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Aaron Friedland: COventure Forward Entrepreneur

Aaron Friedland and friend posing in front of a rocky structure on a hike.

You’ve undoubtedly heard of the rising trend of campervans as an alternative to living in a house or apartment. What you may not know is how expensive these vans are to obtain; a fully-equipped campervan can cost upwards of $100,000. This is why Aaron Friedland started Oasis Campervans, which converts everyday minivans into liveable (and far more affordable) alternatives to traditional campervans.

“What we offer appeals to those who want to live the van life, but don't want a big vehicle, or don't have the budget for one.”

When Aaron joined COventure Forward, he was heavily considering giving up ownership of the company. His mentor helped him realize how over-encumbered he was. Aaron was doing all of the van building, marketing, accounting, customer relations, and web design by himself! While this is quite impressive, Oasis Campervans is far more manageable now that Aaron has hired four people and moved to a 1500 square foot shop. He told us:

“I think the advice [my mentor] gave about hiring support is very helpful. I started to understand that I am not an expert at everything (or anything, really), and that other specialists would be much more well suited to help me with certain tasks.”

So what’s in store for Aaron and his crew as businesses open up?

“I am looking forward to gathering with people again and hopefully meeting some new people as they become more comfortable with socializing again!”

If you feel the same or have been considering van life yourself, you’re in luck:

“Come hang out with us at the Colorado Tiny House Festival in June this year in Brighton, CO!”

Exits are something few entrepreneurs get to the point of being able to consider. And although Oasis Campervans is running as smooth as ever, Aaron doesn’t want to be doing this forever.

“I would love to chat with someone about how I could position myself to make an exit from the business at some point.”

As always, we encourage the CVF community to connect with Aaron if you have ideas or connections that could help him with this.

Aaron’s shout-out goes to his game-changing team.

“The employees who I've hired have been awesome. They come in every day with the intention of working. That is really as much as I could ever ask for.”