Auckland Outdoors building "OpenTable for outdoor gear"

After meeting as colleagues at Exclusive Resorts in 2003, Rob Auston and Matt Glissmann are in "startup mode" with Auckland Outdoors, a RiNo-based company that wants to flatten the market for outdoor gear rentals by bringing them online.

When they founded the company in 2012, the pair initially looked to open brick-and-mortar locations where members would pay a monthly fee to rent any gear for a preset amount of time using an online platform. But they pivoted in May after getting feedback from pre-sold members.

"We're building an OpenTable for outdoor gear," says Auston of the new strategy.

Instead of buying up an inventory, they've moved to bringing the online platform to existing gear-rental operations where inventory is based on peak days or seasons. "The majority of the year, that gear sits idle," Auston notes. "Their equipment could be listed on our marketplace just like restaurants can list on OpenTable."

Currently, independent shops renting outdoor gear have a generally primitive presence on the Internet. "There's no price transparency," says Auston.

It follows that Auston and Glissmann are now developing the Auckland Outdoors platform -- a rental engine and an inventory management system that will be free for the shops -- and fundraising. Revenue will be derived from commissions on rentals. The plan calls for launch by the end of 2013.

Auston says the idea solves a big problem with outdoor enthusiasts. "The important thing is the experience," he says. "The barrier to these activities is the gear."

The company gets its name from the New Zealand on the North Island of New Zealand. "Any outdoor activity you can think of, you can do there," Auston explains.