Hey there! I’m Benjamin, and this is my wife, Linh. I was born in the parking lot of a fire station on Kiawah Island because the ambulance didn’t have time to get me to the hospital. Not a great start. I spent my childhood on Kiawah Island where my parent’s created Kiawah Island Getaways, a boutique vacation rental property management company. They both quit their jobs to focus on this business and it reached 15 properties at its peak. I went to college in Savannah and then decided to move abroad to become a web developer.

While I was traveling in Mexico, my parent’s dropped down to Merida to celebrate my 30th birthday with me. During their visit, they mentioned they were overwhelmed with their daily workload. Linh, my girlfriend at the time, was in the hospitality industry was looking for work. She offered her help. She started doing their tasks manually and did a really great job! She really has an eye for detail. I was watching her one day and realized that the tasks she was doing could be automated. I then used a programming language to write a script that cut her work load down by 80%. With her freed time, she was able to take on more of their tasks which I slowly automated as well.

My parents were overjoyed and my mother’s work load reduced from 8+ hours a day to less than 2. She finally had more time on her hands and started a backyard chicken coop! We also used tech to streamline more of their problems such as employee payroll, task management and inventory fulfillment. Now that they didn’t need to spend their day doing these routine tasks, they decided to open a second branch in Missouri (named Gasconade Getaways). It feels great to watch their business grow and operate smoothly. Our dream is to one day open our own vacation rental company. We have purchased property in Hoi An, Vietnam and we would like to bring the boutique rental market to Vietnam.