What Captain Experiences does

Captain Experiences, Inc. is a privately held digital marketplace headquartered in Austin, Texas, that connects individual outdoor recreation consumers with vetted, independent guides for fishing, hunting, and broader eco/adventure experiences. Founded in 2019–2020 by Jonathan Newar and Attison Barnes, the company began as a Texas-focused fishing-charter booking platform and has since expanded into hunting, eco tours, sunset cruises, scuba, and other outdoor activities, with a guide network that grew from roughly 700 (2022) to over 1,200 (2023) to 2,900+ vetted guides (2025) across the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Tanzania.

The platform is a self-serve, product-led marketplace with search and filter by location, species, trip type, group size, duration, and price; structured guide profiles with verified reviews; a "Damn Good Guides" quality certification based on review scores, responsiveness, and low cancellation rates; a 100% weather guarantee with automated rescheduling; cashless auto-pay (deposit at booking, balance via boarding-pass scan on trip day); and 24/7 US-based customer support. Marketing is built on an SEO/content engine (location-specific fishing reports, species guides, seasonal content, and a 35,000+ subscriber email newsletter), an affiliate program, earned media in Forbes, USA Today, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, and Texas Monthly, and a national ad campaign launched in February 2025.

The business model is a marketplace commission: Captain Experiences takes a transaction fee on each booking between consumer and guide, with the take rate not publicly disclosed. Pricing is set by individual guides; customers pay a deposit at booking and the balance on the day of the trip, and the company recommends a 20% guide tip. Revenue is supplemented indirectly by media partnerships and over 10% of profits are donated to conservation partners annually. The company is venture-backed, with cumulative disclosed funding of approximately $6.1 million across a 2022 seed round led by Looking Glass Capital with Andreessen Horowitz and others, a March 2023 seed led by Bullish, and a November 2024 $1.5 million media-capital investment from Mercurius Media Capital.

Name

Captain Experiences

Legal name

Captain Experiences, Inc.

Website

https://captainexperiences.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Captain Experiences is an Austin-based digital marketplace that connects individual anglers, hunters, and outdoor enthusiasts with 2,900+ vetted local guides across the U.S. and international destinations, earning revenue via a transaction-fee commission on bookings of fishing, hunting, and eco-tour trips.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Outdoor Recreation Marketplace

NAICS

Tour Operators (561520), Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water (48721)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900), Water Transportation (4400)

akta.pro primary industry

Shore Excursion Operators (Tours & Activities) (THAEAFAC)

Keywords

• Outdoor recreation marketplace
• Fishing charter booking
• Hunting guide platform
• Guided eco tours
• Vetted outdoor guides

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Marketplace Commission: Platform facilitates bookings between customers and guides, taking a commission on each transaction. Customers pay a deposit at booking and the balance on the day of the trip.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Captain Experiences operates a digital marketplace that connects individual outdoor sports enthusiasts with a network of 2,900+ vetted independent guides offering fishing charters, guided hunting trips, and eco/sightseeing tours across the U.S. and select international destinations. Customers self-serve search, compare, and book trips directly with guides; the platform takes a commission on each transaction, manages deposits and balance payments via cashless auto-pay, and provides a 100% Weather Guarantee and 24/7 customer support.

Product overview

Captain Experiences is a digital marketplace for booking outdoor sports guides, primarily focusing on fishing charters and hunting trips across North America and beyond. The platform operates through a network of 2,900+ vetted 'Damn Good Guides' offering fishing trips (inshore, deep sea, fly fishing, flats, etc.), hunting trips (duck, dove, turkey, big game, etc.), and eco tours (sunset cruises, dolphin watching, etc.). The core offering combines a search and booking marketplace with quality certifications, a weather guarantee, and 24/7 customer support. The company expanded from its initial fishing focus to include hunting and eco experiences, now operating across dozens of US destinations and international locations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Damn Good Guides: National brand campaign featuring vetted quality guides who have been certified through quality reviews, quick communication, and low cancellation rates. The ad campaign launched nationally across major live sporting events in February 2025.

Products and services

• Fishing Trips Marketplace for booking fishing charters and guided fishing trips across the U.S. and beyond, covering inshore, deep sea, nearshore, fly fishing, flats, jetty, river, lake, and other fishing types for individual anglers and groups.
• Hunting Trips Marketplace for booking guided hunting experiences including duck, dove, turkey, upland, big game, small game, goose, predator, crane, bowfishing, alligator, and invasive species hunts across North America.
• Tours and Eco Experiences Marketplace for non-fishing/hunting outdoor experiences including eco tours, sunset cruises, boat cruises, dolphin watching, whale watching, birding, snorkeling, scuba diving, shelling, manatee tours, scalloping, spearfishing, and booze cruises.
• Lodging Accommodation recommendations and booking support near trip locations to help customers arrange places to stay for their outdoor adventures.

Quantifiable outcome

• 47,000+ hours of outdoor activities booked
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• FishingBooker: FishingBooker is a dedicated online marketplace for booking fishing charters worldwide, directly competing with Captain Experiences in the same fishing guide booking category with a similar commission-based model.
• GetMyBoat: GetMyBoat is a marketplace for boat rentals and on-water experiences (charters, cruises, water sports), overlapping directly with Captain Experiences' boat-based fishing charters and eco tour offerings.
• ToursByLocals: ToursByLocals is a marketplace connecting travelers with private local tour guides across many destinations, structurally similar to Captain Experiences' marketplace connecting customers with vetted local outdoor guides.

Broad incumbents

• Viator: Viator (owned by Tripadvisor) is a leading global marketplace for tours, activities, and attractions, competing with Captain Experiences in destination tours, cruises, and outdoor experiences with a much larger inventory and marketing footprint.
• Airbnb Experiences: Airbnb Experiences is a large marketplace for hosted activities including outdoor adventures, directly overlapping with Captain Experiences' fishing, hunting, and eco tour offerings and benefiting from Airbnb's brand and traffic.
• Peek: Peek is an online booking platform for tours, activities, and outdoor experiences, including fishing charters, with a software-plus-marketplace model targeting operators and consumers similar to Captain Experiences.
• Klook: Klook is a leading Asia-based activities and experiences marketplace with a growing presence in outdoor and water-based tours, competing with Captain Experiences in destinations like Hawaii and Mexico.
• Booking.com Experiences: Booking.com's Experiences product is a global marketplace for tours, attractions, and activities, including fishing charters and outdoor tours, leveraging Booking's massive travel traffic to compete with Captain Experiences.

Emerging players

• Hipcamp: Hipcamp is a marketplace for outdoor stays and experiences on private land, including camping and guided outdoor activities, sharing the outdoor recreation customer base and marketplace DNA with Captain Experiences.
• Outdoorsy: Outdoorsy operates a peer-to-peer marketplace for RV rentals and outdoor experiences, comparable to Captain Experiences as a marketplace serving outdoor recreation consumers with a curated supply base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cptnexperiences
• Facebookfacebook.com/captainexperiences

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors11 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Captain Experiences