Robert McMillan had been sitting on the domain camping.tools for years.
Around 2015 .tools became publicly available and McMillan, an IT consultant, entrepreneur, and Georgia resident, bought the camping one without much thought about what it might be used for.
After decades building his consulting career and several businesses, McMillan was ready by 2019 to see if he could turn his lifelong passion for camping into a new venture.
Some of his earliest memories involve his family loading up their Chevy Impala with a pop-up camper and heading into the great outdoors. As an adult, he continued the tradition with his sons. But as his children prepared to leave for college, he began reflecting on what he was truly passionate about and how to integrate that into the next chapter of his career.
The ‘aha’ moment came when McMillan noticed a gap in the camping market: the need for a tool that could help enthusiasts plan, share, and organize their camping experiences. He didn’t want to share every photo or memory on social media but wanted a curated way to document and connect with the wider camping community.
So he started prototyping out a platform that could help camping enthusiasts plan their adventures, organize their memories, and keep track of different trips. Six months later, he was shopping the concept around at large RV shows in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Tampa, Florida, and elsewhere across the country to figure out what about their product resonated with his target audience.
“You can save your memories and share them if you want to. By default, everything’s very private,” McMillan said, adding that this approach provides a level of safety for families using the app.
Camping.Tools has also built out a marketplace for campers to buy and sell used gear, ensuring equipment finds a good home while promoting sustainable practices.
Passion and Pivots in the Startup World
Self-funded to date, McMillan says his faith is a key driver that helps him navigate the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.
“Believing in something that you can’t see, feel, or touch, but you know so strongly that it’s going to happen that you’re willing to abandon what other people would consider reasonable…that’s faith in a nutshell,” he added.
Now, camping.tools is gearing up for its first investment round and first big pivot. The team is looking to fill another gap in the market and roll out a cash back app geared towards the camping industry early next year.
A lot of that new focus came from McMillan listening to customers and diving in fully into what he was learning about the industry.
“There’s no substitute for product-market fit. I can’t stress that enough. It’s good old fashioned hard work and market research and, you know, iterating on some features and talking to people who use the platform,” he said. “It is knowing that something is going to work with such enthusiasm that you are not only willing, but encouraged, to abandon everything.”