Mark Smith
A social site for people who love camping. Plan and record trips, share with friends, write stories and shop the marketplace.
Tell us about yourself?
25+ years in IT. Serial entrepreneur. Love camping and am working to love the second part of my life.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Buy bitcoin! Seriously…buy bitcoin! Ha, trust your gut.
What problem does your business solve?
Provides great organization for photos and media from camping trips without the drawbacks of other social platforms. Providing an alternative to legacy social sites as a drama platform specific to everyone who loves camping. Plan, store, share, and shop on one platform.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
I took a 3 week car-camping with my boys from Georgia to Glacier National Park. I had to use a mixture for tools to store photos, bog about my trip and find stuff to buy for my trip.
So my love of camping and lack of same capabilities in the market, focused on camping, is what drives my passion for a better solution. We hope you like it too.
What is your magic sauce?
We fill a niche that is not being addressed by a topic centered solution. Yes, we have a great and dedicated team. Yes, we have many years of advanced experience in cloud solutions. Yes, we love what we do. But we also listen. We believe in listening to what the customer wants and quickly incorporate it to provide value fast.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We want to become THE global hub for a camping experience. User acquisition is our immediate focus. We have to get the word out and get people to sign up, building the community that will become the goto site for trip management and information on Camping.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Funding has been the biggest challenge. We’re a boot strapped effort with a single owner. Getting to MVP 1 is challenge because there are bars we must get over just to be entry level. Everyone we talk to thinks it’s a great idea so we press forward.
The hardest though has been the last few weeks. Most of our development team, team members we care about deeply, are in Ukraine. Their dedication and work effort is a model for us all and they deserve special recognition for their perseverance in extreme times.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We need users to subscribe to the FREE service on www.Camping.Tools. If you’re a camper and take pictures, then you’ll find our site valuable. Secondly, once you’re a member write a story about where you’ve been and what you’ve seen.
People love to hear what others have done, especially when it’s fun and adventurous. Lastly, if you have something to sell that’s camping related gear then post it for sale on the marketplace. And TELL ALL OF YOUR CAMPING FRIENDS!!!
