutfitted launched similar programs for other vendors in May, Flores said.
Inbound links from suppliers like Oru and ski resorts like Aspen Snowmass often push customers to GetOutfitted, but Flores’ goal is to gain clients before they travel – or even when they’re in flight.
“I want to be in a place where anyone in the world can pull out their smartphone and get their gear through us or through our partners on the ground,” said Flores.
To do that, the startup is working on a mobile site to make renting from a phone easier. And it’s ironing out deals with local ski rental shops to stock gear closer to popular destinations.
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