Camp N Car Co-Founder Shares Origin Story and Flips the Script On Corporate Culture

It started on a kind of fanciful whim. I left Alaska and moved back to Washington State in the Fall of 2018. The winters were just too cold up north for me to embrace vanlife year-round. My friend Martin had a sweet apartment in downtown Port Townsend with an open room and I moved in. We were both working demanding jobs and dealing with a lot of stress and burnout. We tossed around the idea of starting a camper conversion business since so many people had remarked on how cool our Honda Element project was. At one point in March of 2019, we had both just “had a day” with our jobs and on a whim, we were like, “Hey, what if we just went to wa.gov, formed an LLC, and made our own company?” That’s when we started laying the groundwork for the brand. 

We got the company name, decided what we were going to offer and we started putting the word out to friends. Although we only had one build in our portfolio we knew we could do more. We did simple conversions for friends and family over the first few months and used that as our launchpad. Then, the word spread and we started getting clients who didn’t know us personally.

Martin and I grew Camp N Car slowly over time, reinvesting the money we had from our builds. I have to say how lucky I am that my parents had my back. I knew I always had a home to go back to if it didn’t work out and that gave me the courage and confidence to try something as risky as starting a new business. Eventually, I moved back to Seattle and Martin stayed in Port Townsend doing fabrication. When the pandemic hit, I was furloughed from my day job and had time to work more on Camp N Car. It helped keep me sane while the world was in such chaos and gave me time to focus.

Bob Wells & Steve Featured on Cheap RV Living

What was your big break?

In early 2021, we connected with Bob Wells, founder of Cheap RV Living & The Home on Wheels Alliance. Bob is a famous vanlife and RV influencer, and his nonprofit was helping people on the edge of homelessness by giving them built-out minivans. After an initial meeting, we came up with the idea to design the Home On Wheels Kit for them and their clients. In April 2021 my now wife and I traveled to Pahrump Nevada in my Honda Element to celebrate and discuss the givingaway of our first Home On Wheels Kit. We did a video with Bob Wells, and they did the handoff to the clients for Bob’s YouTube channel. We got a lot of positive exposure from that. Our audience skyrocketed and demand really took off for our kits.

What was the early investment period like for Camp N Car?

We knew we needed investment funds to grow but we weren’t “bank loanable”. Fortunately, Port Townsend has the LIONS, the Local Investing Opportunities Network, which loaned us the money to help grow faster and meet this newfound demand. It’s kind of like our local version of Shark Tank, but it’s the Lion’s Den. We pitched to them and were able to get funding that allowed us to buy a CNC machine, move into a new facility, do some marketing, and get where we needed to be so we could fulfill demand. That was pivotal growth and we wouldn’t be here in the same way if it wasn’t for them.

What are your thoughts on the future of the outdoor industry?

There is so much room for positive societal and environmental change to co-exist and flourish and I think the outdoor industry should be an advocate for that. I see this industry as very different from how a lot of startups, tech companies, and hustle-culture tend to do things. A lot of those companies create an ecosystem that values profit over people and community. These companies send rockets to space while strapping time-keeping monitoring devices on the wrists of people who do exhausting work in fulfillment warehouses where their entire day is watched. None of us evolved to live like that. That’s not community. 

This kind of extraction of human potential and human freedom takes a toll on us all, even if the end customer never sees it. I think companies should use their profits to help humanity and care for the planet. The outdoor sector can play a big role in this. Yes, I know one little company isn’t going to single-handedly save the world, but I think everyone should do their part. And when you run a company, even a small one, you can start by doing what’s right.

How is Camp N Car supporting this larger goal of helping people and the planet?

We have made intentional decisions about how we operate and what we provide our customers. Most of our employees have a four-day work week and everyone gets generous time off allotments. We don’t ask our employees to overwork and we prioritize the well-being of everyone who comes into our orbit. Perhaps this goes against the “work-yourself-to-the-bone” culture this country often rewards, but if you normalize treating people well while still being successful it changes the status of how business is done. In this way, we can slowly begin to reverse the toxic trend of burn-out culture that’s rampant in the working world. Also, our products are made in America, with high-quality materials, by skilled professionals who enjoy what they do.

Camping out in a pickup truck with a Trunk Bunk

So you’re not a fan of the hustle?

Unlike many leaders in the business world, I don’t see American capitalism as the ultimate expression of human nature. We need to value our well-being as a species over greed and profitability. How things are is not how they have to be, we still have the power to change the trajectory of humanity. Sometimes all it takes is a commitment to foster a more mindful way of living to make a difference for our communities. All of us can pay attention to how we talk and listen, as well as how we vote and advocate. We owe it to ourselves to break the cycle of toxic corporate culture that’s poisoning our communities and the planet.

What would you say to first-timers thinking about vanlife and car camping?

Give it a try and see if you like it, but start small. Just throw a mattress in the back of your car and see if it’s somewhere you could sleep. Test it out. You don’t need anything fancy to try it for a couple of nights, and you’ll know right away if you like it or not. It’s kind of like starting the guitar. You don’t need the best guitar and a ton of fancy gear. Start small and simple and then, if you really get into it, add on to your gear and level up your setup.

What is your advice for other emerging entrepreneurs in the outdoor space?