William Lee is the man behind the black-owned yacht rental company in Tulum. The yacht rental company was created after realizing that the opportunity was there.
If you ever want to start a successful business and make a lot of cash, one way of doing it is to find what is missing and provide it. That’s what William Lee did. After noticing there wasn’t a yacht service that catered to Black travelers, William Lee took the opportunity to create one.
It was just last June that Lee took a vacation to Tulum, a town in Mexico, to get away from all the Pandemic stress. While there, he and his friend decided to go out on a yacht. The experience for Lee was not the best, to say the least. “The cabin smelled moldy, the food was unimpressive, it was impossible to move around the boat during the trip,” says Lee.
William Lee’s Yacht Club Company
Shortly after, the 30-year-old Lee became founder and CEO of the Yacht Club Company. He made the business decision to lease yachts rather than own them.
“I looked at Airbnb and Uber. They don’t take on the cost of a depreciating asset. It doesn’t make sense for us either. We don’t have to worry about maintenance, docking fees,” says Lee.
And get this, Lee focuses on POC because he says they are underserved in Tulum. He notices how we spend a lot of money at restaurants and bars and “they’re not playing our music.” He believes that $1 billion that Black people spend on travel a year is underappreciated. Which, I could understand.
He seized the opportunity to cater to that demographic. Come on one of his tours and you’ll know immediately it’s a Black thang, steeped in the culture. “I have alcohol that we like, Hennessy, Azul, Patrone. On some other tours you’re going to get guacamole, ceviche. Us, fried grouper, rice and beans, and fire-grilled chicken, ‘90s R&B music. It’s a premium experience for sure, but not at a premium cost,” says Lee of the company’s private tours.
