While e-commerce has revolutionized most industries, experience-based businesses like sailing schools, yoga retreats, and adventure tours require something fundamentally different. Traditional e-commerce platforms focus on simple transactions: browse, buy, and ship. But booking experiences is more than just a transaction – it’s about managing a complete journey. When you book, for example, a sailing course, you’re not just buying a spot – you need to share your experience level and dietary requirements, receive guidance on what to pack, connect with your instructor, and afterward, relive the memories through photos and stories. That’s why Buchung, a digital infrastructure designed explicitly for experience commerce, was created. Learn more about the problems they’re solving, read about their growth potential, and check out their live round on Leapfunder.

1. Hi Maurits. Thank you for agreeing to do the interview. Tell us about Buchung and the idea that got it all started.

Buchung is transforming how experience-based businesses operate in the digital age. We have created a specialized booking and management platform for firms like sailing schools, yoga retreats, and adventure tours. At its core, we offer these businesses a branded booking website and management dashboard that addresses all the complexities of selling experiences — from monitoring available spots to managing customer communications and payments.

My journey with Buchung began with personal experience. After years of involvement at a sailing school — first as a participant, then as an instructor, and eventually as a location director, I witnessed firsthand how inadequate technology held these passionate business owners back. They attempted to run complex operations using basic WordPress sites and scattered Excel sheets when they needed infrastructure specifically designed for experience commerce.

Since our founding in 2022, we’ve validated this vision by processing nearly €4M in bookings and increasing our revenue to €101K in 2024. What’s exciting is that sailing schools are just our starting point – we’re developing a platform that can support any experience-based business.

2. What problems are you trying to solve? What are the benefits of Buchung?

Today, we are addressing the fundamental challenge that experience-based businesses face: efficiently selling and managing bookings involving multiple dependencies. For example, when someone books a sailing course, the system must check if an appropriate boat, accommodation, and instructor are available. We provide this through two essential components: a branded online booking website for their customers and a comprehensive management dashboard that allows operators to control their entire business.

However, our vision goes beyond just bookings. We aspire to become the central operating system for experience-based businesses, managing everything from marketing to daily operations. Most small to medium-sized tour operators — including sailing schools, yoga retreats, and adventure tours are run by passionate individuals who wish to focus on creating great experiences. They often lack the time to tackle technology and the knowledge of what modern digital tools can do for their business. They excel at delivering exceptional experiences, not keeping pace with the latest digital transformations.

Starting with booking infrastructure, we’re working toward a comprehensive platform that will revolutionize how operators manage their entire business. We refer to this as the experience circle:

3. You have a live round on Leapfunder. What makes it the right tool for your startup, and what do you expect from the round?

Leapfunder has proven to be an invaluable partner for our first investment round. Leapfunder’s comprehensive support through detailed documentation and online courses has helped us navigate this new territory. They manage all the legal documentation and transaction infrastructure, allowing us to focus on what matters most — building our product and connecting with investors.

From this round, we seek more than just capital. We aim to connect with angels who share our vision of evolving beyond traditional booking software into a comprehensive platform for experience-based businesses. The right investors will help us uncover new revenue opportunities while keeping us focused on our core growth strategy: expanding our customer base among tour operators.

4. How much growth potential do you see for Buchung?

We see significant growth potential for Buchung through various expansion paths. First, our platform architecture is intentionally industry-agnostic and multilingual, enabling us to scale beyond our initial sailing school market into any experience-based business vertical — from yoga retreats to adventure tours.

Second, we have numerous revenue opportunities beyond our core booking fees. While we begin with basic booking functionality, we can expand into premium features, custom integrations, and enhanced support packages that provide additional value for operators as they grow.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect is our distribution strategy. In addition to direct sales to tour operators, we’re positioning Buchung as the preferred backend solution for digital agencies worldwide that create websites for local tour operators. This B2B2B approach allows us to scale efficiently by leveraging existing relationships between agencies and operators while focusing on what we do best: providing robust booking infrastructure.

5. What are your plans for the upcoming months? Tell us about your go-to-market strategy and the plan to acquire customers.

We’re building on a strong foundation. We’ve already secured eight of the largest sailing schools in the Netherlands as customers for 2025 and are managing the technical and marketing operations for the Nationaal Watersportdiploma certification program. Our market leadership in the Dutch sailing school sector provides valuable references for expansion.

Our immediate focus is on enhancing our technical platform to enable seamless self-service. We’re implementing improvements that will allow operators to independently configure and maximize the platform’s capabilities without requiring extensive support from our team. This is crucial for scaling efficiently with new customers.

We’re taking a “show, don’t tell” approach to customer acquisition. We plan to create customized demo environments that replicate operators’ existing booking sites within Buchung, allowing them to experience firsthand how our platform could transform their business. This tangible demonstration of value has proven highly effective in converting prospects into customers.

Thanks for sharing your startup story with us. We wish Buchung the best of luck.

Join our network of startups & investors!