Photo: Eileen Escarda
"We don't stop innovating for a minute," says Nathan Heber.
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Artificial Intelligence
AI, Captain
Boatyard, a Fort Lauderdale tech firm, is using artificial intelligence to streamline the way marine service providers interact with customers and boost the businesses' bottom lines.
Years ago, serial entrepreneur Nathan Heber and his wife, dermatologist Jordana Herschthal, took a bareboat charter — where you rent a boat and crew it yourself — in the British Virgin Islands. “We were very underqualified. We were new sailors,” Heber recalls. But, he adds, “We had the time of our lives.”
They had such a good time that Heber decided he had to be in the boat business. Born and raised in Miami Beach, he had studied business and dramatic writing at New York University. His entrepreneurial resume included leading a parking company for a time. Observing his boat-owner friends, he recognized the pain points in ownership, such as the missed time on the water due to maintenance and the difficulties in finding good service.
He launched Boatyard in 2015 as a consumer-focused, on-demand service engine — a marine Angie’s List connecting boat owners with vetted service professionals.
He and his team did well enough that early in 2020 Boatyard was acquired on undisclosed terms by Clearwater- based boat retailer MarineMax. Heber stayed on as CEO with Boatyard based in Fort Lauderdale. He came to see that in an age when people can track the progress of a pizza delivery order on a phone, marine service providers lacked tech tools for customer communication.
To address the shortcomings, Boatyard in 2021 came out with a new software-as-a-service subscription sold to boat dealers and service providers. His client companies can allow customers to schedule service, check work status, pay digitally, share photos and video with technicians, receive service reminders and so on. It’s white label, so Boatyard’s presence is all but invisible to boat owners. “We want to empower the marine business — not get between them and their customers,” he says. “We really want to drive the whole industry forward.”
Boatyard debuted a new customer portal in 2023. It also turned to artificial intelligence, first with a “just for fun” consumer-focused app allowing boaters to query for info — whether it’s how the control panel on their boat operates or the nearest lunch place with a dock. A subsequent AI innovation uses an AI language model to help technicians with grammar, spelling and wording to turn written and dictated notes into professional-sounding reports for customers and managers. Boatyard’s third AI iteration takes manufacturer spec sheets and converts the data into a standardized format.
The tools have led to better communications with customers, a significant increase in how fast customers pay and a high conversion rate on service reminders, he says.
Boatyard took eight years to grow to $100 million in service sales handled and then just one more year to get to $200 million, Heber says. His aim this year is to sign more dealers and service providers and continue innovating.
Heber, 45, doesn’t sail much anymore. He’s too busy building the company and raising the three boys he and Herschthal have had since their bareboat charter adventure. Instead, he kite surfs.
