On May 1, 2023, Cortina Partners acquired a majority stake in Blacksford RV Rentals, an RV rental company with offices in Bozeman, Montana; Las Vegas, Nevada; and beginning October 1, Phoenix, Arizona. Since the acquisition Blacksford’s revenue has more than tripled and its RV fleet has nearly doubled.
David Greenberg and Becky Goodell, who represent Cortina on Blacksford’s leadership team, have RV travel industry experience as co-founders of AdventureGenie, an AI-based RV trip planning application. Greenberg also serves on the AdventureGenie board. The couple have taken multiple cross country RV trips and bought a 36-foot RV in 2020.
“Blackford’s growth since Cortina acquired the company has been astronomical,” said Becky Goodell, Blacksford’s CEO. “Revenue from reservations from May 2023 through March 2024 was $1.43 million, and the same time period a year before it was $441,000. Reservations in the first quarter of 2024 were 177 versus 77 in 2023, and we have nearly doubled our RV fleet to 60 rigs.”
In addition to revenue and bookings increasing, Blacksford has recently partnered with RVshare, which connects RV renters to RV owners.
“Being part of RVshare’s platform should expand our potential customer universe by at least 50%,” said Jeff Onouye, Blacksford’s general manager and a former vice president of Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Rental reservations now can be booked either on Blacksford’s own website, Outdoorsy or RVshare.
“We will be bringing Blackford’s unique RV rental experience to our third market, Phoenix, in the fall of 2024,” said Bruce Jacobs, Blacksford’s other major owner and co-founder. “The expansion of Blacksford to other cities will continue in 2025 and beyond.”