What Cotton Crews does

Cotton Crews is a privately held luxury yacht crew staffing agency founded in 2013 by Lauren Cotton and headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida. The company connects yacht owners, captains, and yacht management companies with qualified crew for permanent, temporary, and rotational positions on vessels ranging from 20 meters to 80+ meters. Its core customer segments are yacht captains/owners (enterprise) and yacht crew job seekers (individuals), with operations across South Florida, New England, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean.

The company's technology platform consists of two mobile applications — Cotton Crew HIRE for captains and hiring managers, and Cotton Crew JOBS for crew seeking employment — launched in September 2018 following the acquisition of Crew Compass's app portfolio. The apps provide location-based matching, profile and CV management, real-time job alerts, and filtering by position, experience, nationality, and qualifications. The HIRE app operates on a paid access model, while the JOBS app is free for crew. Complementing the self-serve platform, Cotton Crew Club offers a boutique personalized placement tier with dedicated specialist support, CV review, reference checks, and interview coordination. The company also operates crew housing through an affiliated entity, Cotton Management, accommodating 200+ yacht crew in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Cotton Crews generates revenue through three streams: placement commissions on successful crew hires, captain access fees for premium database content (chat features, reviews, full CV files) processed via Braintree Payments on a multi-year subscription basis, and higher-margin boutique placement fees through Cotton Crew Club. The company is BBB Accredited, maintains a small team of 1-10 employees, and operates without disclosed institutional capital. It markets through content marketing, social media (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn), mobile app distribution, and industry events such as the Newport Charter Yacht Show.

Name

Cotton Crews

Legal name

Cotton Crews, Inc.

Website

https://cottoncrews.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Cotton Crews is a luxury yacht crew staffing agency founded in 2013 in West Palm Beach, Florida, connecting yacht owners, captains, and management companies with qualified crew via mobile apps (HIRE and JOBS), a boutique placement service (Cotton Crew Club), and affiliated crew housing (Cotton Management).

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Yacht Crew Staffing and Recruitment

akta.pro primary industry

Maritime & Port Labor (Dockworkers/Longshore) Staffing (BPACAEAL)

Keywords

• Yacht crew staffing
• Crew recruitment services
• Maritime employment platform
• Superyacht placement
• Yacht crew agency

Headquarters

HQ city

West Palm Beach

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Crew Placement Commission: Cotton Crews places crew on yachts and earns commission from these placements. The platform facilitates connections between captains and crew members for permanent and temporary positions.
2. Captains Access Fee: Captains and hiring managers pay an access fee for unlimited access to the Cotton Crews database for a specified duration. Premium content including chat feature, crew member reviews, ratings, and full CV files require payment. All access fee payments are final and non-refundable.
3. Cotton Crew Club (Boutique Placement): Premium personalized placement service where specialist individually reviews CVs, checks references, coordinates interviews and helps the hiring process to completion. This is a higher-touch service complementing the app-based self-serve model.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Cotton Crews is a luxury yacht crew recruitment agency that places permanent and temporary crew (deckhands, stewardesses, engineers, chefs, captains) on private and charter yachts ranging from 20 to 80+ meters. The company combines a relationship-focused bespoke recruitment service with two mobile applications: Cotton Crew HIRE (for captains and hiring managers to search crew, post jobs, and access dayworkers) and Cotton Crew JOBS (for crew to build profiles, receive alerts, and apply to positions). A higher-touch Cotton Crew Club tier provides personalized specialist placement, and crew housing in West Palm Beach supports job seekers.

Product overview

Cotton Crews operates a platform-plus-services model for luxury yacht crew staffing. The core offering consists of bespoke crew recruitment placing permanent and temporary crew on yachts from 20 to 80+ meters. This is complemented by two companion mobile applications: Cotton Crew HIRE (for captains and hiring managers to search crew and post jobs) and Cotton Crew JOBS (for crew to find positions and build profiles). The Cotton Crew Club provides a boutique personalized placement tier with dedicated specialist support. The company also operates Crew Housing through Cotton Management, offering accommodation for crew in West Palm Beach. The mobile apps were launched following a 2018 acquisition of the Crew Compass app portfolio.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Cotton Management: Yacht crew housing, property management, and realty services company founded out of growing need for crew housing in West Palm Beach yachting industry

Products and services

• Cotton Crew HIRE App A mobile recruitment application for captains and hiring managers to search superyacht crew by position, experience, qualifications, nationality, and other filters; post job openings; and access dayworkers in their area. Available 24/7 on iOS and Android.
• Cotton Crew JOBS App A mobile job-seeking application for yacht crew (deckhands, stewardesses, engineers, chefs, captains) to build profiles, upload CVs and portfolio photos, receive real-time job alerts matching their skills and location, and apply to yacht positions. Available 24/7 on iOS and Android.
• Cotton Crew Club (Boutique Placement Service) A boutique crew placement service offering personalized hiring assistance. Placement specialists individually review CVs, check references, coordinate interviews, and manage the entire hiring process from start to finish. Targets clients wanting higher-touch, discrete recruiting support.
• Bespoke Crew Recruitment Full-service luxury yacht crew recruitment placing permanent and temporary positions across South Florida, New England, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean. Covers yachts from 20 to 80+ meters, matching client personalities and requirements with available crew.
• Yacht Crew Jobs Portal An online job board and directory of yacht crew employment opportunities, updated daily with positions posted by captains and owners. Job seekers can browse roles and apply through the platform.
• Crew Housing Safe, clean, and budget-friendly crew housing in West Palm Beach, Florida for yacht crew during job searches, day work periods, or STCW training. Houses over 200 yacht crew members.

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Crew CompasscoreTechnology or Integration · 1 September 2018Cotton Crews acquired Crew Compass Hire App and Crew Compass Jobs App in September 2018. The acquisition allowed Cotton Crews to expand its placement services into mobile technology. Crew Compass founder Hana Jung continues supporting the expansion. Crew Compass provides free online resources for aspiring and existing yacht crew through crewcompassapp.com.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• The Crew Network: The Crew Network is a yacht crew placement specialist serving captains and crew across permanent, temporary, and rotational roles — directly comparable in target customer, role coverage, and service model.
• Quay Crew: Quay Crew is a direct competitor in superyacht crew recruitment, operating in Fort Lauderdale and Antibes with a similar mix of placement and digital tools for captains and crew. It is one of the closest functional comparables to Cotton Crews.

Broad incumbents

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a generalist professional recruiting platform that increasingly reaches into maritime and luxury service roles. While not yacht-specific, it competes for captain/management hires via its broader network effects and free-to-post job products.
• Camper & Nicholsons: Camper & Nicholsons is a heritage yacht services and crew placement firm operating across brokerage, management, and crew — comparable to Cotton Crews on crew placement but with a much wider service footprint.
• Hill Robinson: Hill Robinson is an established yacht management and crew placement firm with global operations. Overlaps with Cotton Crews on crew sourcing for managed yachts but offers a broader full-service yacht management portfolio.
• Burgess: Burgess is a global luxury yacht company with crew placement and management services. It serves the same HNW owners and captains as Cotton Crews but competes from a much larger charter, sale, and management platform.
• IYC: IYC is a global yacht management and charter firm with in-house crew placement capabilities. Adjacent business model with similar clientele but operating at a significantly larger fleet-management scale.
• Y.CO (formerly YPI): Y.CO is a luxury yacht services group with crew placement as one of several service lines. Comparable customer base (yacht owners, captains, senior crew) with materially broader charter and management offerings.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/CottonCrews
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/cottoncrews
• Instagraminstagram.com/CottonCrews

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Cotton Crews