We were lucky to catch up with David Haakinson recently and have shared our conversation below.

David, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Co-Founder Tommy Nenahlo and myself have entrepreneurial mind and were interested in starting a side-business to scratch our business itch. We explored many different industries and primarily focused on our technical engineer backgrounds.

In 2018, my wife, Hannah, and I traveled to New Zealand and took notice of camper vans traversing across the country and were instantly intrigued. As we made it back home to Alaska, I told Tommy about the hundreds of camper vans and thought it would be a great idea to implement in our great state. Our vision is to slowly change the Alaska travel market to bring the overall vacation cost for a family of 4 down by greater than 50% versus the market while focusing on top notch customer service and high quality equipment.

We instantly built a business plan, Tommy created the first business cash flow model (that’s still in use today) and we decided to press forward. We established our business in Anchorage, AK and began researching builders across the United States that aligned with our dream. We landed on working with Boho Camper Vans out of Tempe, AZ and built our base business plan on 6 camper vans. As 2019 pressed into 2020, the Covid Pandemic picked up. We were unsure of the market and decided to build only 3 camper vans in the event we needed to cover our losses.

Unknown to us at the time, the travel industry boomed and partially by luck, and partially by the hard work of our wives, we survived our first summer of 2021. Since then, we’ve been blessed to have a top notch coworker, Carolyn Berg, who has helped us continue our growth year over year.

As we’ve grown, we’ve established travel planning based on the experiences of Tommy and myself who are avid outdoorsmen at an affordable and competitive price versus the market. Going forward, we have growth plans to focus on generating value while living within our means by staying focused on our costs just as much as our revenue.

Long term, we hope to revolutionize the Alaska travel market and offer up something intriguing to guests that puts our vision of Alaska into our guests eyes. Travel to Alaska does not have to be unaffordable and it is possible to explore Alaska on your own with a little bit of upfront guidance.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

River Wild Camper Vans is a recreational vehicle rental business operating in Anchorage, Alaska. We provide camper van and jeep overland rentals as well as custom/curated travel planning throughout Alaska. We started this business focused on two main goals: (1) Offer a high-end yet affordable alternative to the common high-cost and stale trips to Alaska and (2) Offer an affordable custom trip planning services that focus on getting our customers out of the tourist catches and more focused on the true Alaska from Tommy and myself (David) that have travelled extensively throughout Alaska.

We’re focused and most proud of our customer service, the quality of our rentals, and our insider knowledge to provide an Alaskan vacation that allows our customers to explore off the beaten path. We want people to go home with memories that last a lifetime.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

We’re firm believers in focusing on our purpose and having autonomy to determine what adds the most value to the business. We give our team ownership in the company, which aligns our team on our company mission. To maintain high morale, the business has to be fun. Challenges crop up every day and ultimately, it’s up to us as owners to maintain a positive attitude to work through those challenges. Finally, acknowledging and showing appreciation for wins both big and small.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source is word of mouth through our previous customers. Maintaining a high level of customer service and having a desire to make our customers repeat customers has the best rate of return. The acquisition cost of a positive customer experience is free and our operations manager (Carolyn) is the primary reason why this is working for us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.riverwildcampervans.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riverwildcampervans/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riverwildcampervans

Image Credits
Sarah French Photo