Beachy app brings the experience to your piece of sand

NASHVILLE — At first the idea of a beach gear delivery app seemed too niche, not really a big problem to solve.

But on family beach vacations, Matt Houston began to give more thought to the concept that his friend David Stange had pitched him as a business idea. With a 3-year-old child on one arm and a load of beach gear to carry, Houston struggled to get onto the sand and enjoy the trips he and his wife looked forward to taking.

An app that could deliver chairs, drinks, food and boogie boards to them on the beach sounded more promising, now that he had experienced the logistical hassle firsthand. So Houston and Stange began building the company, Beachy, as they developed relationships with Florida resorts.

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Beachy allows vacationers to order beer, water bottles, food, surfboards and other water equipment to their chairs through a beach attendant or directly through the app, freeing them to enjoy the beach experience. One year after launching, the company is making significant traction in the Panama City, Fla., area, with more than 50 resorts signed.

“People who do the beach, they experience this problem every single time,” Houston said. “They are on vacation, so it’s not something they really bring back home and complain about a lot. But it’s definitely something that whenever you mention what you are doing, they grasp on.”

Beachy works with resorts and property managers and already established beach service vendors, who gain access to an additional revenue stream through the app. Just like with a food delivery service, the consumer pays a fee for delivery, which is 7.5 percent if they order directly through the app or 1 percent if they order through a beach attendant.

In addition to providing on-demand beach gear, Beachy allows customers to sign up for beach activities — helicopter rides or dolphin swims — through the app.

Houston said the convenience benefits are especially attractive to parents with young kids who are less mobile once they get to the beach. The company has targeted women and those in the 25-40-year-old demographic.

Beachy raised $400,000 in 2015 and is working on a $2 million round. Houston said the company is expanding to the St. Petersburg, Fla., beach area in the coming months.

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“Our growth has actually been more explosive than we expected,” he said. “If there was one mistake I’ve made as CEO, it was telling our sales guy to go to eight different resorts and pitch them on it because all eight came back and said they wanted to do it, when we were expecting to get one or two.”

Houston is new to the beach market, but this is not his first company. While studying biomedical engineering as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, he was an event promoter and a research analyst who worked on a take-home HIV test. He invested some of his earnings in Limelight Entertainment Venue near Nissan Stadium and later launched an event company called Motif.

Beachy’s Chief Technology Officer Josh Aronson came from Dell, Change Healthcare and Airbnb. He leads a team of seven developers, three of whom live in Nashville.

Stange worked at Destin, Fla., beach resorts as a teenager and during college, an experience that planted the idea for the app when mobile technology took off. He and Houston met through the events business, where Houston was immediately impressed with his sales abilities.

The 10-person Beachy team is working on a direct-to-consumer model that would allow beachgoers to order goods without going through a vendor service or resort. They will also be able to summon food and gear to a private house, a service already available in Pensacola, Fla.

Eventually, Beachy wants to add delivery options beyond beach gear that will streamline an entire vacation, such as filling orders on groceries, liquor and meals. That way, instead of spending the first part of vacation shopping for food and drinks, consumers can begin enjoying their trip.

“This is the time for you to relax,” Houston said. “You look forward to this week the entire year. You really need to kick back.”

Follow Jamie McGee on Twitter: @JamieMcGee_.