Having your perfect quiver, your collection of surfboards to have the right board for the right conditions is a never-ending quest. You can also check out his hands-on startup blog HERE. Be sure to stay connected on Instagram we share big news first. I will mention that you will soon see larger board brand partnerships, demo programs, and even new categories and types of listings on The Quiver that are aligned with our mission. Wilson: We have quite a few huge announcements coming up that I’m not ready to share just yet. Greathouse: What’s next for The Quiver? Do you plan to expand to the rental of related equipment? Our partner program will include some of the most trusted industry names and established shapers, companies and shops in the mix. We’re getting ready to announce our partner program that includes board demos and other ways to connect and tap into our surf-obsessed community. We’ve received a ton of interest since the relaunch from shops and (surfboard) shapers who want to get involved. What’s the mix of folks who submit boards for rentals, between individuals and surf shops? I would assume surf shops would see The Quiver as a way to bring in foot traffic and make some incremental revenue on their refurbished inventory.

Greathouse: The Mentawai Islands – never heard of them but sounds like a spot I should visit. For example, if a surfer is going to a location where we don’t have a board available, we will reach out to our connections in the surfing community and find them a board. The Quiver also serves as a surfboard concierge. We’ve recently had new listings in Barcelona, Portugal, Japan, and the Mentawai Islands to name a few. Wilson: Our roll-out philosophy was “think big.” The mindset has always been to make a global impact and we designed the platform accordingly. How do, or did, you address this issue of ensuring that there are enough boards in a particular market so that to satisfy renters’ demands? Greathouse: Most successful, two-sided markets are rolled out regionally, to ensure that each local market will have a critical mass of “buyers and sellers” – both Uber and Airbnb took this incremental approach. Our overall mission is to make surfboards more accessible and to bring people together. This is what really gets us excited and motivates us to build the best and most trusted online community for renting surfboards.

Like other sharing economy marketplaces, we’ve also heard stories of friendships starting with a Quiver rental and people becoming travel buddies for surf trips, strike missions, and so on. We have thousands of boards listed, with an even larger community of users that are searching the marketplace to plan their next rental. Wilson: So, we don't share the exact number of bookings, but The Quiver has enabled a global board-sharing community. How many boards do you have available? What sort of uptick have you seen with the launch of the new site? Greathouse: Two-sided markets are hard to pull off. I couldn’t be more proud of the new and improved The Quiver marketplace. This is everything from new branding, to the user experience and even new and improved core functionality that we’ve added. After a few years of understanding how surfers were using The Quiver, what features were most important to them, and other feedback from our community, we totally redesigned our marketplace. Wilson: We actually have a totally new look and feel to our marketplace that you’ll notice. How has your business model changed – why are you confident that the idea take off this time around? Greathouse: The Quiver has been around for a while now. Surfers are using The Quiver to demo a board before buying it and trying out unique boards listed on the marketplace.

It’s not just about renting a board while traveling either. What was once an idea, and need we both knew existed, has now turned into a marketplace where surfers are renting out their spare boards in over twenty countries. We shared the realization that there needed to be a marketplace to rent boards and fast forward to today - we've partnered up and I'm leading the big relaunch of The Quiver. He then started thinking about how nice it would be to demo a board before actually sinking money into buying one. My partner Rob Bonvetti originally came up with the idea, when he was in the market for a new board and researching options online.

Quiver meaning surf