Meet David Clapper of Scamper Van

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Clapper.

Scamper Van was created after co-founder David was laid off from his career after 13 years and wanted to take a trip to the beach to join some friends for some surfing in North Carolina. David spent days looking for the perfect van to rent… One like he had rented out west when he took his son on a trip through Yosemite and Northern California in a campervan. After putting some of the ideas on paper, David then approached longtime friend Eric Van de Steeg about joining on to make the idea come to life.

David and Eric began shaping the ideas of what Scamper Van would be about. Not just a van rental company but an adventure provider for those wanting to do more with the great outdoors. Gear rental and trip planning became a central part of the business plan. Scamper Van had one van at the beginning of April of 2017 when they launched the site to take reservations and after a successful campaign on IndieGoGo, Scamper Van was able to purchase a 2nd van in time for summer and had it on the streets in June.

Since launching the business, Scamper Van was named the best Local Start-Up in Atlanta by Creative Loafing and has had countless inquiries about investment and growth opportunities. The current fleet is booked MONTHS in advance, for foreign travelers, the festival goes and weekend warriors. Scamper Van’s business plan includes increasing the fleet and expanding into 4 other Southeast markets by 2019.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
When launching a business… Nothing goes as planned. We had purchased a classic VW Campervan to get the marketing plan launched and within hours of purchasing the van, it broke down. After 5 days of working to get the van back on the streets, we finally gave up and asked for a refund on our purchase – THANKFULLY, the seller obliged.

Out timeline has ALWAYS been slower than we had envisioned. Often running into challenges that need overcoming. From production on vehicles to delays in funding of vehicles. Our biggest challenge continues to be rounding up enough capital to increase the fleet based on the needs of customer base.

Please tell us about Scamper Van.
Scamper Van is the Southeast’s 1st and ONLY campervan rental and concierge company bringing the outdoors to life for the camping or adventuring novice AND professional. Scamper Van offers FULLY LOADED campervans for rental. Each van comes with two beds, room to sleep four, a sink, refrigerator, outdoor shower, camp stove and more.

Scamper Van also offers the rental of adventure gear from mountain bikes, to kayaks, to hammocks… whatever the customer needs for their adventure. The main hook for Scamper Van is that we deliver as well. So… Friday night you get home from work and the van is delivered with everything that you need for your adventure.

Since inception, Scamper Van has gotten a lot of attention for its branding, it’s creative solutions to the ability to getting outdoors and the ease of doing just that. I couldn’t be more thrilled about the amount of love and support that we’ve gotten throughout the last year and a half around our vision.

Who else deserves credit – have you had mentors, supporters, cheerleaders, advocates, clients or teammates that have played a big role in your success or the success of the business? If so – who are they and what role did they plan / how did they help.
The biggest support for both Eric and I have been our families. For me, it’s been my fiance Rhiannon, who has such a mind for marketing, a thrill for travel and adventure and this amazing way of helping me steer this ship through the most vicious of waters.

For Eric, his wife Nina has been a HUGE support in his quest to build Scamper Van from the ground up… Sacrificing time in his already busy schedule to being woken on Christmas morning to the need of a morning delivery. We have also found amazing support in the local start hub of Switchyards in Downtown Atlanta as a place to share our ideas and get support from others going through the same struggles of starting a business. The team at TechStars have also been a huge asset in building out plan and we hope that we will be doing so much more with them.

Personally, we have to thank Joey Bowers for his time, vision and guidance, Bryan Kujawski for his constant provided of amazing contacts and advice and Alex Crosby for the incredible help on the financial model that allowed us to see Scamper Van’s BIG Picture.

Pricing:

• $99 weekday and winter rates – PER NIGHT
• $149 – $159 per night weekend and summer rates

Contact Info:

• Website: www.scampervan.com
• Phone: 4044419947
• Email: camp@scampervan.com
• Instagram: #scampervan
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deliveredadventure/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Scamper_Van

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