Building a marketplace from scratch, with Hipcamp founder Alyssa Ravasio

Hipcamp founder and CEO Alyssa Ravasio scales outdoor recreation by transforming fragmented, scarce camping access into a thriving marketplace. Initially a search engine for public campgrounds, the platform pivoted to private land after discovering that existing infrastructure could not meet demand and that users were gatekeeping remaining spots. This shift solved a critical supply shortage while providing landowners with a sustainable revenue stream that prevents land development and logging. By prioritizing "nights outside" as a core metric, the company aligns its business model with conservation and community health. Ravasio emphasizes the necessity of direct customer feedback, the importance of maintaining personal well-being to sustain long-term vision, and the power of in-person collaboration to keep teams connected to the human reality of their mission.