This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Delaware College students place ads on 450,000 cars. This is a fun one we're gonna hear today about two enterprising students who start a business connecting advertisers with car owners. They ended up paying thousands of drivers up to $500 a month and were on track to earn $5 million in revenue. In fact, they believe that we are living in a time where if you own a car, you can own your own company. Now that might be a bit of a stretch or at least a bit of a marketing promise.
But basically what they did is they created a way for car owners to get paid for hosting ads on their cars. It's an all new type of gig economy model effectively. So how did it get started? How did it turn out? Again, 450,000 cars, 450,000 drivers signed up in the millions of dollars of annual revenue.
And this also started as a side hustle with low startup costs and no venture capital. That is, of course, the side hustle school way. You don't have to go begging or borrowing money. There's a way you can get started without spending much money at all, at least for a lot of different kinds of businesses. So let's talk about this one.
Delaware College students, 450,000 cars, the all new gig economy model, et cetera. The detailed story is coming right up. [Music]
When University of Delaware student Greg Starr signed up for an entrepreneurship class, he wasn't expecting to walk away with a business idea. But when he heard a fellow student, Mac Nagaswamy, bring up an idea for mobile ads, Greg jumped. This was an opportunity he thought was too good to be missed.
What was this simple idea? Well, it could be explained in just four words, put ads on cars. Greg and Mac were inspired by how U-Haul had managed to build up such great brand recognition, even though they did no advertising at all, except on those trucks they owned. And to Greg and Mac, cars were an overlooked medium of ads. Cars are able to get into areas that buses and billboards just couldn't.
So why hadn't anyone done this before? Well, as they found out, it was a simple idea, but one that was difficult to execute. I even had a name in mind, Carver Ties. Carver Ties. They started by printing and distributing flyers on campus to see if they were people interested in putting ads on their cars for money.
Now, the reaction was mixed at first. Cars like clothing are often seen as a reflection of an individual's style and personality. But Greg and Mac soldiered on and started to get community institutions such as schools and hospitals on board as advertisers. This provided initial proof of concept, but it was still doubtful if it could turn into a full-scale business. Their big break came later when they received a reply after emailing the head of economic development in Delaware.
Greg had made a list of people to know by looking at the boards of universities, nonprofit organizations, government officials, and he sent them all notes. This yielded results when the cabinet secretary for economic development put them in touch with the local shopwright CEO. Hey, what can you say? Delaware is a small state. Everybody knows each other.
This was the first big deal that Greg and Mac struck after one and a half years of hard work, and they were related. But it was also time for them to prove that the advertisers were right to place their trust in them. They'd never run a full-on campaign. They were nervous, but with hard work and some luck, they managed to pull it off. The next few early deals followed the same pattern.
They would reach out to prospects, play the numbers game, and hope to get a favorable response. It was exhausting getting rejected over and over and sometimes ignored, but the strategy yielded enough results to continue. And along the way, something else happened. Word had gotten out, and soon enough, Greg and Mac were getting referrals. It also helped when they switched their recruitment plan from handing out flyers to digital ads.
This significantly increased their reach and allowed them to onboard new drivers for new campaigns. Next, they made a decision that had immediate positive results, and this is one that has stayed with them to this day, many years later. Greg noticed that Uber and Lyft drivers were already driving all day, so it would be especially useful to have rideshare drivers spread the word about advertisers. When they decided to market to those drivers, the size of their company tripled, and then the following year, it doubled. The company was set to make $5 million that year in revenue.
And as they say, we're living in a time now where if you own a car, you can own your company. They've certainly contributed to that statement as they typically pay drivers an additional $100 to $150 a month, and sometimes even up to $500 a month for bigger campaigns. As of the time of our original story, they paid out over $1.5 million for everyday people just for putting their ads on a car. From handing out flyers as university students to now having brand names like EA Sports and 7-Eleven on board, it's been quite the ride for Greg and Mac. [Music]
Well, I was curious about what had happened with Carver Ties since we first featured this story a number of years ago, and guess what?
They're still going strong, carverties.com. In fact, it now looks like they've focused entirely on ride share drivers, which seems smart. They have a network of 300,000 registered drivers, people out driving every single day, and they've done all kinds of campaigns with lots of big companies. You can see some photos on their site. You can see how it works.
You can get info on pricing. So it seems like all these years later, this business idea was actually a good one and not just a good idea, but one that they executed well. Good job, guys. Congrats to Greg and Mac. Listeners, thank you for being out there.
I hope this story gets you thinking about something you can do. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. There's an idea you can follow up on as well, and I hope you'll do that. Just take one small step today. And of course, continue to listen to the show.
It's completely free, seven days a week, wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
