Meet The Disruptors: Jesse Baker Of JET Hospitality On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
… I can give it my best shot. The hospitality industry has stood the test of time — and disrupting can be good and/or bad. To me, the guest experience itself is positively disrupted when new concepts emerge and push the status-quo. Or new amenities enter the picture. That is because people crave for new, and uncertainty. However, I do believe the guest experience itself can also be negatively impacted when an element becomes out of balance. For example, technology is a great amenity: it allows for marketing on multiple platforms or self-check-in, which really helped during the pandemic. But the core basics of the guest experience — such as serving the guest from the heart, meeting and greeting the guest with eye contact, meeting with a smile, a hand shake, aka the ‘Statler 5/10’ to make a Cornell reference, picking up the phone instead of texting, or going the extra step to booking the reservation instead of just referring to the website. Technology can disrupt this process and have some not-so-positive effects on the traditional elements of the hospitality industry, regardless of the sector. It limits the human aspect.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jesse Baker.
Jesse Baker is Founder & CEO of JET Hospitality. The company is a pioneer in the growing Alternative Lodging segment and re-engineering the guest experience. With destinations in Washington, Idaho, and Montana, JET is serving up “Hospitality from the Heart” with a mix of “Big Outdoor Energy.” Each location offers a variety of unique accommodations including
tiny homes, glamping, bungalows, themed cabins & guestrooms, lodge suites, RV Hook Ups, and BYO camping — bringing together the company’s vision of accommodations for all walks of life. Jesse graduated from the Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University in 2009 with B.S. in Hospitality Management and a Real Estate Minor. He is also a licensed general contractor and the owner of Jet City Builders, a construction company he founded in 2016.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I have been starting and running businesses since I was a kid. I did ok at school and went to Cornell to play football where I enrolled into the Hotel School. After graduating in 2009, I spent five years in the corporate world working for Cintas, climbing the ranks. In 2014, I moved to Seattle and became a commercial hotel appraiser, starting my own company Jet City Capital Management on the side flipping houses and investing in startups. I was learning how to create value.
Enter 2017, I was now a hotel appraiser, general contractor, and founder of multiple startups. Two of the startups, JET Hospitality and PacNW tiny homes, had me running vacation rentals while building a tiny house and looking for a commercial property to build out in between appraisals. The idea was to find a motel/RV park where we could install tiny homes to create a boutique hotel with tiny homes and glamping — getting popular now, but this was five years ago.
It took over a year to find and close the right deal, but we made it happen in 2019 with an option contract and were eventually able to acquire, rehab, rebrand, and open our first location, Pacific Dunes Resort, in 2020, opening Fourth of July weekend that year. We are now at six locations and counting. With the alt-lodging market taking off, our concept is not so alternative anymore!
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
People want to invest in real estate and start companies; both can seem daunting and risky, plus there are significant barriers to entry and long-term success. We are offering a passive investment in or near an ideal recreational location that with it comes passive real estate gains and active operational cash flow from a side-partner stance. By doing so, we are also creating a dynamic capital investment platform to drive our growth. We are applying a hedgehog approach to creating highly desirable real estate opportunities and doing it in way that is disruptive!
We are the Wu-Tang of the modern hospitality industry. We are bringing alternative lodging to the people in all forms — tiny homes, glamping, trailers, RV, themed-rooms, mural walls, tree houses, not just one target niche. This also includes our decentralized management team. Our innkeepers are onsite swiss army knives. Our marketing team is building an army of contributors. The way we raise capital. It’s all different. But our main principal, ‘Hospitality from the Heart’ is as basic as it gets.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Yeah, it’s funny now because we are done with it. We purchased a tear down house and lot that was pre-approved for a 6-lot short plat. The engineering was set and we had to follow that plan. Big mistake. We got stuck with a design that didn’t make sense and caused massive delays. Luckily, I had the right partner to help navigate through this one. I learned: 1. not to get too far out of your wheelhouse, 2. you need a partner with deep pockets when a deal goes sideways, 3. sometimes it’s better to blow up a plan and spend the time to press reset, instead of charging forward with a bad plan in the interest of saving time.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Absolutely, couldn’t agree more. My uncle Matt Becker was instrumental in developing my interest in sports, real estate, and investing. I also worked for some great guys at Cintas, Matt Aller, Danny Young, and Hal Stansbury. Here in the Seattle region John D. Gordon, MAI taught me how to be a hotel appraiser and helped me find my lane. Also, my father-in law Claude Remy has been a great mentor and fellow Commercial RE developer; we talk a lot of shop.
Here is a great example of Big Matt Becker’s influence: he handed me the Rich Dad Poor Dad book when I was ten years old, told me to read it and start thinking about cash flow. That mentality of generating a passive cash flow supported lifestyle has stuck with me to this day.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I can give it my best shot. The hospitality industry has stood the test of time — and disrupting can be good and/or bad. To me, the guest experience itself is positively disrupted when new concepts emerge and push the status-quo. Or new amenities enter the picture. That is because people crave for new, and uncertainty. However, I do believe the guest experience itself can also be negatively impacted when an element becomes out of balance. For example, technology is a great amenity: it allows for marketing on multiple platforms or self-check-in, which really helped during the pandemic. But the core basics of the guest experience — such as serving the guest from the heart, meeting and greeting the guest with eye contact, meeting with a smile, a hand shake, aka the ‘Statler 5/10’ to make a Cornell reference, picking up the phone instead of texting, or going the extra step to booking the reservation instead of just referring to the website. Technology can disrupt this process and have some not-so-positive effects on the traditional elements of the hospitality industry, regardless of the sector. It limits the human aspect.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Yeah, I can do that. How about an old country song, “Always Stay Humble and Kind”?
I use this example because it’s been very applicable to all phases of my life from growing up playing sports, to going off to school, to starting new jobs, to founding new companies. It’s a natural phase of sport, career, and life in general I’ve gathered thus far. You are humbled at the beginning. You earn respect along the way. You pass it back at the top.
At JET, we are trying to implement this mentality in our company culture all the time. On the leadership team, we come from humble backgrounds. We pride ourselves on getting along with all walks of people from all backgrounds and ways of life. We strive to demonstrate servant leadership. These are two of our core competencies. I would never ask an employee to do a job I wouldn’t do. I am at the top, but no job is beneath me. I was the innkeeper when we started and I always will be.
On the Innkeeper side, we are providing housing, lifestyle, and an opportunity to be part of something great. Our best innkeepers are from humble roots; they are not afraid to get their hands dirty, and no job is beneath them. The difference in successful employees at our company is perception of the position. If they are thankful to be there, they are bleeding JET.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We added our sixth property in September 2022, dubbed the Lazy Lake Outpost because of its history and location just five minutes down the road from Columbia Point Resort. It’s across from the lake, state park, and marina just outside of Kettle Falls, Washington. We are planning a beachside, funky retro trailer park with Ag-venture vibes. This will be quite the guest experience and will fully open May 2023!
We are adding glamping and tiny homes at all properties across the board in 2023. We have these lodging elements at many locations already but rounding out the action at all locations will allow us to pick our lane and dominate it. We are creating repeat guests who come back to try a different unit type, each time, and they are now trying other locations as the brand spreads across the region. Whether its RV, bungalow, tiny home, or glamping — our guests return for the vibe and lifestyle. So, we call it “Lifestyle Lodging.” Take it to the bank, you heard it here first, we are bringing all the alt-lodging options to the people, and not a single niche like most competitors.
On the disruptor side, we are going to raise capital and scale in 2023. We want the right partner that lets JET be JET, stretch out a bit, and ultimately continue the hedgehog model. We have new things in the works that could shake the industry dynamically. I will keep those under wraps for now, but I like the direction we’re going.
On the big disruptor side, my business partner Aaron Mumford is executing a hedgehog model of his own and is about to have his third kid in November. My wife Danie and I are also expecting our first child in December. It’s going to be a wild holiday season!
- Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
- Yes, two books. “Good to Great,” speaks of the hedgehog concept. It has a simple but profound impact. Find your lane. Duplicate it. Repeat it. Pour on capital and grow it.
- A lightbulb went off for me because I am someone who likes to compartmentalize my energy, working across multiple lanes. JET Hospitality is in hedgehog mode with our 360-degree model.
JET 360 Degree Model
- Harvest the Deal (Find it)
- Farm the Deal (Sell it)
- Rehab the Deal (Fix it)
- Rebrand the Deal (Market and open it)
- Operate the Deal (Run it)
- Stabilize the Deal (Show it)
- Exit the Deal (Refinance or sale)
- Repeat the Deal (2–3-year process)
The other book is “Atomic Habits.” It’s about trying to get 1% better each day and the exponential effect over the course of one year. This book supplies the reader with the building blocks to dramatically change their life overnight — I highly recommend this book.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Sure. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” That one has stuck with me. I once shot 0–18 in one of my high school basketball games. I shot 20+ times at the next game. It’s ok, I was a victim of circumstance. But my point is, that in sports, or life, or business, it doesn’t matter how many times you miss or fall down, it’s about how you get back up and take another shot. I have been really lucky to be successful in a lot of things I’ve done. But that get it done attitude and the confidence expecting to be good at anything I try is likely the primary factor behind my success and certainly the growth of this company, JET Hospitality.”
You are a person of influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I am a person who beat the odds and who has done things to prove many doubters wrong. If I can get to where I am, anyone can. I have accomplished goals through entrepreneurship, real estate, and by leveraging capital to go after my vision. I took my last $8,000 in 2014 and bought my first house.
If I could inspire a movement, it would be a change in the way our kids are educated. By this, I mean the education systems should teach the kids tested-and-true entrepreneurial concepts early — starting your own business and owning real estate — as an alternative to status quo of graduating high school, going to college, and coming out with a salary and benefits. Teach them exactly how the credit system works, and why good credit is important to secure capital, to invest in your dreams. I believe this movement is already taking place across the country, with many youth reexploring the trades and alternatives to four-year degrees. It ok to drop out to pursue your startup. And taking out that college debt, maybe an alternative to consider is to buy a few rental properties. Seems logical. It would be cool if kids were considering these things in their teens instead of their thirties.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Jesse Baker Of JET Hospitality On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
