Sharing Economy | Hugh Treseder | Floatspace

Fun on the water starts with Floatspace

Hugh Treseder is the Founder and CEO of Floatspace. Floatspace is a sharing economy business that makes it easy and safe for people to make some money by renting out their boat for charter. These sharing economy businesses are super important as they allow us to make use of those assets that are underutilized - much better we use these “underutilized assets” than buy and invest in more assets that chew up valuable resource and space. Of course, it is also a space that needs insurance so it can function well and safely for all participants.

Hugh grew up about an hour north of London. He describes it as “pretty much in the middle of nowhere” but he was surrounded by fields, rivers and lots of big open spaces. He believes those open spaces drove his love for the outdoors. Growing up he was never content but he loved fishing. So boats, fishing, the water seem tightly connected!

I was lucky enough to talk to Hugh about his journey.

Hugh Treseder - CEO and Founder Floatspace

What gave you the idea for Floatspace?

Typically, people admire boats from afar and associate them with freedom and wealth. The irony is the owners rarely have time to use them themselves. I wanted to provide a platform where boat owners could monetise underutilized assets and provide a quick and easy way for anyone to experience the incredible life on the water. Globally, the addressable market it is estimated at around $58b, with expenditure on charter boats specifically running at about $23bn. Pairing that back a little further, the obtainable market is about $400m over the next 7 years. 

What does Floatspace actually do? What problem does it solve?

Floatspace is an online marketplace that enables people to easily book a boat for any event on the water while offering high volume, automated and efficient funnel of bookings for boat owners. 

When consumers go to google, they are faced with different websites with varying quality, pricing and images. In a typically antiquated industry, customers often find themselves sending and receiving manual quotes and enquiries via email/text messages and phone. This can be confusing, time-consuming and frustrating. Floatspace offers a curated, highly accurate selection on boats based on your criteria, budget and location. Through our own proprietary technology, we offer the consumer a fast and efficient booking process and have rolled out real time availability, live pricing with all variables taken into consideration and automation.

On the supply side, boat owners either don’t have their own website or have a website that cannot be found without significant marketing spend. Floatspace enables them to have a highly efficient funnel of customers looking to book their boats. Marketing reach and industry-first technology promotes them accurately to their desired audience and demographic. Our technology has been built in-house by world class developers and engineers from the likes of Viator and TripAdvisor.

What is your elevator pitch?

Floatspace is an online marketplace to enables people to easily book boats for any event on the water, whether it be a couples overnight stay, birthday, bucks, corporate or wedding. If you have an event in mind, Floatspace is the ‘go to’.

What is unique about Floatspace?

Floatspace has industry-first proprietary technology, a team of experts from the industry and board of advisors/investors developing the who’s who for a startup. Examples of this are Tim Fung from AirTasker, Mike Ford from Siteminder, Rolf Hansen from Amaysim and Adir Shifman from Catapult Sports.

What have you learnt about raising capital?

Raising capital can be an incredibly time-consuming and emotionally draining experience, however if you surround yourself with great people who are well networked, but are willing to put in the hard yards yourself, you certainly stand a far better chance at success. The capital raising in essence is great story-telling, however it is essential to be highly organised and to be able to validate your story with fact and data. 

What do you think Corporates can learn from early stage businesses?

I think corporates are typically very safe environments and therefore hustle and catalyst behaviours are rarely given the fuel to see their true potential. A founder’s life is a far cry from working in a corporate incubator however I am a huge fan of them and think companies such as CBA do this very well. Having worked at CBA prior to Floatspace, I will always speak highly of their culture and values. Much of the time as a founder, you are resource poor and find yourself in cafes searching for free wifi, living a fairly lonely existence. 

Where do Corporates need to improve in working with/supporting early stage businesses?

Corporates that tend to do well in this space are those that embrace and back but don’t smother small businesses and start ups. Instead they learn from them, provide the resources they need and typically get a jump on the competition, having imbedded great founders and early stage businesses in their own. 

Looking back, with what you know now, what would you have done differently?

I’ve now spent five years with Floatspace and it has honestly been the most rewarding yet challenging five years of my life. Many times it has been all consuming and hugely disruptive to home life and taken a massive toll on my mental health. I suppose luckily (for the business) I’m not one to give up easily, in fact I’m not sure I ever could. My advice to anyone looking to start a startup Is simply to do that – start. From there you must have the self-confidence to trust your gut, be a sponge of criticism and feedback and use them as a tool to improve. I think one thing I have managed to do quite well is to surround myself with incredible people. One lesson I have learnt is people who really care about you will rarely tell you what you want to hear; more so what you need to hear.

Where do you see your Floatspace in ten years time?

Realistically in ten years time, Floatspace will have been acquired, yet I would love to think that we presented that organization with the tools and knowhow to be globally recognized as the go to for any event on the water. Much like you Uber a car, you Floatspace a boat. 

Biggest challenge you have faced so far?

Resourcing constraints. One thing that is so important is finding the very best you can get your hands on when it comes to skill set but ensuring they align with your cultural values. The team we have at Floatspace today have integrity, hustle, and align to our own company values – have one another’s back. We are lazer-focused with the customer (on both sides of our marketplace), we have fun and enjoy the ride. 

Example of a good result with Floatspace? 

Where do I start? From a simple flyer drop that led to me meeting Rolf Hansen to exponential growth in sales to looking back (smiling fondly) at the first iteration at our website, first listing, and first bit of press. This journey puts goosebumps on your arms every single day. 

What are the key disruptive forces you see facing the insurance industry?

Much like the Uber story, people will tend to do exactly as they please and I see this as a huge opportunity for the insurance industry - to embrace it rather than fight it. My view is that it is far better to be aware of something, cover it correctly and keep people safe than not. There was a time when renting your house out to a stranger was unimaginable yet today it is the norm. 

What is your focus now? And for the next couple of years? 

Our focus is scalable technology, building key resources and growth based on highly automated, efficient and customer-centric technology. 

What are the one or two lessons/principles/ you carry with you into everything you do?

Trust your gut – it never lies. 

Sleep on emotion.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?

I love the thought of doing a coast house renovation but I am also fascinated by psychology so a combination of studying, hopefully mentoring and some family adventure would be a great place to be. 

How do you balance your personal time and your ‘work’ time?

This has taken a huge toll on my personal life so introducing some simple rules and again your gut will usually tell you when you are stepping out of line. Diet, exercise, mindfulness and focused family time with no devices have had a very positive impact. There are some demons out there that can easily bring a founder to their knees – caffeine, alcohol and never feeling like you are doing enough are three killers.