Outdoorsy, the outdoor travel and accommodation marketplace, announced that co-founder Jennifer Young has been named to Inc.’s 2024 Female Founders 250 List.
Young and the other trailblazing female founders including Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan (De Soi), Michelle Zatlyn (Cloudflare) and Hailey Rhode Bieber (Rhode) were selected from a record-breaking number of pioneering and inspirational nominees.
“Being recognized as a top female founder motivates me to continue pushing the boundaries in merging the outdoors and technology,” said Young. “At Outdoorsy, we are building the most holistic outdoor travel marketplace in the world by opening access to our most valuable shared resource: the outdoors. We have only started to scratch the surface of the tremendous opportunity in front of us, to own the $1 trillion outdoor travel market.”
In 2015, burned out by corporate life, fluorescent lights and windowless rooms, Young co-founded Outdoorsy. Her goal? To provide everyone a way to reconnect with what matters most in life: themselves, friends and family, and the wellness benefits of time spent with nature.
“I wanted to restore people’s relationship with the outdoors by building something that was less of a company and more of a community —a purpose and value-driven force for good,” said Young. “By leaning into the sharing economy, we’ve given people life-long memories and helped RV owners enjoy a newfound source of financial freedom.”
Outdoorsy, known by its flagship platform outdoorsy.com, a vibrant marketplace for RVs, camper vans and motorhome rentals, recently added outdoor accommodations and campground offerings. The marketplace is strategically underpinned by Roamly, an insurtech product which provides all the safety and insurance protections needed for outdoor travel.
In June 2023, the company celebrated more than 7 million nights of booked travel and will exceed $3billion in gross revenue in the summer of 2024.
“The past year, for many, will go down as one of the hardest ever — between a funding freeze and ad-spending pull back,” said Inc.’s Executive Editor Diana Ransom. “The female founders on this year’s list are a testament to what triumph over adversity looks like. They should all be proud of this singular accomplishment.”
Outdoorsy provides hosts, thousands of whom are like-minded female entrepreneurs, with the opportunity to combine their passion and interests with starting their first business. While the Total Entrepreneurial Activity rate for women in the U.S. stands at just 15%, Outdoorsy doubles that rate, with 30% of its hosts identifying as women.
“The relationships I have with other female business owners in the outdoor industry have already gifted me with incredible listening and learning opportunities – and it’s a direct result of those candid conversations that I’ve had the courage to build a generational brand in the outdoor space,” Young said. “Approaching year 10 as a founder, I am even more committed to mentoring other aspiring female business leaders.”
Amidst one of the harshest climates for startups seen in 20 years, Young’s leadership focused on building great teams that helped complete the guest journey from booking travel to staying in some of the world’s most epic outdoor destinations.
“Last year we took the bold step to venture beyond a digital-only marketplace to offer physical experiences, debuting Outdoorsy-owned campgrounds in Yosemite, California, Bayfield, Colorado, and a luxury glamping retreat in the Texas Hill Country,” Young said. “The founder’s journey never ends, and I’ve learned that it takes the same humility and hard work to build the next thing as it took to build the first thing. Nothing beats the lessons of building something from the ground up!”
Young joins the ranks of previous honorees including Jessica Alba, Allyson Felix, Eva Longoria, Rebecca Minkoff, Tracee Ellis Ross, Rihanna and Shonda Rhimes.
See the complete list here.
Each year, Inc. editors review thousands of applications highlighting female founders who are challenging the status quo and tackling some of the world’s biggest problems. The list features women who have overcome challenges and lifted those around them, while leading impactful organizations across the country.
