Powderhook, a free web and mobile service that connects hunters and anglers with places to hunt and fish, launches February 12th in 11 states stretching from Louisiana and Texas to North Dakota. 20,000 spots, including over 30 million acres of public places to hunt and fish, are included in the company’s first beta release.
“This is all about making it easier for people to experience the outdoors,” says Eric Dinger, Powderhook CEO. “A lot of what we’re doing is going to be a grassroots effort. We need hunters and anglers to help us improve what we’re doing.”
Powderhook will connect sportsmen with opportunities including leases, permissions, seats, rentals and charters. Sellers of hunting and fishing spots, outfitters, guides and lodges, will create listings using Powerhook.com and buyers can search or request additional information about a particular spot. Public data is being collected by working with state wildlife divisions in combination with other proprietary sourcing methods.
Dinger likens the marketplace concept to Airbnb, Expedia or VRBO, popular websites that connect people looking for a place to stay while traveling.
The idea for Powerhook grew out of personal experience, Dinger says. A native of Redfield, SD, Dinger grew up hunting and fishing on his grandfather’s land near the Sand Lake Refuge outside of Hecla, SD. After leaving to go to high school in Luverne, MN and moving to Lincoln for college, Dinger says it’s been harder to find places nearby to hunt and fish.
Even though recreational land exists in nearly every county in the United States, many of the 14 million hunters and 33 million anglers nationally face similar hurdles, Dinger says.
“They can ask someone they know; tag along on someone else’s trip; navigate confusing governmental websites; hire an attorney to negotiate a lease, or be willing to approach a farmhouse to ask permission,” he says.
Powderhook will help eliminate these obstacles by aggregating public and private inventories of places to hunt and fish. The privately held Lincoln-based company is building proprietary search, mapping and transaction processes that will make securing an outdoor opportunity quick and easy.
Powderhook eventually plans to expand its service to include the entire United States.
By focusing on their mission of Access for All and being collaborative with federal, state and local programs, Dinger sees Powderhook as a simple means to get new people involved in the outdoors.
According to US Fish and Wildlife data, Americans spent over $90 billion annually in the US on hunting and fishing. In total, these people took over 700 million trips and spent $10.1 billion on fees for hunting and fishing access.
“Not everyone can pay to hunt or fish, and they shouldn’t have to. Yet commercial hunting is a viable path for some. We simply want to provide people with all of the options,” Dinger says.
Other members of Powerhook’s leadership team:
Randy Terbush, Powerhook’s CTO, is one of the eight original cofounders of the Apache Software Foundation, which pioneered the server technology that powers about 65% of the internet. Terbush also served 5 years as a CTO at ADP.
Heath Roehr, VP of Product Development, worked for NASA and Textron before joining Powderhook. Roehr has also conducted research in the areas of software engineering, testing, and robotics.