We were lucky to catch up with Andrew Ostrowski recently and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.

Family is important, its really what drives me each day to be successful but also to build a company that my family wants to work for. My wife and I started this company back in 2017 and we both are active in growing the company today. I say that, but my dad keeps asking to work here and I’m not sure about that yet! But for my kids, I hope they fall in love with the business as much as I do. There are many great stories of family businesses and the kids wanting to take over and lead the next chapter in the company. Our family is young and growing; we have a 1-year-old with one on the way!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m always thankful that I landed in Nashville, it’s an amazing city full of creative people. It sparks you to do something new, different, and challenging. As an avid boater and recreational skier on the Cumberland River, I always questioned the lack of activities at the Nashville Riverfront. Any great city that has a waterfront has embraced it. If they haven’t already, they will soon. Nashville is still trying to understand this, and we’re doing our part by bringing people to the water’s edge, giving them something to observe, engage with, and even ride along. We wanted to create something new for Nashville, not just another bus ride. From there, the Pontoon Saloon and Nashville Water Taxi were born.

We have 3 vessels that are all USCG Certified, with a capacity for 49 passengers on each and up to 130 for private events. The Pontoon Saloon was our first venture, offering public cruises that operate 7 days a week and private cruises for those large group celebrations and corporate events. Guests can purchase catering, and enjoy live music as the Deckhand ensures a fun and safe 2-hour cruise on the Cumberland River. The Nashville Water Taxi launched this year with Water Taxi services to and from games, concerts, and events for Nissan Stadium. This has been a huge success with the lack of parking and access issues at the stadium! We’re optimistic as to what is ahead as we work with local developers and the city to build the Water Taxi infrastructure to support multi-modal transportation in Nashville. Based on customer feedback and demand, we see a future of multiple larger capacity and higher speed vessels operating in a large network of destinations for moving people around Nashville. Our daily tours for the Nashville Water Taxi include family-friendly history and sightseeing options.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Due to the popularity and demand of the Pontoon Saloon back in 2018, we had to work with the city for increased permitting. Unfortunately due to them believing it wasn’t fair that we had the only permit at the time and others wanting to do the same concept, Metro Nashville shut down the permits for 2019 until they had a plan of how to manage this. This hurt, we lost our growth going into our third season as we had to operate from Rock Harbor Marina which is 15 minutes west of downtown Nashville.

Instead of sulking, we bulked up and found a solution for Nashville to better manage the permits & operations by looking at some sister cities like Chattanooga and Memphis. In these cities, a third party managed their riverfront, optimizing it for recreation and commercial activity with a focus on customer service. Thanks to then-council member Freddie O’Connell, the mayor’s office and Metro Parks, we were able to get this concept pushed through to an RFP and have been back operating since 2021!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

In a crowded and fun Nashville, there is a lot to do. We wanted to be unique right from the beginning, doing something off-land where the locals don’t glare at us, and you get unique views of Nashville. Everything is better on the water, so that helps us a lot! But most importantly it’s about our staff, especially early on as we were building our brand, we had a group that was very committed to the success of the brand, its uniqueness, and how we love to celebrate with locals and tourists! We take a lot of pride in what we do, we prioritize safety and that safe track record has continued to build our reputation around Nashville.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thenashvillewatertaxi.com
• Instagram: @thenashvillewatertaxi
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nashvillewatertaxi/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nashville-water-taxi/

Image Credits

Andrew Ostrowski, Dana Crawford, Air to Anchor Media