Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Jacobsen.
Mike, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It was May 2015 and the Golden State Warriors were closing in on their first title in 40 years. I left my home in Walnut Creek, CA for a business trip to Bradenton Florida just south of Tampa. I was in Florida for a week doing some training with other new hires from around the country. After wrapping up a short training day I gathered with a small group of peers and the talk of playing some golf came up. I never say no to golf so we packed in the cars and headed to a local course. It was raining a bit like it does in Florida as we pulled into the parking lot.
As we paid for our round of golf, rental clubs were offered to everyone and we all took advantage as nobody thought to bring their own. It then occurred to me and the others, we didn’t have golf shoes and it was going to be slippery out there. There was only one option which meant purchasing golf shoes from the pro shop which were way more expensive than a golf store and let’s face it, I have 4 pairs at home. It was in that moment as I surveyed the many homes surrounding the course, I wondered, is there someone living here that would rent me a pair?
After returning home I pitched the idea to a mentor of mine while we played a round of golf back home.
“What if I created an Airbnb for stuff in my house?”
The concept was well received by my mentor and the deep research began. There was a company in Europe doing this but it seemed like there was a lot of room to improve the model and launch domestically. I started work on the project immediately and had logos and a business plan in 1 month. I raised money from friends and family which at first I thought would be a piece of cake but raising money is never easy.
After raising 60k from friends, I started development and decided to sell my home and go full time. I chose San Diego as my new city based on the quality of life, cost of living and let’s face it San Diego is bad ass. I love the beach, riding dirtbikes in the desert and my girlfriend was willing to jump so I did it. After 39 years in the Bay Area, I had seen it change a lot and it wasn’t as shiny for me anymore. I moved down without a new place and a trailer full of stuff. My 1st fail was deciding to drive overnight pulling a box trailer behind the Grand Cherokee while my boxer dog slept amidst the packed Jeep. I arrived in Los Angeles just in time for the morning commute and navigation decided to send me on 7 different freeways rather than straight down the 5. That trip sucked really bad.
I pulled into my friend’s house in Encinitas and set up an air mattress for a week while I found a rental. Luckily I soon found a nice place with a yard for the dog in Serra Mesa and we got settled in. I made an investment of my own into the company of 180k which was part of the proceeds from my home sale. We were now on our way to having a finished product come through our dev team in a few short months. I outsourced the dev to a firm out of San Francisco and in whole they had the project for 8 months before I brought the dev in house. I had met some amazing people in the first few months by hitting Meetups, Co-Founder dating through Co-Founderslab and hitting the streets.
The team pushed the product to potential users and investors but nothing was really getting traction. It’s then we started really listening to the problems rather than focusing on the solution for a marketplace that was too big to get our teeth into with our small budget. It was then that our pivot began to take place. I was approached by Matt Feely and Ryan Anderson from Seattle about a possible partnership. Matt and Ryan had conceptualized what I was working on but I had beat them to it by about 18 months. I took a trip up to Seattle and we signed a deal to join forces. The guys had lots of experience with mobile user acquisition and that was one of our missing links.
As Matt and Ryan were learning the ropes remotely, I was traveling again and witnessed a family lug all of their child gear which included Ipads, strollers, stuffed animals, etc through an airport. I thought to myself, why can’t their Airbnb host provide those items. That’s right, throw your kids over your shoulder and leave all the gear at home. The research started all over again as I headed into my Survey Monkey account and sought out feedback from Airbnb users. Along with survey feedback, I started Airbnb’ing a room out of my own house and joined every group I could find related to Short Term Rentals. I even started my own Meetup which grew like a weed as finding additional money hidden between the cracks of short-term renting was a popular topic.
Our product required about 3 months of enhancement and while dev worked on that I received an email from Arean van Veelen who I had reached out to months earlier. Arean is the Co-Founder of Offer up which has a recent valuation of $1 Billion+. We scheduled a meeting in San Francisco and hit it off. The next step was to get him onboard as an advisor to our business and our new model. Coincidentally Arean lives in Seattle and he was able to meet Matt and Ryan before excepting our offer. This brings us to today, we have completed 2 Tech Incubators, have 8 employees and a very focused market to conquer.
As we speak there is a pilot cohort testing our app with their Short Term Rental guests. It has been 2.5 years since the concept was created and 2 years full time for me without a hint of paycheck but it’s all worth it. Regardless of the outcome, I would not have done anything differently. The goal is to learn along the way and be persistent.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Along the way, there are pieces that might not fit and need to be cut. Sometimes it’s a person you cut, sometimes it’s the product.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with It’s Borrowed – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
It’s Borrowed is a mobile app for Hosts of Short Term Rentals to rent customized amenities like Bicycles, Surfboards, Games and Child gear to their guests. This is all new and we are pioneering in this space.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Next up for us is an institutional funding round. We have been holding off on entertaining some of these conversations but there are a few at the top of our list that have we are scheduling with. I am looking forward to a good entry into our space and a quick transition to the grow, grow, grow phase.
Pricing:
- The Hosts set their own price for the items and It’s Borrowed receives 20% of the profits
- We ensure the items against loss or damage up to $500 per item.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.itsborrowed.com/str/
- Email: info@itsborrowed.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its_borrowed/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsborrowed/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/itsborrowedapp
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