From Forbes' "30 Promesas" to 8 Markets: The Nauty 360 Story
How a 2018 startup built around a simple idea — captain and fuel always included — grew into a private charter company recognized by Forbes and operating across the Caribbean and the US.
Why We're Sharing This Story
Most of what we publish on this blog is about destinations — where to go, what a charter costs, how long the boat ride takes. That's useful information, and it's most of what people are looking for when they land here. But every so often it's worth stepping back from the destination guides and talking about the company itself: how Nauty 360 started, and why a recognition from Forbes back in 2020 is still worth mentioning today.
The short version is this: Nauty 360 was founded in 2018, and in 2020 it was recognized in Forbes Colombia's "30 Promesas" list. That recognition doesn't change what a charter costs or how a booking works, but it says something about the mission the company was built on — and that mission is the same one driving how Nauty 360 operates today across eight markets.
What Is Forbes' "30 Promesas"?
If you're reading this from the US, there's a good chance the phrase "Forbes 30 Under 30" comes to mind first — the well-known annual list published by Forbes in the United States, spotlighting young entrepreneurs and professionals across categories like finance, media, and retail. "30 Promesas" is a different list entirely, though it shares the Forbes name.
"30 Promesas" is published by Forbes Colombia (Forbes.co), a regional edition of the Forbes brand that operates independently from the US publication. The list recognizes entrepreneurs under the age of 30 across Latin America, selected each year for building businesses with real traction and long-term potential. It is not affiliated with, ranked alongside, or produced by the same editorial team as the US "30 Under 30" list — the two are separate publications under the same global Forbes umbrella, similar to how Forbes has regional editions in other countries.
Nauty 360 was included in the 2020 edition of "30 Promesas." The original write-up is still published on Forbes Colombia's site — you can read the original recognition here. For a company that was two years old at the time, being included alongside other early-stage Latin American businesses was a meaningful marker, even if it's a regional list rather than the globally recognized one.
Founding Nauty 360 in 2018 — Juan Carlos Moniz's Story
Nauty 360 was founded in 2018 by Juan Carlos Moniz. The idea behind the company was straightforward: a lot of people who want a day out on the water don't actually want to own a boat, deal with maintenance, get a boating license, or figure out navigation and mooring on their own. What they want is the day itself — the water, the stops, the time with friends or family — without the operational complexity that usually comes attached to it.
That gap between "I want a boat day" and "I don't want to operate a boat" became the founding premise of Nauty 360. Instead of building a rental company where customers take the wheel themselves, every charter would come with a licensed captain and fuel included by default — not as an add-on, not as an upsell, but as the baseline. The guest shows up, the boat is ready, and someone who knows the water is running it.
The mission that grew out of that premise — to make private yachting more accessible, and to remove the friction that usually keeps people from ever getting on the water in the first place — is still the mission driving the company today, under Juan Carlos Moniz's direction. It's a simple idea, and it's held up well enough to be the operating model across every market Nauty 360 serves now, six years after the company started.
What the Recognition Meant for the Business
For a young company, external validation from a source outside the business itself tends to matter more than founders sometimes expect going in. A recognition like "30 Promesas" isn't revenue and it isn't a guarantee of anything — but it's a signal, both internally and externally, that the idea behind the business holds up to outside scrutiny.
What that kind of recognition typically provides for a young company is straightforward: some additional visibility beyond the company's existing customer base, a degree of validation that can matter in conversations with partners or in the marina community, and a bit of momentum at a stage when a young business is still proving itself. We're not going to attach specific growth numbers or dramatic before-and-after claims to this — that's not the point of bringing it up. The point is simpler: being named among Latin America's "30 Promesas" in 2020 was an early marker that the founding idea behind Nauty 360 was recognized as worth building on, two years into the company's life.
Where Nauty 360 Is Today
The company that started with a single idea in 2018 now operates private charters across eight markets: Cartagena (Colombia), Miami, Cancún, Casa de Campo, Punta Cana, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum. Each market has its own boats, its own captains, and its own local conditions — but the same operating model applies everywhere: captain and fuel included, and a commitment to confirming bookings quickly rather than leaving guests waiting.
Growing from one market to eight is not really the headline here, though. The headline is that the model hasn't changed. The same premise that got the company into "30 Promesas" back in 2020 — remove the operational hassle, keep the captain and fuel included, make the day about the water and not the logistics — is the same premise running every charter booked today. If you want more detail on the company itself, the about Nauty 360 page covers what each market offers and how the booking process works.
Looking Ahead
We're not going to close this out with projections or numbers we can't back up. What we can say is that the mission hasn't shifted since 2018: make private yachting accessible to people who want a day on the water without the burden of operating a boat themselves. That was true when Nauty 360 was a two-year-old company recognized in "30 Promesas," and it's still true now, across eight markets.
If any part of this story made you curious about what a charter with Nauty 360 actually looks like — the boats, the markets, how booking works — the reservations page is a good place to start.