In the Beginning...
(a.k.a. the summer of 2016) the founders, Pallavi and Kevin, wanted to go bouldering in Yosemite Valley. They didn't own a crash pad, and, since they were doing internships in San Francisco for the summer, they couldn't easily have brought one with them on the plane.
No problem, right? San Francisco is the land of Airbnb, Uber, Getaround, Amazon Prime Now, etc. You can get anything you want. Fast. Plus, it has a thriving outdoors community and three indoor climbing gyms. But, none of these places offered crash pad rentals. At REI, the cashier regrettably told them that she would rent out her own if she could - it just sat under her bed collecting dust most days. And so, Presta was born! After a couple more similar experiences that summer, Pallavi and Kevin decided to build a peer-to-peer outdoor gear rental platform. |