Snag-a-Slip is looking to help boaters find a place to dock

Baltimore boat slip reservation startup Snag-a-Slip has a new CFO and fresh capital to start the year.
The City Garage-based startup is offering boaters a way to rent slips to keep their boats, freeing up the option of last-minute booking. Or, as recently named COO Jen Leroux put it, “Hotels.com on the water.”
The marinas list their openings on Snag-a-Slip’s website, and boaters can peruse options after entering their length, beam, draft and power type. The boaters aren’t charged an extra fee to use the service. Snag-a-Slip makes money from fees paid by marinas.
Since launching in 2015 in Annapolis, the company founded in 2013 by University of Maryland MBA alum Dan Cowens built its inventory to include 350 marinas in the Eastern U.S. and Caribbean islands.
The company found that they “had to have inventory before they go out and spend a lot of marketing dollars. They spent the last year really building a world class selection of marinas,” Leroux said.
Heading into this year, Leroux said they’re moving into a phase of focusing on attracting more boaters. The company moved into an office at City Garage in Port Covington, where 12 of its roughly 25 employees are now based.
Investment dollars are also part of the equation. The company recently closed on $1.2 million in convertible note financing, and is looking to begin raising a Series A later this year.
Leroux will take the wheel on that effort.
She was CFO and VP of Operations at social media cybersecurity company ZeroFOX, and helped lead the company’s fundraising for its Series A and B rounds, which netted $37 million.
Leroux said she left the social media cybersecurity company about 10 months ago, and was spending time with family and traveling. But she still wanted to work with early-stage companies. The product at Snag-a-Slip is a lot different, but there’s a common approach in a company with a niche that hasn’t been addressed, and a goal of being first to market, Leroux said.
Leroux became an advisor to Snag-a-Slip, which led to taking the leadership role. She is also now CFO of Snag-a-Slip’s parent company, Oasis Group Holdings.