They say that “necessity” is the mother of invention. If that’s true, then”frustration” comes in close second. OBO is certainly a product of the latter.
Our co-founders have a long history of striking out on fishing and hunting adventures. From the Florida Keys to the Alaskan wilderness, we have done a little bit of everything. We’ve also discovered that not every excursion has to be a grand adventure– sometimes we can find our pursuits in our own backyard.
If you’re an outdoorsman and have found yourself here, you are probably familiar with the rigamarole that is trip planning. Where to go? What to do? How to do it? Where to stay? These are the woes of the modern outdoorsman. We live in a time where information is instantly accessible, yet planning even a weekend pursuit still seems out of grasp. Weeks of research, planning, and plotting go into the smallest trip. Once you’ve decided on the where, what, and how, you still need to find a place to stay.
After years of planning our own trips, we decided to change the way that people plan, book, and experience hunting and fishing activities.
The final straw came after a particularly frustrating recent adventure hunting waterfowl on the Florida coast. We’d had a little experience in the area and a general plan of attack, but we got hung-up trying to find a rental property that: had a dock with deep water, was near the hunting grounds, was dog friendly, and had enough room for 8 hunters, their gear, and maybe a cooler of cold beer.
After scouting through umpteen listings, rough-estimating map distances to spots and boat ramps, and so on, we finally found a suitable listing on a short-term rental platform. The house was great (as advertised) but the dock had no water access on a low tide\north wind. This type of information would have been nice to know in advance.
“What if we listed properties according to their outdoor opportunities, instead of their proximity to beaches and restaurants?” This was the original question that led to OBO’s creation. But we didn’t stop there. We decided that if we were going to change the way properties are characterized on listing platforms, we might as well go ahead and re-craft the foundation of how hunting and fishing trips are booked in the 21st century. So we crafted a one stop shop for access to information, curated experiences, and hunt\fish lodging, whether your next adventure is 10 miles from home or 10,000.
After creating our platform and community framework, we realized that we were still missing something. We needed to use the OBO platform as a catalyst for the protection of our precious natural resources. So we decided to partner with some strategic conservation minded companies and donate a portion of our proceeds to conservation efforts.
So that’s us: we’re doing nothing short of revolutionizing the way that outdoorsmen plan and execute their pursuits, and we’re trying to help protect our natural resources along the way.
We hope you support our mission and enjoy the platform!