Two Danish engineers and recreational fishing enthusiasts have created a unique platform, which makes the booking of fishing trips on board of fishing vessels in Denmark a breeze.
Fishtrip is a unique booking platform for fishing trips in Denmark. Fishtrip simplifies the process of booking a trip by giving people, an easy overview of the available choices and the ability to book and pay for their trip. Instead of having to contact every single fishing vessel to find one that is available, you simply go Fishtrip.co and save a lot of your precious time off.
500.000 anglers in Denmark
It can be hard to book a trip on board of a fishing vessel in Denmark, because many of the fishing vessels have no website and are very old-fashioned, making it hard to know what vessels are available. Rasmus Dahl experienced this himself, when he wanted to book a trip on board of one of the local fishing vessels.
“After calling many different vessels and being told that they were all fully booked, I realized that there had to be a way of improving this experience. There are 500.000 anglers in Denmark alone, so I figured that I shared this experience with many other anglers,” explained Rasmus Dahl, CEO and Co-founder of Fishtrip.
Rasmus Dahl had already quit his job because he was working on another startup, AudioSense, an application protecting your ears from hearing loss when listening to music from headphones. He met Philip Randgaard at an event, who was working as a freelance programmer, where they started discussing their jobs and hobbies.
“I began talking about my idea for Fishtrip, and Philip were very interested in the possibilities of the idea. We teamed up and together we created the concept behind Fishtrip,” said Rasmus Dahl.
Bringing the fishing vessels into the digital world
When Rasmus and Philip went to talk to some of the Danish fishing vessels, they realized that more than 50 percent of the vessels had no presence online and that only two vessels had any form of online booking. They also found out that most of them still did all their business with pen and paper.
“Fishtrip is not only easing the booking process for anglers, it also allows fishing vessels to manage their business online, freeing them from building their own websites and booking systems.” – Philip Randgaard, CTO and Co-Founder of Fishtrip.
Rasmus and Philip had a hard time convincing the fishing vessels to join them, because they all had a very old-fashioned mindset. They managed to convinced them, through good dialog and themselves being fishing,
The fact that Fishtrip is also free also played a role, in persuading the fishing vessels. It cost nothing for them to sign up to Fishtrip, and they only pay a small percentage of their sales.
Big potential
The team behind Fishtrip believes that there is a big potential in the recreational fishing market. It is on purpose that they have started with focus on Danish fishing vessels. They wanted to get the idea going as fast as possible.
Fishtrip has many plans for the future of the startup, with the vision of becoming the central hub for all recreational fishers in the world. They already planning to expand to Germany, Norway and Sweden, because the recreational fishing culture is very similar in these countries, making them ideal as the first markets to expand too
“We want to act as the central hub, for all anglers and associated service providers. Whether you want to book a fishing trip in Brazil or rent a cabin in Norway, Fishtrip is the place to start, ” declared Philip Randgaard.
Launching on a ferry
Fishtrip took the first prize in Venture Cup’s Idea competition in January, where they won DKK 25,000 and got a lot of training in pitching their idea as well as some priceless feedback.
“It was amazing to win the contest. We got some great feedback, and really appreciated the pitch training, the honor of winning and of course the prize money,” laughed Rasmus Dahl.
Fishtrip is currently still in beta, but will be launching April 9. Rasmus and Philip have rented a ferry, and are inviting people to join them in celebrating the launch of Fishtrip. One of the prominent guests is Danish health minister, Dan Jørgensenen and, which is going to open the event and say a few words.
“We look forward to launching our platform and will constantly continue to accommodate the industries’ needs, ” stated Philip Randgaard.
If you are interested in joining Fishtrip at their launch event, then check out their Facebook with more information about the event.