Meet Javier Salgueiro | Co-owner | CTO of Legacy Boats. Software Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Javier Salgueiro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Javier, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Alex and I share the same hometown, Caracas, Venezuela, but we met in Miami in 2019, when a mutual best friend introduced two water-obsessed strangers who quickly realized they’d grown up only a few neighborhoods apart. Our bond formed on the sandbars and mangrove cuts of Biscayne Bay, where the sea breeze felt like home and every outing reminded us of days spent between the Caribbean coast and the green slopes of El Ávila back in Venezuela. Those memories hard-wired us to chase sunlight, open water, and the chance to help others feel that same sense of freedom.

Yet every time we tried to rent a boat, the experience fell short, with hidden fees at the dock, clunky booking portals, or tired vessels that looked far better online than in person. We knew we could do better, and the idea for Legacy Boats crystallized over late-night deck chats: run charters with crystal-clear pricing, a clear booking flow, and a “no-shortcuts” maintenance routine that would keep every hull charter-ready at sunrise. Safety and transparency would be our cornerstones, because fun on the water should never be stressful.
Legacy Boats Miami

Then 2020 arrived. While lockdowns emptied city streets, demand for safe, outdoor escapes exploded. Instead of waiting for life to “return to normal,” we tightened our budgets, logged extra captain hours, and polished a lean business plan. By June 2021, our spreadsheets said “go,” we pooled our savings to buy a 21-foot center console fishing boat, the smallest member of what would become our fleet. That humble workhorse carried our first guests, paid its way, and proved the concept; within 2 years, we sold her to upgrade to larger, more comfortable options that matched the service level we envisioned.

Today, Legacy Boats is still steered by two best friends who turned a shared love of nature into a growing Miami charter company. The fleet is bigger, the booking engine slicker, and the client list longer, but our mission hasn’t changed: help every guest disconnect from the city, reconnect with the outdoors, and sail home with the kind of memories that first drew us to the water, whether in Caracas or Miami.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What sets us apart is radical clarity. Every price, deposit, and policy lives online in plain English and Spanish, and our booking flow takes less than 10 minutes. We inspect each hull before sunrise and don’t leave the dock unless the boat looks and runs like new. That focus on quality and hospitality—learned at Venezuelan family gatherings—has grown our fleet to nine premium boats and more than 750 happy guests, almost all from word-of-mouth.

Getting here wasn’t easy. Insurance was expensive, docks were full, and South Florida’s marine services were stretched thin after COVID. We overcame it by reinvesting every charter into upgrades, leaning on social-media support from friends and family, and refusing to scale until the first boat operated flawlessly. Those early discipline habits are still our guardrails.

Lessons? Trust beats transactions; listen to customers online (our best add-ons came from Instagram DMs); and never outrun your maintenance schedule, quality is the brand. What I want people to know is simple: Legacy Boats is my way of bottling the freedom I felt growing up, and sharing it with anyone who needs open water and clear skies. Board any boat in our fleet and the promise is the same—no stress, no surprises, just you, good people, and Miami at its best.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Miami packs a lifetime of options into one city, so cramming a “complete” itinerary into seven days is nearly impossible, but there are a few stops I refuse to skip. First, fuel up on Cuban coffee and pastelitos at Versailles; it’s the heartbeat of Little Havana and an instant immersion in local flavor. Evenings belong at Lagniappe, where mismatched couches, live jazz, and a self-serve wine wall feel like a backyard party that never ends. For style and art, you have to stroll the Design District, where the architecture, galleries, and public installations make it an outdoor museum with better shopping.

No Miami visit is complete without getting on the water: charter a boat, drop anchor at Nixon Sandbar, then idle over to The Cleat in Bill Baggs Park for sunset cocktails straight off the seawall. Back on land, wander Calle Ocho for hand-rolled cigars, street murals, and a café cubano that hits harder than jet lag. And when late-night hunger strikes, nothing beats Flanigan’s wings, ribs, and a pitcher of beer served until the small hours. There’s plenty more to see, but if you hit these must-haves, you’ll capture most of the soul of the 305 in a single week.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the circle of friends and family who surrounded us long before Legacy Boats was even a sketch in a notebook. They fueled every “what-if” conversation and, when we finally took the plunge, amplified our journey online, liking, sharing, and commenting on every post and story, and sending us DMs packed with ideas that made the business sharper and more customer-focused. A special shout-out goes to the mutual best friend who introduced two Caracas guys to each other here in Miami back in 2019; without that chance meeting, there would be no partnership and no company. We’re equally thankful for the Venezuelan-Miami community that treated our fledgling charter like family, booking first, spreading the word next, and reminding us that hospitality is a value you live, not a tagline. Finally, to our earliest customers—many of whom still sail with us today—thank you for trusting two determined newcomers with your precious weekends. Every bit of encouragement, advice, and literal elbow grease you offered helped turn our shared dream into a growing fleet, and we carry that legacy on the water with pride.

Website: https://legacyboatsmiami.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/legacyboats

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/javsalgueiro

Facebook: Legacy Boats