Senior marketing major Noah Koch founded Adrenture, a peer-to-peer rental company specializing in outdoor gear, while an undergraduate in the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University.
According to Allegra Korver, a fellow Appalachian marketing (and management) major who recently featured Noah's story in her student column in Capital at Play, Western North Carolina's Free Spirit of Enterprise, Noah has a passion for outdoor adventures, but also for helping make it possible for others to have those experiences.
Adrenture was founded to solve a problem for outdoor adventurers, a problem that Noah and fellow travelers experienced when they learned that renting sub-par gear on Washington State's Mt. Rainier is expensive and potentially dangerous. Adrenture's simple solution:
Users of outdoor gear rent their gear to other users, peer-to-peer style. Think AirBnB, but for people who prefer the backcountry to the big city. And, like AirBnB, the process is easy to use and understand. First, people take pictures of their unused gear; then, they upload pictures and descriptions to the site after creating a profile...Users make a few bucks from things sitting in a closet, and Adrenture receives a portion of the transaction.
Noah Koch certainly embodies that passion for outdoor adventure. Even a brief conversation with him usually includes casual references to climbing in the Alps or mountain biking the Appalachians, or really any activity that can get him outside. But the passion does not stop there—Noah is deeply invested into facilitating transformative experiences for people who may not be able to afford them in the traditional market. Starting the Adrenture platform accomplished more than just solving a personal problem or making a buck; it made, and is making, the great outdoors a more accessible place for the adventurous.
Korver goes on to explain in her article that Noah launched Adrenture with support from Appalachian's Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship, center director Erich Schlenker, and Jesse Pipes, an entrepreneurship faculty member whose course Opportunity and Entrepreneurship proved to be a catalyst to take "Adrenture out of Noah's head."
While Pipes and Schlenker "invested time and resources into the budding business.... giving Noah advice on everything from seeking investors to filing taxes," a dedicated team of fellow Appalachian students help Noah share much of the work. Chase Marshall, Kalin Rierson and Dillon Makar are critical team members. Thirty five percent of AdRenture is owned by investment firm Gold Sail Capital, and, the article explained, that partnership also "provides support to the home team at Appalachian State."
About the Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship
The Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship at Appalachian State University helps students and alumni launch successful businesses, enhance their future prospects, and the region's economy. The center was created in 2006 to support a rapidly increasing group of student entrepreneurs, and it was named for Hickory-based Transporation Insight in 2012.
Student-owned business Adrenture helps make outdoor adventure possible for all
Student-owned business Adrenture helps make outdoor adventure possible for all