Growing up in Virginia, Logan Crable used to hunt with his dad -- it's one of the few things the two had in common. But when Crable moved to Austin, his easy access to hunting clubs, property and hunting leases disappeared.
"Moving to Austin, I realized that 97% of the land in Texas is private," he said. "I had zero friends, so I had no access to the land. I was a blonde haired kid with a ponytail, so I wasn't going to go out and try to join a hunt club. So I realized I was totally shut out of that world. I wanted to do it, but I couldn't."
There's plenty of new tech being churned out in the hunting industry, from smart cameras to monitor animal movements to precision wind detectors. But Crable, who works with Powershift Group in Austin, says the industry is still largely dependent on print and online ads on hunting websites and magazines to access hunting leases. Crable thought there must be an Airbnb-style app for that. But he found nothing.
So, he started building Outrider last July with some friends and family money.
Crable talked with his friend Randall Morris, a UX designer with CBS Interactive, over a few drinks and Morris agreed to help build the prototype and UX for the app. Now, they've added a business-minded partner and a developer to round out their team.
Like a lot of startups, the Outrider team got "feature creep" as more and more ideas piled up. Then, they realized their best play would be to simplify the experience, at least early on, by focusing on feral hog hunting within the borders of Texas.
"The reason for that is that they're a huge nuisance in Texas," he said. "They do half a billion in damage a year annually at farms and ranches."
The state allows feral hog hunting year round. There are helicopter tours where people can shoot them from above. There are charitable groups that trap the hogs, process them and distribute the meat to families in need. And, for novice hunters, it's a pretty easy starting point. And hunting over-populated animals fits in with Crable's approach to hunting.
"I don't like the idea of just shooting these pigs and leaving them lay there. That's meat," he said. "There are a lot of people out there that have food scarcity. Hunting just to kill is not our mission. It's not something we condone."
Outrider has a prototype set up now, and they expect to launch in coming months.
Here's how it works: A hunter logs into the Outrider app, chooses dates for an outing and looks at options on a map. They can also look at details, such as whether a property has guided or unguided hunts, if there are hunting stands set up, if the property has cell phone service and if the landowner or their partners process the animals for you. Landowners, meanwhile, create a profile for their available hunting property, listing the rules of the property and all the specs, including what types of animals are often found there and other details.
The app will also have reviews to help people weed out properties where hunters aren't having any luck.
Many hunting leases operate on an annual or seasonal basis. Outrider hopes to disrupt the land leasing industry by offering short-term rentals that are more affordable for more casual hunters.
"Hunting is so cool, and we want to make it a viable activity. A viable weekend activity," he said.
And hunting is a huge market. Texas leads the nation in hunting-related retail sales with $1.7 billion spent, according to state stats. It reaches $3.6 billion when you add a multiplier for other related spending.
Prior to Austin, Crable lived in New York working as a photo assistant on fashion shoots for a couple years. He then moved back to Savannah, Ga., where he went to college, and opened a gallery and coffee shop before selling it and moving to Austin.
"I wanted to get into the startup game," he said. "That problem-solving aspect is really exciting to me."
At Powershift and as a freelancer, he has been applying his design and photo skills on multimedia branding campaigns for Austin area startups.
Initially, Crable said he and his team started out with big visions and plans to seek venture capital. But, after hearing some horror stories of taking bad money, the team settled on proving it to themselves first.
"It's the smartest route for us now, and we can still put out a useful product with our resources. So why not do that?" Crable said. "None of us are proven proven entrepreneurs. If I had three or four startups, maybe. You have to build something before you sell it."
