Hot off a $30 million Series C funding round, The Wanderlust Group is scaling its leadership team with three new positions.
The new hires will be working on TWG's flagship app, Dockwa, which lets users reserve space at their local marina among other abilities.
According to Wanderlust Group’s CMO, Meghan Keaney Anderson, the app has already seen 3.6M nights booked in 2022, a 58% year-over-year increase, and it's only May.
Sign up for The Beat, Rhode Island Inno’s free daily innovation newsletter. See past examples here.
The new hires include Shirley Versen, who is taking over as chief revenue officer. Joining from Full Harvest, Versen has two decades of experience in strategically scaling revenue and operations for leading global brands, including TravelZoo, Yelp and Walmart Marketplace. According to The Wanderlust Group, Versen will be responsible for overseeing the sales and customer success teams that make up the marina experience on Marinas.com and Dockwa.
Eamon Bisson-Donahue, who previously served as engineering manager at Uber, is moving into the role of VP of engineering.
"Eamon is working to scale an engineering team that will build the infrastructure behind all of this. He'll be leading the engineering team as it grows, investing in the strength of the platform and the expansion plans for the software," Anderson said.
Nathan Kollett, who worked in consumer product strategy for companies like Indigo, ezCater, and Wayfair, is taking on role of VP of product.
Kollett will be focusing on nurturing the boater product experience within Dockwa, to help more boaters get out there more often.
Boating boom
Anderson said Dockwa has been well positioned to leverage the boom the boating industry has seen over the last two years. According to the NMMA, in 2021 alone 415,000 boaters bought their first boats.
"Our focus this year has really been about helping marinas meet that increased demand. Our boater relationship platform helps marinas operate more efficiently, streamlining previously time-consuming tasks like drawing up and sending boat storage contracts or assigning slips in a busy season," she said. "For boaters who may be having trouble finding places to store their boats or pull-in for a weekend adventure, we make it simpler to plan everything and get responses without having to call around to every marina."
Currently, Anderson said, the company is working towards a June product launch that will add new features to the mix. She also said funds from the latest venture capital round are being invested to scale Dockwa so marinas can run every transaction through the platform.
"We're also planning to expand to more marinas internationally, and build more features for boaters to help them at every stage throughout their boat-ownership life cycle," she said.
The appointments come during a critical time of growth. In January, after its $30 million Series C funding led by Thursday Ventures, Wanderlust CEO and co-founder Mike Melillo said the company planned to use the funds to scale its marina reservation app, Dockwa, and Marinas.com, its directory of marinas and yacht clubs.
The company also planned to use the funds to launch the Campouts app, which aims to become the Dockwa for camping, and a philanthropic initiative to boost outdoor accessibility and protect the environment.
Want more Rhode Island business news? Sign up for Providence Business First’s free daily newsletter here
