How a yacht-flipping business went from college side hustle to $68M

How a yacht-flipping business went from college side hustle to $68M

Jason Ruegg grew his yacht-flipping business from a college side hustle into a $68 million public agency – ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange last week as the largest pre-owned boat company in the US.

Ruegg’s Off The Hook Yachts buys $100 million price of used boats each yr and operates nearly totally on-line – calling itself “Carvana for boats.”

After its IPO raised $15 million in November, the company was ready to hike its stock financing floorplan to $60 million – more than doubling its buying energy.

Employees from Off The Hook Yachts rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange last Tuesday. Off The Hook Yachts

“It’s been a game-changer,” said Ruegg, 37, who began the business at 23 after years of sailing round the Chesapeake Bay with household and buddies – dragging his dad to every boat present he might to study the ins and outs of the business.

“By my senior year, I was doing like 30 or 40 boats a year, and I was studying to be an accountant,” the entrepreneur told The Post. “I did the math and I was like, ‘I’m making a lot more money on this than I’ll pretty much ever make being an accountant.’”

Now Off The Hook Yachts turns its stock 5 instances a yr – far above business requirements – and makes gives on boats in as little as half-hour, sometimes closing a transaction on a new schooner in a single day, Ruegg said.

The company’s web site depends on an AI system created by an in-house developer to match consumers with sellers, gathering data from sales on the website and across the web.

“Think of it as a trading forum, where we have buyers on one side and a group of 60 brokers on the other side, constantly communicating throughout the platform 24/7,” explained CEO Brian John, 57, a Long Island native now residing in Jupiter, Fla.

“The system has gotten so smart, it connects the dots. It’ll connect brokers and say, ‘Hey, we just got this boat into inventory, you have a customer John Smith looking for a similar boat, go show him this boat.’”

Off The Hook Yachts, or OTHY, also has its personal in-house closing team that can get paperwork drawn up; its personal finance arm, which may help consumers arrange their financing; and does its personal inspections.

“We’ll do everything for you, so we just streamline it, make it super easy,” Ruegg said.

The company parked a 40-foot boat with its brand on it on Wall Street last week. Off The Hook Yachts

The company marked a milestone last Tuesday when it parked a 40-foot boat on Wall Street and rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange – however beginning a business at just 23 hasn’t all been easy crusing for Ruegg.

After borrowing cash from household and buddies for the first few months of boat-flipping in college, he scored a “life-changing” million-dollar credit score line from a financial institution.

“We were trying to get [a credit line] increase to 7 million, and I remember I waited and waited and that Friday, my rep finally called me and she was crying,” Ruegg told The Post.

“She’s like, ‘Not only did we not get your increase to 7 million, we decided we’re going to be getting out of the marine industry and they want you to liquidate your inventory and we’re going to be shutting your facility down.’ It was just heartbreaking,” he recounted.

Jason Ruegg based Off The Hook Yachts when he was a college pupil. Off The Hook Yachts

Ruegg called his authentic financial institution rep, who had moved to a new financial institution after serving to OTHY land the $1 million credit score line, and flew down to Atlanta to meet with the establishment’s CEO. 

Within a month, Off The Hook Yachts had accepted a proposal for a $12 million credit score line.

“It was just incredible, the way that I [thought] my company’s going out of business, and within a month, instead we got almost double the amount of money we were looking for,” Ruegg said.

Despite customers reporting increased ranges of financial anxiety, business is booming for OTHY, which has been worthwhile every yr for the past 13 years, according to John.

Brian John is chief government of Off The Hook Yachts. Off The Hook Yachts

“When things get bad in the boating market … it’s actually better for us. New boat dealers aren’t set up to deal with used boats,” John said, calling the company’s business mannequin “recession-proof.”

Ruegg said there’s been a notable shift in the marine business, with prospects who would usually purchase new fashions turning to used boats.

“We’re selling them like crazy. We had the best December in the history of the company,” Ruegg told The Post. “We’ve had to adjust our prices … People are struggling and we understand that.”

The company is engaged on an expansion plan, including onto its three places in Wilmington, NC, with a “second headquarters” in Jupiter, Fla., which they count on to open Feb. 15.

But the agency is still principally digital, with brokers from upstate New York to Tennessee, according to John.

“Being a virtual company is really what we’re all about. We’re creating a Carvana for boats,” he said. “You can sell boats from anywhere.”

The company at the moment employs about 100 staff and is hoping to attain 1,000 by 2027, with 20,000 stock items within a yr – and there are not any plans to slow down anytime soon, according to Ruegg.

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