{"id":7382,"date":"2016-07-19T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2016\/07\/19\/startup-snapshots-glamping-luxury\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:16:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:16:45","slug":"startup-snapshots-glamping-luxury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2016\/07\/19\/startup-snapshots-glamping-luxury\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup Snapshots: Glamping luxury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Robert Frisch, MBA \u201913, Firelight Camps<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>by Dick Anderson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/startups-glamping-320x.jpg\" alt=\"Startup Snapshots: Glamping luxury\" class=\"wp-image-7383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/startups-glamping-320x.jpg 320w, https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/startups-glamping-320x-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/startups-glamping-320x-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If your ideal camping companion is Gwyneth Paltrow \u2014 not Bear Grylls \u2014 then Firelight Camps may be your ecotourism destination. Located on the grounds of Ithaca\u2019s La Tourelle Resort and Spa, the elevated campground caters to an upscale clientele who are eager to commune with nature from the comfort of a luxury safari tent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis year we\u2019ll have 18 tents,\u201d says chief glamping officer Bobby Frisch, who founded Firelight Camps in 2014 with his wife, Emma (a former \u201cFood Network Star\u201d finalist and the camp\u2019s culinary director). Frisch spent two years developing small businesses with the Peace Corps in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, where he and Emma also started La Buena Onda, a boutique hostel and restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The couple met as undergrads at the University of Pennsylvania, and it was rock climbing at first sight. \u201cWe\u2019d go on long overnight camping trips \u2014 real camping \u2014 and a lot of times people wouldn\u2019t want to join us because it was uncomfortable and they didn\u2019t own the equipment,\u201d Frisch says. \u201cWe wanted to bring that experience of sleeping in nature to a wider audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a graduate student, Frisch wrote a business plan for his glamping concept, finding early investors through the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. During its pilot season, Bobby and Emma set up six tents \u201cto see how many people would show up.\u201d Quite a few turned out \u2014 including journalist Ralph Gardner Jr., who wrote in <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, \u201cIt\u2019s a way to enjoy the great outdoors for those who consider high-thread-count sheets important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Could Firelight Camps be a yupscale Jellystone Park, with glampgrounds nationwide? \u201cWe do get a lot of inquiries,\u201d Frisch says. Without the validation of his MBA, \u201cI could have set up the tents and maybe run the operations, but certainly would have not been able to raise a large amount of money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Frisch, MBA \u201913, Firelight Camps by Dick Anderson If your ideal camping companion is Gwyneth Paltrow \u2014 not Bear Grylls \u2014 then Firelight Camps may be your ecotourism destination.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":7383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[196,201],"ppma_author":[],"class_list":["post-7382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-profiles","tag-archived","tag-eii-cornell-startups"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.2 (Yoast SEO v28.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Startup Snapshots: Glamping luxury - Cornell Business Centers &amp; Institutes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Robert Frisch, MBA \u201913, Firelight Camps by Dick Anderson If your ideal camping companion is Gwyneth Paltrow \u2014 not Bear Grylls \u2014 then Firelight Camps may\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2016\/07\/19\/startup-snapshots-glamping-luxury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Startup Snapshots: Glamping luxury - Cornell Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Robert Frisch, MBA \u201913, Firelight Camps by Dick Anderson If your ideal camping companion is Gwyneth Paltrow \u2014 not Bear Grylls \u2014 then Firelight Camps may\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2016\/07\/19\/startup-snapshots-glamping-luxury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Centers &amp; 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