Meet The Disruptors: Matt Ovenden of Borrow a Boat On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
“Be Bold” — from a former boss who was wishing me on my way as I left a role in his team for a promotion somewhere else. It’s so simple — but is such great advice for both career and life.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Ovenden Founder of Borrow A Boat Group.
Borrow A Boat Group is an international business in the boat rental and yacht charter sector, with multiple brands and a presence in more than 65 countries, operating on a global scale, including in popular sailing destinations such as the UK, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, North America and southeast Asia. A variety of boats are available for rental, which include sailboats, motorboats, riverboats, RIBs, catamarans, gulets, superyachts and luxury yacht charters.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Absolutely! Having been involved in various tech businesses in the past the focus was to launch a user-friendly platform which offered peer- to -peer charter offering boat owners the security in offsetting the costs of owning a boat or yacht coupled with a marketplace that enabled those wishing to rent a boat or charter a yacht an easy hassle-free booking system. I had considered buying a boat, then thought how about renting a boat that was sitting in the marina, resulting in a peer — peer charter economy. As a tech entrepreneur I had identified a missing part of the market where one could browse for a boat in a user-friendly way. Boating has always been a traditional marketplace, so my view was to digitise it enabling a accessibility that had not been seen before
And of which resulted in the launch of Borrow A Boat in 2017.
Borrow A Boat is my 4th business as a tech entrepreneur, previous businesses have included a cleantech consultancy, a wind farm development business, and a specialist eco-island business in the Caribbean. I once worked with Richard Branson on a project to make Necker Island as sustainable and energy efficient as possible, and then worked with him to promote clantech across the Caribbean.
We have since built the UK’s leading boat charter marketplace, now one of the largest in the world, listing over 45,000 boats in more than 65 countries for charter — with everything from a RIB up to a superyacht.
Our purpose is to digitise the boat rental and yacht charter industry worldwide, harnessing technology to make the booking process simpler and easier than ever. Using digital technology to scale the business and become the leading boat charter group in boating worldwide.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
The focus for us was to launch a user-friendly platform which offered peer- to -peer charter giving boat owners the security in offsetting the costs of owning a boat or yacht coupled with a marketplace that enabled those wishing to rent a boat or charter a yacht an easy hassle-free booking system. In a traditional space such as boating the access to such was always via individuals, Now you can go online and search thoroughly in just a few clicks.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I think this one was rather a lesson moreso than funny, however at the very start of Borrow A Boat — we had focused on a peer-to-peer charter platform only (hence the nickname which stuck at the time “the Airbnb of boats”!) we realised that we wanted to enter the market in a fresh capacity and communication was very important in making sure that clients knew exactly what we offered. Our plan wasn’t based on professional charter fleets at the very beginning. But when fleets such as Sunsail and Dream Yacht wanted to list hundreds of their vessels from their commercial charter fleets in one go, we thought — why not!? So, we opened the channel to commercial fleets and have been growing the number of listings ever since, with the number currently running at around 45,000+ in more than 65 countries!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I met Richard Branson when working in one of my previous businesses as I was specifying renewable energy and other cleantech solutions for his home on Necker Island. I had dinner with him there and he was full of support to keep going as an entrepreneur and ignore anyone who tells you that you can’t do it, or it won’t work! I worked on a number of events and summits with Virgin Unite and Carbon War Room subsequently.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I think new companies perceived as “Disruptors” can often be positive for industry sectors. Often, they are just a bit different or operate in a different way to the norm, but this can often bring added benefits to the customer for example, or help the sector overall e.g., a business that moves a traditionally offline business more online — to increase the reach of it and ease of access, which may in turn help it grow. Disrupting can of course go too far — we’ve seen some competitors attempt things such as cutting all middlemen out and removing and up-ending the normal way an industry operates — only to find themselves blacklisted and barred from trading with large chunks of the sector!
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“Be Bold” — from a former boss who was wishing me on my way as I left a role in his team for a promotion somewhere else. It’s so simple — but is such great advice for both career and life.
“Your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life” — Steve Jobs. It was around the time of the iPhone and iPad before Steve died that I was starting my first business — and he was an inspiration to me. He was big on innovation and ideas, which was particularly encouraging when I was thinking about whether to leave the comfort of a safe, salaried position to go it alone on a new idea and business.
“When you’re going through hell — keep going” — Winston Churchill. Perseverance and resilience are absolutely key for some things in life, and certainly there are moments when one has to really take the plunge. Steve Jobs said it as “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful ones is perseverance”
“Life is not a dress rehearsal” — by my Dad! I grew up with boating, travelling a lot and spending time in Spain, and the UK boating. My Dad was a self-made businessman who was living life to the full, and he always used to say as we drove down to the river for late summer evening water skiing together, or early Sunday morning catamaran racing — Life is not a dress rehearsal, it’s happening to you now — you need to live it now!
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Borrow A Boat is certainly not done and won’t be done until we are the biggest and best boating marketplace in the world! Boating should be accessible to all worldwide. Booking a boat for hire should be as easy as booking a rental car, apartment, or train ticket, easily browsable and bookable for anyone online, anywhere — and we are making that happen.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
The Lean Startup was a great read — I found the writer’s story fascinating and very helpful from starting with an MVP and what to focus on and what matters the most in the early days of a business.
Also, Tribes by Seth Godin — and the mantra to “build your tribe”, I believe in making your customers your investors, and your investors your customers… we’ve done that a lot over the years with the abundance of crowdfunding and we’ve engaged boaters to help grow Borrow A Boat. The company has more than 2000 shareholders at the moment — and mostly all boating enthusiasts — our “tribe”!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Get out of your own way” — we are defined by the decisions we make, and that is the case for everything from where we live, who we choose to live with, the clothes we wear, to the job we do. We are in control of all of it — we make our own future by our own choices. Some people seem to think they don’t control these things — but we do, look back and a decision you made somewhere leads to where you are now. It’s empowering to remember we’re fully in control — and that means you’re free to build the life you want — set up the business you want, change the industry sector you want, create the work / life balance you want — it’s all within our power, just start making the decisions and taking the steps, one by one, and see what happens.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I would love to see more people embrace the outdoors and the benefits of an outdoor lifestyle — embrace the planet at the same time — embrace healthy living — for the mental health benefits, the physical health benefits — and the planet’s benefits, including raising awareness of how good it is for you to be in the outdoors, and both how amazing nature and our planet are, and that we need to build sustainability into our thinking both now and in the future.
How can our readers follow you online?
Website: https://www.borrowaboat.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/borrowaboat
Instagram: @borrowaboat
Twitter: @borrowaboat1
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
