We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Max Poppel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Max, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
My business partner, Dan, and I moved to Chattanooga in 2005 with no ambitions of starting businesses. We just moved for the climbing which we eventually saw many others visiting for.
Chattanooga’s quality, quantity, and proximity of the climbing to a fun mid-size city rivals any, just there was no basecamp for all the climbers coming to visit.
The idea of The Crash Pad started as a climber camp ground out by some of the climbing, but there was a larger need to serve. Aside from climbing, Chattanooga has world-class trails and rivers, so an outdoor basecamp was needed.
The Crash Pad opened to serve that need, but we soon learned there was the larger still audience of all of the tourists coming through to see our beautiful city. We were centrally located, affordable, and charming as any Chattanooga establishment, so we became the basecamp for any Chattanooga journey from the hills to the attractions and restaurants.
Flying Squirrel’s complexity grew from the simple idea we wanted to serve a full bar to our guests after a long day exploring our city, and we didn’t have the seating or kitchen requirements to get a liquor license. To fulfill that vision, we created a separate entity with a proper kitchen and seating. And bar. Come to our bar.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
After moving to Chattanooga I was working admin on corporate retirement plans and life insurance to support my sushi and climbing habits. With no experience in lodging or restaurants, I proceeded to create a hostel and restaurant/bar with my business partner, Dan, who aside from waiting tables also had no relevant experience in creating or running businesses. The idea/we sound pretty stupid when you write this all out…
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
You ever run a communal living establishment in a global pandemic? We sure didn’t factor that into the business plan…
The core of a hostel is sharing spaces to meet folks and keep costs down, which ironically includes shared bunk spaces. We do have private rooms, but we also have these open bunk areas.
After shutting down in March of 2020, we converted half of those spaces into private bunk rooms, with a proper wall (crazy idea!) and half the beds.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
On a night I mostly remember long ago.
Contact Info:
- Other: We have two businesses. I didn’t know if I could put two things in each section. Could you link to the following? The Crash Pad: crashpadchattanooga.com instagram.com/thecrashpad facebook.com/TheCrashPad Flying Squirrel: flyingsquirrelbar.com instagram.com/squirrelbar facebook.com/flyingsquirrelbar
Image Credits
The one of me is Poppel Family Archive Rest are Mandy Rhoden