Give boating instructors the app free and build the teaching tools they ask for

David BarnardTell me more about the instructor program. Do you treat them as like affiliates? Do they have a code? Do they get kickbacks? Do they just get free Savvy Navvy? How does that work?

Jelte LiebrandThey're not affiliates. They do get a free version of the app, but actually, what is far more important is that we work really closely with them and go, "Okay. How are you teaching boating? What are the things, what are the tools that you use?" Here in the UK, there's a big push for digital first to step away from the old way of teaching with just paper charts and doing more digital stuff. How are you guys bringing that into the classroom? What are you missing? What is not really working? And so, we've built tools within the app to help instructors teach boating and teach safer boating effectively. And so, yeah, they get Savvy Navvy for free, and then their students get a discount, sure, but the real working mechanics here is that we work closely with them. We do webinars. We take a lot of their feedback. They're beta users for us. Any features that we have, we first roll it out to them. We get their feedback. Does this work? Does this not work? And so, it's a real close-knit arrangement.

Jelte LiebrandWe do a similar thing in the US. We've just signed with American Sailing, and outside of instructors, we have a bunch of different programs like this working with chandleries or boat shops where people obviously... They might not be on Facebook. They might not be searching for boat apps, but if they see us in the shop or they can see a QR code through which they can get something, all of these non-digital routes help us with that validation for …

David Barnard… them a ton of value. So there's a value exchange there by helping them be better instructors. You are giving them free access, but I would have guessed that there was an affiliate revenue kind of situation. But I mean, it just speaks to what a great product you've built and how respected you are in the industry and how much care there is that these instructors would promote and be a part of this without getting that kind of financial kickback.

Jelte LiebrandYeah. To be clear, for a lot of them, they don't want the kickback, and they don't because they don't want to be seen as a sales rep. That's not the point. The point is how are you safe on the water, and for a lot of them, they also promote some of the other tools or at least use some of the other tools. But we work more closely with them, and so they go, "Okay. Well, here are all the tools that are available to you." There are different apps you can get on the App Store, and they will walk through them. But we're the only ones that are talking to them. We're the ones that are listening to them, and so they will go immediately to Savvy Navvy. They go, "If your GPS fails," and I know this is a thing though. A lot of people go, "GPS doesn't fail." Well, if you're in the Baltic Sea right now with everything that's going on …

Jelte LiebrandAnd so, the concept of traditionally on the boat, if the mechanics fail, you need to be able to take what's called a three-point fix. You use your hand-bearing compass to look at a lighthouse over there and another one over there and one over, and you draw three lines. You triangulate on the paper chart. That's where I'm at. We do that within the app none of the other apps do that because we work closely with the instructor. And so, it's almost like they purposely don't want that kickback because it's not about being a sales rep. It's about being a good instructor and teaching people how to stay safe out on the water and what tools you can use and which ones are the best.

David BarnardYeah. That is so cool. Well, we have a ton of things on this list for us to keep talking about, but we're running short on time. The good news is, and I'll have said this in the intro to the podcast, we're going to have you on the the YouTube Sub Club live stream, August 6th, 9:00 AM Pacific, 1800 Central European Time. We will pick up from here and cover some of the stuff we didn't get to, and then we'll also take questions. So those of you …