THE ENTREPRENEUR

IIn 2012, a young entrepreneur named Jaclyn Baumgarten pioneered a boat-sharing startup and peer-to-peer marine insurance policy that would launch a new segment of the boating industry. Now serving as cofounder and chief executive officer of Boatsetter, Baumgarten says she remains committed to breaking down barriers.

Boats and entrepreneurship run in her blood. Baumgarten’s parents were from Chicago, and the family traveled from their Southern California home to Fox Lake, Illinois, for happy summers filled with swimming, boating and watersports.

“That was probably my inspiration,” she reflects. “I had the privilege of being exposed to the lifestyle early on.”

Baumgarten came from three generations of entrepreneurs, raised to be careerdriven and goal-oriented. After graduating from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, she moved to New York to work as a strategy and management consultant for Fortune 1000 companies. Seeking to make a more meaningful impact, she earned an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business, embarked on a successful commercial real estate career and, in the wake of the Great Recession, helped launch Westfield Media Group.

“I gained the confidence, experience, training, and leadership and networking skills I needed to build something new, but I didn’t know what,” she says. “So, I quit.”

After six months of soulsearching, an idea emerged from the swirl of rich childhood memories and conversations with two of her three brothers, both of whom happened to own boats.

“Boats are an incredible asset, but they’re underutilized,” she says. “There’s also a high cost. I wanted to create a marketplace that would make boating accessible to anyone, anywhere.”

One of the most significant challenges was insurance, which excludes rentals or charters unless it’s an expensive commercial policy. Baumgarten set out to find a solution.

“I learned everything I could and wrote a big plan with insurance companies in mind,” she says. “It was a year of pitches, and finally, I convinced an underwriter from the charter industry to work with me on creating a peerto-peer policy.”

In October 2012, the earliest version of what is now Boatsetter was launched. Today, the South Floridabased “Airbnb of boats” offers 20,000 boat listings in more than 600 cities. It wasn’t an easy journey to get there for sure, and Baumgarten notes that entrepreneurship’s high level of risk and uncertainty

“IT WAS A YEAR OF PITCHES, AND FINALLY, I CONVINCED AN UNDERWRITER FROM THE CHARTER INDUSTRY TO WORK WITH ME ON CREATING A PEER-TO-PEER POLICY.”

isn’t for everyone.

“You have to be fearless,” she says. “Extreme tenacity, delusional optimism, fearlessness, and the endless desire to solve problems while never taking no for an answer—without that combo, you won’t succeed because there are so many walls you’re going to run into. You have to be willing to make sacrifices, ranging from your finances to your relationships and even your own wellbeing. The company has to be No. 1.”

To that end, Baumgarten put all of her resources into seed capital for Boatsetter. She didn’t take a salary for two years, and she didn’t take a single weekend off.

“The commitment is fierce,” she notes, “and I do think it’s more challenging for a woman, especially in fundraising. You have to be scrappy and creative, and keep your vision alive.”

She rose to the challenge, executing as many plans as possible without capital. She also worked hard to build strategic partnerships, from the National Marine Manufacturers Association to individual marinas, to demonstrate how Boatsetter would provide benefits to them and help grow the industry. The capital soon flowed.

“Be passionate and unwaveringly focused,” she advises aspiring entrepreneurs. “You must believe your company has to exist in this world.”