HOT SPRINGS -- A partnership between two Little Rock entrepreneurs will allow people spending the Fourth of July weekend at Lake Hamilton to have food delivered directly to their boats.
RaftUp, an app that uses geolocation services to map out waterways, plans to partner with Chef Shuttle, a food delivery service with operations across Arkansas.
Using the app on Lake Hamilton, RaftUp creator Corey Boelkens showed off its social and safety features.
"This island is really only known to the locals here," Boelkens said, pulling up to a dock on the lake. "But when I sat down with people from the marina here, they told me about it, and I put it as a point of interest on the app."
RaftUp allows users to tag sightseeing, diving, fishing, restaurants and other points of interest the app's waterway map.
"Open up RaftUp and become a local," Boelkens said. "That's sort of our catchphrase."
The app also includes a schedule of events, the ability to connect with friends, and safety features that allow a user to call for help out on the water.
RaftUp started in March and now has more than 1,200 users.
Once Boelkens had a prototype of the app, he quit his job, sold his truck and began what he calls a "flip-flops on the ground" operation. He travels across the region marketing his app and won funding at several startup events. He has formed partnerships with marinas that offer RaftUp as a part of their boat-rental package.
Gregg Orr Marine on Lake Hamilton offers seven days of RaftUp for $3.99 with their rental boats.
Previously, Gregg Orr customers relied solely on paper maps. Employees would sit with customers for 10 minutes drawing circles on the shallow areas, places where a damaged propeller would result in a $250 charge.
After offering RaftUp this season, Gregg Orr general manager Lisa Sexton said she's only seen two damaged propellers, whereas usually she sees 10 to 15 damaged propellers by Fourth of July weekend.
"It helps us avoid that awkward and uncomfortable situation when a customer damages a prop and we have to charge them $250," Sexton said.
RaftUp offers an SOS feature, which sends out an alert with the location of the distressed boat to all nearby RaftUp users.
Boelkens tested the feature on Lake Hamilton, and within a minute he received a text.
"You okay? Brother got an SOS," wrote a friend whose brother was on the lake and got an alert from RaftUp.
Marinas can use a dashboard view to track the location and status of all their rental boats using RaftUp.
Cade Horner, an employee at Gregg Orr Marine, said the SOS feature makes it easier to find people who get lost on the lake.
"Without the location service they're left saying, 'Well we're near a tree and a big house,' and then we spend half an hour trying to track down which tree and which big house," Horner said.
Sexton said she looks forward to boaters using RaftUp for socializing on the Fourth of July weekend.
The name for the app came from the phrase "rafting up," which means to connect with people on the water. The app allows users to "friend" each other and meet up using its geolocation services.
"This cove is usually where people go to hang out, and the app lets you know that," Boelkens said as he passed a stopped boat with people sunbathing. "Over there is a cove that's fairly empty and good for tubing, and the app tells you that, too."
Ryan H̶e̶r̶g̶e̶r̶t Herget*, president and chief executive officer of Chef Shuttle, said the partnership with RaftUp was a natural fit.
"When you're on the lake, you always run out of something, whether it's food or ice," Herget said. "We're all about providing convenience to the customer and making the customer's life easier. With lake delivery we can do that."
Herget says he hopes to partner with RaftUp again in the future, and he is exploring whether they can offer lake delivery regularly over the summer.
On the Fourth of July weekend, Chef Shuttle will offer customers a download code for a 30-day free trial of RaftUp. Once customers download the app, they will automatically connect with Chef Shuttle's account. There will be an option for lake delivery on Chef Shuttle's website.
All lake delivery orders will automatically default to a drop-off at Gregg Orr Marine. If customers want delivery directly to their boat, they may text the Chef Shuttle number on RaftUp, and the driver will use RaftUp's location services to find the customer on the water. Either way, the delivery charge is $4.95.
Chef Shuttle plans to offer lake delivery between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday through Monday. Customers may request delivery from more than 30 restaurants in Hot Springs, including Chick-Fil-A, Cici's Pizza, Crazy Samurai, Debra's Restaurant, Doc's Pizzeria, Fat Bottomed Girls Cupcake Shoppe, Fat Jacks, Firehouse Subs, Jahna's Restaurant and La Hacienda.
Business on 06/30/2016
*CORRECTION: Ryan Herget is president and chief executive officer of Chef Shuttle. His last name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.