Today we’d like to introduce you to Zack Jurasek.
Zack, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I didn’t start out trying to build a company. I started out trying to solve a problem that annoyed me.
I’m an engineer by nature. If something doesn’t exist and should, my brain won’t let it go. Years ago, I went night kayaking and realized the experience was cool, but this can be GREAT.
I taught myself LED electronics, marine lighting, weather analysis, and fabrication. I built the first prototypes in my garage, tested them in real water, broke them, rebuilt them, and kept going until they survived heat, salt, wind, waves, and human error. That process eventually became GlowRow®: crystal-clear kayaks, a proprietary 20,000-lumen lighting system, and the world’s first patented lighted paddle.
GlowRow® wasn’t built for scale first. It was built to work. Every system exists because something failed once and I refused to let it fail again. Safety, durability, redundancy, and experience all came before marketing.
Today, GlowRow® operates across multiple locations, has hosted tens of thousands of guests, won state, national, and international tourism awards, and set the standard for what nighttime kayaking actually should be. We franchise carefully, protect the brand aggressively, and innovate constantly because the moment you coast, someone else passes you.
At the core, I’m still doing the same thing I started with: building what doesn’t exist yet, stress-testing it in the real world, and refusing to accept “good enough.” The glow is just the visible part. The system behind it is the real story.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth road? No. Not even remotely. More like building the road while driving on it… at night… with a headlamp I wired myself… while being chased by a hurricane.
The first challenge was that what I wanted didn’t exist. There was no off-the-shelf solution for high-output, safe, marine-grade lighting that could survive saltwater, heat, impact, and nightly abuse. So every failure was on me. If something broke, I didn’t get to blame a vendor. I got to redesign it.
Then there was skepticism. When you do something new, people don’t clap. They squint. Regulators, competitors, landlords, even customers early on all questioned whether it was safe, scalable, or “necessary.” Convincing people that brighter, better, and safer wasn’t reckless took patience and a lot of data.
Cash flow was another one. Building custom systems costs real money long before revenue catches up. I bootstrapped, reinvested everything, and learned fast how to operate lean without cutting corners that mattered.
People were their own category of challenge. Hiring, training, trust, turnover, and protecting the culture all take more energy than building hardware. Scaling without diluting standards is harder than just growing fast, and I’ve intentionally slowed things down more than once to protect the brand.
And finally, there’s the mental side. When you’re the founder, engineer, problem-solver, and final decision-maker, the pressure doesn’t turn off. You don’t clock out. You learn how to carry it, joke through it, and still make clear decisions when it counts.
None of it was smooth, but every obstacle forced GlowRow® to be stronger, safer, and more intentional. If it had been easy, it wouldn’t be what it is today.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about GlowRow®?
GlowRow® is a nighttime kayaking experience, but calling it a “tour company” is underselling it. It’s an engineered system built around safety, immersion, and doing things the hard way so guests don’t have to think about them at all.
We specialize in crystal-clear kayaks paired with a proprietary 20,000-lumen lighting system and the world’s first patented lighted paddle. None of that was purchased off a shelf. Every component was designed, tested, broken, rebuilt, and proven in real marine environments. Saltwater, heat, wind, human error… if it couldn’t survive that, it didn’t make the cut.
What sets GlowRow® apart is that we lead with engineering and safety, then wrap it in fun. Most people in this space start with “what looks cool.” We start with “what fails at night” and eliminate those failure points first. Redundancy, visibility, weather analysis, guide training, and route planning are all baked into the experience. The glow is intentional, not decorative.
Brand-wise, I’m most proud that GlowRow® didn’t chase trends. We set one. We’ve won state, national, and international tourism awards not because we marketed louder, but because the experience holds up when the lights turn on and the excuses turn off.
GlowRow® is built by someone who refuses to accept “good enough.” Every guest is stepping into a system that’s been stress-tested far beyond what they’ll ever see. It’s playful on the surface, serious underneath, and designed so people leave thinking, “That felt effortless,” without realizing how much work went into making it that way.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
If there’s one thing I’d want readers to take away, it’s this: innovation doesn’t come from being fearless, it comes from being willing to be uncomfortable longer than everyone else.
GlowRow® looks fun, and it is, but it was built through repetition, failure, and an unreasonable level of attention to detail. Most people stop when something works once. I don’t trust it until it’s failed ten different ways and survived all of them.
I’d also say this to anyone building something of their own: you don’t need permission to raise the bar. You don’t need to wait until the market catches up to your standards. If you build something solid enough, the right people will feel it immediately, even if they can’t explain why.
And finally, don’t confuse playful with careless. Some of the most serious work I’ve ever done is wrapped in humor. That’s not an accident. It keeps things human, grounded, and approachable while the real work hums quietly underneath.
That balance… serious systems, lighthearted delivery isn’t just how GlowRow® operates. It’s how I operate.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://glowrow.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glowrowllc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glowrowllc/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-jurasek-2a1b7931b/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@glowrowllc
