Exploring Life & Business with Nate Grimm of Kinship Landing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nate Grimm.  

Hi Nate, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My story and Kinship’s story are full of exploration and innovative paths, all driven by the purpose of the community. I was fortunate enough to cut my teeth in the hospitality industry in Denver as the owner and asset manager for the Marriott SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown; developed as a partnership with MSU Denver to enable the next generation of hoteliers to succeed through real-world experience and community engagement. As a 26-year-old entrusted with much of the success of a first-of-its-kind venture, I relied extensively on those that were much smarter and more experienced than me. I am where I am thanks to the shoulders, I have been lucky enough to stand on. 

Kinship Landing’s story all started with friendship and adventure. My two current business partners and best friends Brooke and Bobby Mikulas took an incredible trip around the world to adventure and rest after college. Meeting up throughout the trip, we all kindled an entrepreneurial desire to forge ahead with something. Something hopefully bigger than us, that would help communities thrive. After this extended time traveling, sinking our teeth deep into our local community, making lifelong friends, and recognizing a global need for intentional, authentic hospitality, our founding team landed back home in Colorado with a clear vision: create an awesome place to sleep and the easiest way to find friendship and adventure. It was a long journey, but from start to finish we successfully acquired blighted real estate, designed a new hotel concept, constructed the building, and now own and operate Kinship Landing, a friendly Boutique Hotel as well as its main level local Cafe and Bar, Homa. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Not in the least. Developing a new, non-flagged (non-franchised), startup, small hotel with innovative accommodation options was wrought with challenges, establishing a new brand, raising equity and debt financing, breaking into a very traditional development market, and having construction setback after setback, all contributed to the difficulty, but also our resolve to see the project succeed. And just when we were making strong progress, preparing to open our brand-new hotel… an international pandemic hit; thrusting the hospitality industry into a tailspin. 

As you know, we’re big fans of Kinship Landing. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Kinship Landing is a friendly boutique hotel brand that is bringing a new kind of hospitality to the market. When you travel, sometimes it just clicks. You find yourself meeting up with locals who show you a real experience; an authentic encounter with a place that is home to real people. These moments of sharing insights are the times when ownership is transferred, and this new place becomes yours as much as it is ours. 

We built Kinship Landing for this experience. We have five deeply held core values: Generosity, Adventure, Community, Trust, and Courage. These values inform our view of hospitality; hospitality that turns strangers into friends and friends into family. We’ve created a cozy and unique space for you to not only sleep like a champ and make new friends but to plan and launch your adventure. And when the day is turning golden, we can be the place to land and relive the stories of your day. 

At Kinship Landing, we are known for creating authentic spaces where, from the moment you walk in, you feel an immense sense of belonging. Sometimes the hospitality industry can be, from a traditional sense: sterile and predictable or from a modern sense: exclusionary and pretentious. We’re choosing to run a different path, one that provides an invitational on-ramp to the best of the local ‘hidden’ scene, while still caring for the community and teaching guests how to sustainably value the wonderful parts of a locale. 

We have a saying at Kinship: “This isn’t our hotel, it’s yours”. And we mean it. It’s the local community that informs who we are, so that no matter what community we are in, it is a gift to it. 

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Yes. There is always an innovative way to solve problems. Sometimes that means relying on a helping hand, and sometimes that means digging in and being even more innovative in order to succeed. 

It can always get worse. Build a business that isn’t just squeaking by with minimal margin. Build a business that thrives, builds cash reserves (above industry standards), and can weather the storms of recessions or changes in consumer behavior. 

Build something that’s flexible. For example, some of our accommodation options within our hotel didn’t lend themselves well to social distancing, fortunately, we foresaw the potential need to change course with these rooms and were able to easily convert them to rooms that have been much more successful. 

Contact Info:

• Email: Nate@kinshiplanding.com and hello@kinshiplanding.com
• Website: www.kinshiplanding.com
• Instagram: @kinshiplanding

Image Credits
Kinship Landing