#10: Taher Hassonjee (RVshare)

(Disclaimer: AI-Generated)

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Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:00:00]: It was really meaningful because it helped enable financial and economic freedom for this for this person. And, you know, there's other cases of that. Right? We have cases where, you know, somebody bought 1 or 2 RVs Land they're, you know, now small business owners. And we have cases where people have gotten into this professionally Land they're making, you know, 1,000,000. Right? It's, but it's all meaningful. Right? Because fundamentally, you know, we're helping to have people build businesses, and they're successful, and they're doing it by helping people connect with nature and explore their country, which is both exciting things.

Jeffrey Stern [00:00:27]: Let's discover the Cleveland entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are telling the stories of its entrepreneurs and those supporting them. It's Welcome to The Lay of the land podcast where we're exploring what people are building in Cleveland. I'm your host, Jeffrey Stern. And while I'm coming to you from Cleveland, on today's exploration, we are making the trip down to Akron to speak with Taher Hassanjee. So over the last year, many of us have found ourselves geographically confined. ..... And what many people have stumbled upon in this exploration is our VShare, it's Which is have recently closed on $100,000,000 in financing to capitalize on this historical opportunity and has taken the The as the country's leading peer to peer marketplace for recreational vehicles. It's Taher is the director of business development over at RVshare. He's a friend of mine and also one of the sharpest people that I know. Prior to RV share, Tahira worked to jump Stern, and so his Cleveland startup perspective spans both the operational and investing side of The it's Equation. We cover the whole depth of his perspective on this conversation, and I hope you all enjoy. It's Before we dive into the world of RVs, I would love to hear how it is that you came it's The this recreational vehicle world. How is the arc of your career bent to to land you as the director of business development at RVshare?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:02:01]: It's, yeah, it's been a it's been a journey. So, you know, I actually started my career in politics. I was, the deputy finance director for a congressional race. So it was a suburb outside of Philly, it's hotly contested. This is in 2012. Yeah. And we lost. We lost by a lot.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:02:15]: And so there was no job on Capitol Hill waiting for me. So I was, you you know, it comes back to the drawing board in a lot of ways. And, you know, basically my my then girlfriend, now wife, said, like, hey, check out this venture for America thing. It's and so I looked into it more. I thought it was cool and I applied and, somehow they let me in. And through that, I found a firm, based out of Cleveland called it's jump Stern, it's a VC fund and and basically was a good fit. So I packed up my car and drove out and spent 4 years The. But I knew I wanted to be an operator.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:02:43]: So towards the end of that, I was looking for, you know, the right pivot point into, an operating role. And I met the founders of RVshare Land we hit it off. And so it made sense for me to jump ship and and join them to run business development. So that was my entry point in. I mean, I knew literally nothing about RVs going into my role at RV Shop. So it's been a journey.

Jeffrey Stern [00:03:01]: Yeah. Yeah. As you it's Kinda made that jump from the investing world to to the operating world. You know, you mentioned you you had this interest in being an operator. It's What was it that you kind of picked up from from the investment side, and how Lay does that translated into into the operating world?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:03:18]: It's Yeah. So I think The probably the most important

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:03:20]: thing that I picked up was keeping Land eye towards macro kind of trends. Right? And so, so by that, I mean, you know, having an understanding of where we need to go as a company Land letting that drive a lot of the short term decision making. So, you know, I wasn't like always trying to grow just to grow. I was growing with kind of an end in mind of, I know we need to get to x point as a company. And so I think, you know, a more concise and better way of saying that is just focusing on scalable initiatives, right? Which is like, it's great to do things that that work in the short Stern. But I always had this mental it's been going on where I was thinking, okay, but, you know, as an investor, is that something that I would discount the value of? The so, you know, maybe it shouldn't be something we're spending a lot of time on. Land that helped

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:04:00]: me focus myself and and the team.

Jeffrey Stern [00:04:02]: Yeah. Absolutely. So I imagine coming from from jump Stern and and really getting a it's Kind of the ideal bird's eye view of of everything going on in in the Cleveland entrepreneurial scene and adjacent, you know, Akron, obviously. It's What what was the opportunity that that you saw in RVshare? Why why did you make the jump?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:04:20]: So the biggest thing actually was everything seemed to work in spite of kind of it's obvious holes, if that makes sense. Right? And so that a better way of saying that is it's product market fit. Right? So, like, as an example, when I joined, the design of the website was was quite poor. It's right. But in spite of that, like, I looked at the website and I thought The seems like it's shady. And then I saw the numbers and I was like, those aren't shady numbers. Like, it's incredible growth. It's and that made me realize that there was a real market opportunity.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:04:47]: Right? And so so that's kind of what helped me fall in love with RVshare, that in addition to the people. I mean, look, I had a great relationship from day 1 with with Joel Clark, the founder, with with John The, the the then c still the CEO, the incoming CEO at the time. It's so, you know, knowing that I felt really comfortable with them Land then knowing that I saw a huge growth opportunity just based on everything I knew as an investor. Right? Like this was a company I clearly would have wanted to invest in. The made it easy to say, okay, well, I'm going to invest my chunk of my career in this thing too.

Jeffrey Stern [00:05:15]: Yeah. Absolutely. Can you tell us what what RVshare actually is?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:05:19]: Yeah. Yeah. So RVshare is the largest peer to peer RV rental platform. So the simplest way to think about us is we help individual RV owners rent out their RVs to other people that are looking to rent. And, you know, we've scaled up from being purely peer to peer where it's just, you know, a person that bought an RV last month to, to having enterprise clients as well. And so enterprise clients, we look at that as as folks that have RV Slee's professionally managed ones. Those guys are now with us as well renting out through our platform.

Jeffrey Stern [00:05:46]: Nice. Nice. Okay. So I I definitely wanna dive deeper into it's The business of of RV share, but I wanna lay a little bit more groundwork before we do that. And as someone who has never been able to spend any time in an RV, it's I'd love if you could give me kind of a rundown of the basics here, like a proverbial Lay, like, I'm 5 years old, if you will.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:06:06]: Yeah. Yeah. It's so there's 3 classes of drivable RVs, and there's several classes of towable RVs. So I I'm not gonna break down all the towables. We usually look at it as, you know, motor home is the drivable, travel trailer is the towables. And then within the motor home classification, we spend a lot more time on, on the granularity there just because it's, you know, the more sought after The 2 types of units. It's and so on the motor home side, there's basically 3 sizes, a class a. So that's like the giant things that look like a bus that you see on the road.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:06:33]: Mhmm. Then there's class b's. Those are like the almost a Land, Mercedes sprinter van type things that you see. And then there's class c's Land class c's are kind of the hybrid. So those are the ones that seem in between in size. So those are the 3 biggest types of RVs out there. So we have all of those on our platform. We're in every state in the country.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:06:50]: But, you know, what we find is that people love to rent the drivable ones and hit the road and start exploring.

Jeffrey Stern [00:06:57]: Yeah. Who who are those people? What what is kind of the demographic it's Breakdown of of RV owners, of RV renters, of people that that are getting in involved in the space.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:07:06]: Yeah. So most of our customers tend to be family travelers. So we you know, the biggest bulk of the business is folks that are taking a trip with their kids. And, you know, and then beyond that, we obviously have some group of of, you know, older folks that, that, you know, maybe empty nesters The are using this as a chance to finally get out there, Land after years of being tied down by their kids. Land then, and then on the other side of it, we have, you know, sometimes we have younger folks that they don't have kids yet that are that are exploring the country. It's

Jeffrey Stern [00:07:33]: Got it. And where where are people where are people going? What The, like, thought like, what what are people doing in this?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:07:38]: You know, it's funny because the pandemic has, you know, in a lot of ways, it's it's obviously the worst thing ever, right, from a 1000000 different reasons. But for us, it's, it's been interesting to see the ways in which it's changed travel. Right? So as a whole, you know, it's kind of spiked our business. But what we've seen is that The the demographics and the way Land where and places that people travel are different. So pre COVID, it was a lot of people flying out west to explore national parks. Certainly not entirely, but that was a big, big part of the business. After COVID, it's been been a lot of people renting in their home markets and exploring, you know, state parks and national parks that are closer to them, knowing that flying might be a little bit, of a risk. Right? And so we see folks that are it's actually kind of getting back to The roots in a lot of ways with, with getting to know the Lay at the front.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:08:22]: So so that's been cool to see as well.

Jeffrey Stern [00:08:23]: Yeah. Yeah. And we'll we'll get to it's Maybe a deeper dive on the the boons of of COVID for the business with the The really extraordinary fundraise that that you guys had over this last year. But it's Are you worried at all about the headwinds that can come from people returning to normal, less outing, more office based life revolving around it's That instead of, like, more static geography.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:08:48]: No. Not really. I mean, so the way we've always thought about the business is we're trying to make RV a mainstream form of travel. Right? And and we look at that from a lot of ways. The biggest one is awareness. Right? Like, we won't be able to consider and think about our visa as a form of trip The way they may a cruise or a flight or anything else. Right? And so kind of getting into that consideration phase more and more, like we found like, we think that this year accelerated us almost 5 years in terms of the level of awareness. So I'll give you some, like, macro numbers.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:09:17]: Right? Like, you know, we expected to to, stretch goal, we wanted to have about a 1000000 impressions from PR this year, this year of 2020. I mean, and, and what we ended up with was, was over 9,000,000,000. So, it's, so we kind of 9 x our goal there. Right? And I think that speaks to in a lot of ways The fact that RVs are something that people are thinking about far more now than they were it's a year ago. And overall, that's good for business. Right? And, you know, we hope that the world goes back to normal, obviously. But when it does, we expect The RV trips are gonna be something that more and more interesting and exciting to do. Right? And like, I think part of it too for us is seeing that growth, right, of people that took a trip last year.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:09:53]: Those those are all gonna be people that are now more comfortable renting RVs in the future as well.

Jeffrey Stern [00:09:56]: Yeah. So there is a sticky component. Once you've experience The wonders of RVs. You're you are more likely to

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:10:04]: do it again. Sure. I mean, look, in some ways, it's like, you know, the 1st time you do anything, right, there's all these concerns about The challenges that come with it. Right? You know, maybe he's scared to drive it or or whatever else. Right? Do you do

Jeffrey Stern [00:10:14]: you need a special license to drive it?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:10:16]: No. You don't. It's and, like, I look. I've driven the the 40 foot class a's, and I have to say, like, it was very easy to drive

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:10:23]: in my opinion.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:10:24]: Right? But it's biased, but I just I didn't find it at all challenging. And so, but, yeah, Northeast being said, I think what I found is that Land what we found more generally, right, is like is now that friction and fear of renting has gone Lay, right, because they've done it. Right? And they know what worked and what didn't work. They know what to look for in an RV in the future. They know, you know, what what types of trip they might wanna do based on that experience. So we've really opened the gateway for them to take more RV trips, both, you know, literally by providing those units, but then also kind of it's more from a intellectual perspective in terms of once they experience it, now they understand how to do it.

Jeffrey Stern [00:10:56]: Okay. Yeah. This is really helpful, at least for me, to understand The the space a little better.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:11:01]: I think it means you need

Jeffrey Stern [00:11:02]: to take an RV trip soon. I know. You know, obviously, over the last year, it's it's the geographic it's Nature that we've all been in where everything is very static Land

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:11:12]: Yep.

Jeffrey Stern [00:11:12]: You know, change of scenery is it's it's it's appealing. I get I'm not it's surprised that if the goal was a 1000000000, you got 9,000,000,000 impressions.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:11:20]: Yeah. Right. Well, I mean, the other cool thing for us has been, you know, it's been exciting to be able to it's help people make the best of the The times. Right? Like, you know, so if you're working from home, might as well work from an RV. Right? And get a Wi Fi beacon and work from anywhere. Right? It certainly is, is a lot cooler than being pent up in your apartment.

Jeffrey Stern [00:11:39]: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Alright. So before before we dive into to the business itself, I'd love if you could just kind of, you know, Lay out how it is that RVshare got to to where we are today. Yeah.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:11:49]: So I mean, I guess a couple of things on that. So, you know, The, I have to give, you know, all the credit in the world to, to a few people that really are, you know, what propelled us to success Land that, you know, our founders, Mark and Joel. So, you know, The the founding story of the company is that Mark bought an RV for his, for his honeymoon. So he bought an RV and they took a trip across the The. They did like a 30 day or something RV trip. And and then they got back, and and it was just sitting in his driveway. And he didn't know what to do with it, so he tried to rent it out on Craigslist. He tried to rent it out on other platforms.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:12:17]: And what he found was it wasn't easy or even viable to do for a variety of reasons. And and, well, big one was because of insurance, right, amongst other things. Right? So, you know, while your license is valid for for an RV trip, you obviously need to be insured as you do with any vehicle, and often auto insurances don't cover that. So all of that led him thinking, you know, there might be a business here. It's and then, you know, he got together with with a friend, Joel Clark, and another friend, Pat Couch, who's our technical founder. And and together, the 3 of them kind of built up the business, and started making progress and Land and did an incredible job in those early years navigating some of the pitfalls of early stage marketplace, right, particularly around getting high quality supply and then making sure you're able to attract demand to make sure The suppliers stay on your platform. Right? So, you know, fast forward a few years Land, in 2018, we had a a new CEO come in, John Lay, to take over the The. And, you know, he's done a really, really good job navigating the business, particularly through a variety of challenging times to, you know, get us to where we are today.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:13:12]: In John's background, he was the chief revenue officer at VRBO, so, you know, has experience building up marketplaces.

Jeffrey Stern [00:13:18]: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Before it's John came on board. How how is validation of the idea? You know, you mentioned you you ultimately jumped ship because you had of of found that product market fit. You you saw evidence of that. How is it that that you guys got there?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:13:33]: Yeah. So it's funny because, you know, you notice with marketplaces when when something works, you kind of see the buyers and the suppliers it's willing to go through a whole lot of pain to make the transaction happen. Right? And what that shows in a marketplace is that there is a problem, right, that needs to be solved. Right? And problems are what lead to product market fit. And so, you know, in the in the case of our feature, right, what we saw early on right now, I wasn't there for the earliest Lay. It's but what we saw fundamentally was that it's really hard to rent an RV today. Right? It's hard for a variety of reasons, but fundamentally because there isn't that much supply. And even The supply that's there, you know, it isn't The type of booking experience that that you and I might be used to for any product that we we tend to purchase digitally.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:14:15]: And so creating that experience was really critical. And then on the back end, you know, buying an RV is is 2 types of mistake. Right? It's a type of mistake where, you know, you only use it. The average utilization of an RV is about 2 to 3 weeks a year. Right? So The a type of mistake where you we bought an RV, but it doesn't really matter to you as much because, you know, you have the money and the means. Right? Land The cases, you can still rent out your unit, right, and and make some money back. Or the 2nd type of mistake, and this was a lot of our early adopters. Right? The second type of mistake is you bought an RV, and you realize now that you're gonna use it 2 weeks, 3 weeks, maybe even a month a year.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:14:49]: But it's incredibly expensive financially and something that you can't afford. And now you're in this kinda weird cycle where it's like, okay. I have this depreciating asset, it's and have a little limited amount of time to recoup value. And those folks early on were very, very motivated to use our Vshare to to start, you know, cutting a dent into it's what they saw as a big, you know, financial loss for them. And the beauty of our Vshare, especially in those early days and and even now, is it can take that it's spy that was a financial mistake and turn it into something that actually drives revenue. You know, one of the most meaningful moments for me at the company was I was at a conference. It's and this is Stern early days for our VShare, and so, you know, we're disrupting the industry and disrupting, I wouldn't use that word. I would say that we're we're helping to build the industry and we're adding to it.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:15:29]: Right? But all these people thought that we were disrupting it and that they I guess. Right? And somebody comes up to me and says, Lay. You're with our RV show. Right? And I was like, yeah. And he's like, can I talk to you for a second? And I said, sure. And so he said, you know, I'm a security guard at Walmart based out of Portland. It's and, I saw you guys, and I rented out my RV. And I made so much money at my 1st RV that I bought a second one, and I made so much money off The 2 RVs that I quit my job, and now I just manages RVs.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:15:52]: And so I just want to say thank you. Thank you for helping me find my calling. It was really meaningful because it helped enable financial and economic freedom for this it's for this person. And, you know, there's other cases of that. Right? We have cases where it's, you know, somebody bought 1 or 2 RVs Land they're, you know, now small business owners. We have cases where people have gotten into this professionally Land they're making, you know, 1,000,000. Right? But it's all meaningful. Right? Because fundamentally, you know, we're helping to have people build businesses.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:16:17]: They're successful Land they're doing it by helping people connect with nature and explore their country, which is both exciting things.

Jeffrey Stern [00:16:23]: Yeah. Yeah. That's really though a it's Focus on, I feel like, what is one side of the market. And, ultimately, what it seems you've been able to accomplish at The is cracking the 2 sided marketplace chicken and egg problem. So

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:16:37]: it's I love you kind of expand

Jeffrey Stern [00:16:37]: on, you know, how I mean, you mentioned the the kind of time Land efficiency depreciating asset it's Tying in the same usage and efficiency that I think Airbnb has with the physical housing spaces. How is it that you've kind of bridged the it's the Yeah.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:16:52]: The market demand gap. Yeah. Yeah. So on the demand side is interesting. Right? Because we came into a world in which there weren't a whole lot of digital booking experiences. Right? It's and so, you know, at the time, the early days of RV share, there weren't a whole lot of websites where you could book an RV online. And so there was a few of the, you know, kind of mega fleets, right, that were it's very large professionally operated Land you could book some of those, but that's limited. Right? The number of units was limited Land the locations were limited.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:17:17]: The weren't even operating most of them in in the whole country. So you couldn't rent an RV anywhere from The. You know, for us, making a digital purchasing experience and kind of getting into the e commerce of RV rental, if you will, that in of itself was a step forward, whether it's peer to peer or not. And in a lot of times, that's that was what made the difference. Right? Was now they could book an RV easily online in a transparent, it's comfortable, Safeway. Right? Because before it was either you work with some of these mega fleets and maybe that's okay or you're out of options. Right? And, a lot of of smaller RV rental it's operations. Right? The guys that have 10, 20, 50 RVs, there was no digital process.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:17:50]: Right? And so you're looking at things like either going in in The store to book, which doesn't really work if you're traveling to a location at all, it's or alternatively, like, mailing a check, right, which, you know, I don't know about you, but I would never mail a check for any purchase. You know, the comfort level just wasn't there. And so creating a more comfortable environment it was a big, big piece of it. Right? And then you add to that, what does peer to peer do? Well, fundamentally, it unlocks geographic distribution. That was the other piece. Right? Which is, you know, we could get into all 50 states without any physical footprint, and that allowed us to expand, but more importantly, allow us to have RVs that were conveniently located for people. Right? Generally speaking, RVs are located, in places that people either one to go or people already live already. Right.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:18:28]: And so we just kind of made that turnkey and enabled it.

Jeffrey Stern [00:18:31]: Yeah. So there's a really a confluence of factors at play, I think, that have it's built to, you know, the variables that have that have led to RVshare's success. I'm curious, how much do you feel like timing it's The the luck of that has been with the rise of, you know, peer to peer marketplaces and the sharing economy. Like, would this idea have worked 15 years ago, or did you need the same kind of it's Underlying mechanisms of, like, the ubiquity of phones for Uber and, like, the ability to build trust online Land, like, with Airbnb, it's like, would this idea have worked?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:19:03]: Yeah, that's a great question. And look, it's hard to say whether I would have worked 15 years ago. I guess I can just speak to some of those factors, right? So like, you know, mobile is is not as critical for our business as it would be for, an Uber Land not even necessarily as critical as it is for an Airbnb. Right, you know, typically RV rentals are are higher ticket value basket size purchases. And almost definitely, that means that people, especially when it's a transaction they're not familiar with, have some propensity to book those on on laptops of desktops. Right? Some mobiles Lay be a little bit less. But that being said, right, like, there's no question we've benefited from comfort that it has been created by by other peer to peer marketplaces for the sharing economy itself. Right? Now we, as is any business today, built down on the sharing economy concept.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:19:47]: We're beneficiaries of those that came before us. Right? And made that more comfortable to people. Whether that be somebody more recent like an Uber or Lyft or whether it be somebody 20, 30 years ago like PayPal.

Jeffrey Stern [00:19:57]: Yeah. Building on just the sharing economy, do you feel that the and I don't even know the the hard statistics on it, but anecdotally, it it seems there's societally a shift towards less ownership, more buy as you go type of model built on the back of it's These peer to peer marketplaces in the sharing economy. Yep. Is is that something that you think is kind of here as a sticking point, or is it more of a fad?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:20:23]: No. I mean, I think it's a sticking point. Again, I'm a little bit biased. Right? But but fundamentally, right, I think that people are realizing that there's a huge value to fractional ownership, it's, in 2 components. Right? 1, there's an obvious price component to it, but the second one is just operationally. Right? Like, if you own an RV, you have to take care of the maintenance, you have to take care of the management of it. You take care of the storage of it. Like, storage is actually a hard cost for most RV owners.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:20:44]: Right? So, you know, just wipe out all those issues and costs and think, like, Lay. Whenever I need 1, I can just get one. It's and, oh, by the way, I can, you know, get a different kind of RV every time I want to fit my needs. So if it's just me and my wife, I can get a small The. And if it's me and my wife and my kids, I can get a bigger one. Right? Like, having that trunk key optionality makes it incredibly valuable. Right? And so all The to Lay, right, like, I think that things like sharing economy more broadly, but then also within this space specifically are here to Stern, right, the more people realize that it can get them, you know, 90 something percent of the benefits with lower costs, right, you're gonna I see people gravitate towards it. Right? And and like I said, in the case of RVs, it's not even like a 90% benefit rate.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:21:22]: It's like it's like it's actually easier and better to rent than it is to buy in a lot of cases. It's

Jeffrey Stern [00:21:27]: Okay. So so how does RBshare make money? Yeah. We're, you

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:21:30]: know, we're like a lot of peer to peer marketplaces. Right? So we just take a cut of of the transactions

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:21:35]: that take place on our platform.

Jeffrey Stern [00:21:36]: Got it. So in the in the last year, it's come out more recently than that that you guys have closed on over $100,000,000 round. It's It's incredible milestone, but obviously,

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:21:49]: you

Jeffrey Stern [00:21:49]: know, has has, I think, particular gravity here in in Cleveland and Mhmm. And and in Akron and, it's You know, the Cleveland adjacent areas. I'd love if you could just share a bit about the fundraising process and really the Land year of traction.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:22:02]: It's yeah, for sure. Yeah. So, you know, coming off of, the the summer, we had a big summer in 2020. We entered conversations with KKR and and felt like they were a great partner for us to to work with going forward and, and continue to grow the business. So it's it's great to have that sticker price, but I think we're really also excited about what it means for us as a business going forward in terms of growth. And we're really excited to still, you know, get to work with the KKR team, right, who we think are, you know, incredible at what they do and incredibly sharp Land will hopefully help add another level of it's a thought to our business, and our our road map going forward. So all The is is, you know, has been wonderful. I would say just from kind of a regional perspective.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:22:41]: Right? Like, it obviously is is a big chunk of money. Hopefully, it shows that you can build any company anywhere, right, particularly as we go forward.

Jeffrey Stern [00:22:50]: Yeah. Absolutely. Speaking of the future and, you know, the trajectory that that RVshare has, it's What is ultimately the impact 10 years from now? That's the vision for for the company. Are are we talking autonomous RVs? Or, you know, what's the where where are we going?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:23:08]: You know, you'd be surprised how much autonomous RVs come up, when you're talking to folks in the industry. Yeah. Sure would be great. I mean, look, for us, we're not focused on things like putting autonomous RVs. Right? It's you know? And and coming back to the fundraise. Right? Like, it's a big sticker price. Right? But but we view most of that going towards something very, very simple, right, which is growing RV rentals across the country. Like, we still think we are in the early, early innings it's, acquiring and getting RVs to be listed and getting people into them.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:23:36]: So just like a quick anecdotal stat. Right? But, you know, we have over a 100,000 units a platform, which is great. Right? It's a big number. The are 10,000,000 RVs domestically, and so we're only at 1%. So so, again, we're in early innings just of it's The, right, which, you know, we've made a lot of progress. Right? We've we've, you know, done all these things that I talked about. Right? And I'm very proud of our team and everybody at the company for helping us to get to those points. But that being said, right? Like we think that that is the biggest room for growth in our business.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:24:01]: Right? And then beyond that, yeah, I mean, look, we think about other ways in which we can continue to build on what we've done on the RV side, domestically and abroad, as well as, you know, within the vertical. So always exploring those ideas as well.

Jeffrey Stern [00:24:14]: Sure. Sure. So with just, you know, in the ballpark of that 1% capture for the market, how do you think about it's Competition in The space, you know, understanding that Northeast it seems in in the other spaces that maybe have are a little further down the the line Land in terms of development, it's That really it it seems to be a kinda winner takes all, with with these peer peer to peer marketplaces.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:24:38]: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would I would push back on that a little bit. Like, I don't think it's usually winner takes all. It's usually, you know, maybe 2 take all. Right? Or something like that. Right? And so if you look at any of these cases, right, like you have Airbnb and Vrbo. You have Lyft and Uber, right? So you usually have, some kind of duopoly.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:24:53]: Now The being said, right, like, look, we look at our business and think, what are the tactical steps that we can take to grow the business this year and next year and the year beyond that. Right? Like competition be damned. Right? And so as long as we're growing at a a significant clip. We're comfortable with that. And so and we don't spend as much time thinking about maybe competitive threats as other businesses might. And honestly, like, I think that that's something for the Midwest, folks out there, particularly, you know, in in markets where it might be tough to raise capital to keep in mind, which is, you know, if you're able to build a company that is foundationally strong, that's what enables the fundraisers. That's what enables investors to get excited and interested. And by the way, doing that at a at a, you know, easy Land I shouldn't say easy, but kind of a clean clip it is what makes people excited.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:25:33]: Right? And so we weren't raised heavy in terms of our capital raises. We weren't, you know, Stern heavy either. Right? We we did in a fairly lean Lay, but but having really strong fundamentals of the business is what has enabled our growth. It's what enabled the fundraise. It's what enables us to continue to kind of march down the path we're on.

Jeffrey Stern [00:25:49]: Yeah. Absolutely. I like to go on a little bit of a detour and and just talk about Akron for a bit and the the Akron startup space there.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:25:57]: Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:25:58]: Of I mean, most of the folks that I've I've been able to talk to so far have been, you know, very Cleveland specific. But it's To me, kind of having gotten over to Youngstown and and The and the YBI and and all the initiatives going on there, there's a lot going on in The entrepreneurial space in it's In in places around Cleveland, and I think in particular in in Akron. And so I'd love if if you could just kinda give a little bit of an overview of what's going on in Akron.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:26:23]: It's oh, look. A a few things. So I guess, you know, 1, I'll say and I spent 4 years roughly at at Jumpstart. So I, you know, I've been to it's Youngstown will take companies in Akron. I Stern time all all across the state in Columbus Land, into society as well. So, you know, well versed in kind of the startup opportunities, within Ohio. Just specifically on Akron, what I'll say is, you know, we have an office in Austin as well. Up until now, we still have made all of our dev hires in Akron.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:26:48]: And I I say that because, you know, it's it's in some ways a point of pride, right, that that we've been able to it's really attract high quality engineering talent, you know, such that while we have another office and we have employees across the country, myself included, we are still able to keep that operation there, which is kind of an exciting thing. Right. And I think speaks to talent within the region. More it's broadly in in the ecosystem, in in Northeast Ohio region. I think that there's clearly still opportunities. Right? You know, one of the things that is tricky, right, is figuring out how you bridge the gap between the theoretical opportunities and a lot of the, you know, in the flesh it's pieces of business building, that may not be as well developed. Right? And so, you know, in some ways, the increase in remote work is is gonna be as big a boon, I think, to the consistent as anything. Right? Because it'll make it easier for early stage companies in Northeast Ohio and across the state to to raise capital from investors on the coast because, you know, they're just used to doing remote now.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:27:46]: Right? Or more used to it than ever before. So that really helps. I think the 2nd piece that helps is talent The is willing to work from more broad set of places, willing to, work at, you know, different price tags accordingly, it's and then is expecting to work remotely. Right? Where suddenly it doesn't matter quite as much that you aren't able to get just the right sales guy in in Cleveland. And so, you know, having spent time recruiting and hiring in Akron and Cleveland and then spending time doing it in Stern, and then, you know, now doing it in a more national basis. I'll tell you. Right? Like, it sure does make it easier when you broaden that pool. And so hopefully that's something that that, entrepreneurs and business builders in in Ohio will be able to take Lay advantage of as well.

Jeffrey Stern [00:28:26]: Yeah. You know, having initially wanted to switch from the investing side to the operator side and and building it's With that having been your kind of initial drive and intent, what have you learned having made that jump that that you didn't see of?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:28:42]: It's yeah. Well, look. I think that I was really, really lucky, to be able to start in the investing world and move over. Mhmm. You know, people ask me, like, how did you do it? Like the honest answers. I just got lucky, right? Like I found Jumpstart, through VFA. That was kind of lucky. I found VFA through, you know, my girlfriend.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:28:59]: That was lucky. It's and The I'm really always will be grateful for for Jerry, at Jumpstart and and others for taking a chance on me when there was no real reason to. I mean, I didn't know a whole lot coming in the door, you know, hopefully I knew a little bit more by the end of it. But all of that, right, I credit to other people. What I will say is making the transition over once you've been an investor. I think the important thing is to know what you do know and be very open about the fact that there's a lot of things you don't know. Right? And that'll help make the transition easier because it's going into it. Right? Like, I knew about a lot of things theoretically.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:29:30]: Right? Product development to sales, to marketing, to it's just the cultural operations of the company. Like, I knew about it theoretically, but but it's not the same as being there day to day. Right? And so coming in with, you know, a sense of what you do know, right, which is The types of steps that companies need to take to be successful, you know, and that hopefully does translate over. And then reconciling that with the fact that, you know, you might be a little fuzzy on the tactics, and you're gonna have to learn there. Right? Reconcile The 2 things, I think, is helpful. And then I think coming in with enough humility to kind of roll up your sleeves and do whatever is important. You know, I always remember that early on in my my time at RVshare, you know, building out one of our sales teams. And and I realized, like, I never really sold anything.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:30:08]: Right, so I was in this more senior role building out a team. I I realized, like, I haven't sold anything until I do. Like, this is not gonna work. And so I picked up the phone Land I started calling. Right? And I sold a few customers. Right? I was able to land, you know, a few big ones The gave me some, you know, confidence in my own abilities, but it also helped me to coach up our team and help me to hire the right people Land hopefully helped them to, you know, want to work with me more. So I think those are the types of things that you just have to do if you're gonna make the transition.

Jeffrey Stern [00:30:32]: Yeah. It certainly requires a a level of adaptability and and humility, at least in my experience as well.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:30:39]: Yeah. Right. Yeah. You've been through too.

Jeffrey Stern [00:30:40]: It's Yep. Yep. It's a constant humbling process.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:30:44]: Yeah. And, look, that's the thing that's funny about, you know, Stern ups in general, right, is it it's all humbling. Right? Like, you can be, you know, as successful as, you know, your boss. Right? And when you start on day 1, like, at the new company, like, you're still a founder running a very small company. Right? Like, it's all the street cred and everything else goes out the window for, for those customers. They don't really care.

Jeffrey Stern [00:31:02]: Yeah. Yeah. That resonates quite a bit. So having it's Spent this this time at at RVshare prior at jump start. Before we we get into just some Cleveland specific questions, I guess I've found that there's a little bit of a a disconnect. Maybe that's not the right word. But between the Cleveland and and adjacent spaces, it's In your mind, is there like, what's the opportunity to tie together, you know, Akron and and Cleveland more more tangibly in in terms of, like, the Stern up ecosystems it's Given that, I think, like, together as a combined entity resource, given our relative sizes from the get go, that it's That would, you know, probably be beneficial for us to to have.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:31:46]: Yeah. I mean, look, it's it's one of the weirdest things as an outsider. Right? Like, I'm from the East Coast, as you are. Right? Like, I, you know, I came to Cleveland to to work at Jumpstart. Jumpstart was, you know, big and trying to pull together the region. Right? So I spent time in Akron then as well. It's and just seeing the video disconnect between the communities was shocking to me. In some ways, the the animosity was was shocking.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:32:07]: Right? Because if you're in New York or San Francisco or wherever else. Forget Cleveland and Akron. You think of Ohio as the whole like, as the same thing. You think of the Midwest almost as the same I think. Right? The the idea that there's a distinction in any level of, of lack of cooperation between 2 places that are 45 minutes apart it's crazy. Right? Like, it's just crazy. It's it's not a way to succeed at all. Right?

Jeffrey Stern [00:32:28]: The a tyranny of small differences.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:32:30]: Exactly. Right? And so, like, you know, it's The. Right? It really is. It's and, and we at at, RV show looked at hiring within the region. We even look at it as Akron versus Cleveland. We looked at it as anybody that can drive to us in an hour or not. Right? And that included everybody. Right? If you live in Youngstown.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:32:46]: Right? Like, that would be fine too. Right? In fact, we have people that are not quite Youngstown, but but out it's always. Right? It's all of same. Right? And that, you know, it's either you're here or you're not. Right? I think that's the right philosophy. Right? Especially when you're looking to bring together the community. Right? Land so we have plenty of people it's at, RV show that work in Cleveland and right down at the office. I myself, when I was based in Cleveland, and I never moved to Akron, I used to just drive down.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:33:06]: Took me, like, 30 minutes in the mornings. Right? Reverse commute. It's so I think that oneness is important. Right? Which is like, you know, you're in it together. Right? There isn't this real distinction. Right? And and the more people recently see that, the better. Mhmm. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:33:19]: Yeah. Do you see yourself ever ever coming back to the world of investing?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:33:23]: Yeah. You know, I'm having a lot of fun on the other side of the table. Obviously probably having more fun, all things considered. So, you know, never say never, but no Land to do it as my full time gig in the near future. You know, I am excited about, you know, getting involved as an advisor Land investor it's turned to companies on the side, but no plans in the near future to be a full time investor anytime soon.

Jeffrey Stern [00:33:42]: Alright. So one of the kind of uniform and closing questions that we're asking everyone is not necessarily your favorite thing in Cleveland, but your favorite hidden gem in Cleveland.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:33:54]: Favorite hidden gem in Cleveland. That's a good one. Well, you know, the the easy answer, the one that I think most people might Lay, so I, I might need to come up with another one, but, but for sure, it's Mitchell's.

Jeffrey Stern [00:34:05]: Oh, yeah. No one has said Mitchell's yet. The Okay.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:34:08]: No one said Mitchell's yet? Okay. There. Yes. It's yeah. So, I mean, look, I think The, Mitchell's is as good ice cream as I've ever had in my life anywhere. It's, so so, you know, one thing like, that's probably the thing I miss the most on a day to day basis. And, you know, it's funny because, like, you get Jenny's, like, on the East Coast and and all over the place distributed. It's but there's no question my mind Mitchell's is better.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:34:29]: So I really wish that it was available at, you know, my local whole Whole Foods.

Jeffrey Stern [00:34:33]: Yep. I, it's I'm glad you brought that up. I'm gonna have some ice cream after this.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:34:39]: Jealous. Yeah. I wish I could get some too.

Jeffrey Stern [00:34:41]: Yeah. Only in Cleveland.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:34:43]: It's, yeah, only Cleveland. It's funny. The ice cream is one of those things you can't ship either. Right? So it's like either you're back in Cleveland, you can get in, or you're not.

Jeffrey Stern [00:34:49]: Yeah. Yeah. It's Awesome. Well, if anyone has any any questions or or things that they would like to to follow-up with you about, where's the best place for for them to find you?

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:34:58]: It's yeah. You know, you can always find me, on LinkedIn or ping me on Twitter. I'm happy to respond to anybody in in Northeast Ohio or or anywhere really Land help them any way I can it's with what little knowledge I've gained over the past few years. But, yeah. So my my Twitter handle is attahassonjee, The j s s o n j e e. It's tricky last name, but, you know, happy to, to help any way I Land. Or honestly, if you just go to RVshare, you'll find me.

Jeffrey Stern [00:35:23]: Awesome. Really appreciate you you coming on, Terrence. It's I think the work and and and progress you guys have at at RVshare is is really exciting for for the space and obviously for for the company. So congratulations it's

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:35:36]: on the

Jeffrey Stern [00:35:36]: raise Land yeah. I really appreciate you coming on today.

Taher Hassonjee (RVshare) [00:35:38]: Yeah. Likewise. Thanks for asking me. This has been fun. I appreciate the opportunity to be on.