If you want to book a flight or order a pizza, there are numerous apps out there competing for your business.
But when Jonathan Newar tried to find a chartered fishing trip, he had no such luck.
Newar had pitched the idea of a fishing charter in Galveston to his co-workers in 2018 and was subsequently put in charge of booking the trip.
After spending way too much time searching outdated websites and playing phone tag with guides, he eventually went to Galveston, talked to fishing guides and asked them to join a website that would increase their online visibility.
Newar then moved to Austin, where he met Attison Barnes. In 2020, they launched Captain Experiences, a platform that allows fishing enthusiasts to connect with fishing guides in Texas, Florida and other angling hotspots.
On Tuesday, the startup announced it has received $2 million from Looking Glass Capital with participation from Andrew Chen at Andreessen Horowitz, Goodwater Capital, Packy McCormick of Not Boring Capital, Correlation Ventures, Capital Factory, Psion, WSGR, actor Oliver Hudson and others.
The fishing guide directory is mostly focused on salt water fishing in the southeastern U.S., but the website also features fishing guides from Hawaii, Alaska and Montana. The company plans to expand to the coasts, the Great Lakes and other fishing locales in the future.
Eventually, the company plans to broaden its focus to include other forms of outdoor recreation, such as hunting, hiking, rafting, rock climbing and mountain biking.
Captain Experiences has attracted more than 700 guides, who agree to pay commission to Captain Experiences in exchange for any guided trips booked on its platform.
In return, the guides are finding new customers with the Captain Experiences platform. Some of them have Facebook pages that are hard to find, while others are still advertising through pamphlets at restaurants and airports.
The company also asks guides to send weekly fishing reports, photos and videos, which are then put on the Captain website to show users what fishing guides are catching in each area.
Captain currently employs five people, but Newar plans to expand the company’s headcount to 15 people this year. Most of the new hires will be in marketing and engineering, he said.
