December 26, 2025 • 27 mins
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In this episode, I sat down with Korey McDavid, the founder of Juiced Fuel, to talk about how on demand gas delivery actually works as a real business. We get into why this plugs directly into everyday behavior, how repeat usage turns fuel into predictable revenue, and which customers really make the model work. Korey shares how he started this on the side, how the business compounds once people build the habit, and where it’s headed next. He’s now in his third year and on pace to do over $1 million this year, which makes this a great example of a straightforward business executed well.
You can check out Juiced Fuel at https://juicedfuel.com and follow them on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/juicedfuel.
Enjoy!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If you're moving a ton of fuel, there's plenty of suppliers
that'll bring you gas, but therewas no one who's taking care of
boats, small businesses, no one taking care of personal
vehicles. It's a huge demand that's unmet.
What we're really building is repeatable revenue, stacking
those customers, getting them inthe habit of making the request,
and then all of a sudden all their fuel spend is now with us
(00:20):
here, family 2 vehicles like Bailey drivers, It's like 5
grand a year. When you first started, did you
quit your job? No, I do it on the side.
The whole first year was me in my spare time making deliveries.
Mobility services and delivery has been a growing trend for
decades now. And so why not gas something
that we need every day? What?
(00:41):
If someone in Sacramento wants to start this, what would you
tell them to do that you wish you would have done differently
when you started? Why don't we start by you?
Just tell me who you are and what you do.
Corey McDavid I am the founder of Juice Fuel.
We are a mobile fuel delivery service.
OK. And what gave you the idea to
(01:02):
start that? So it started with, you know, my
wife, we had just had her, her second child and, and she hated
going to the gas station. She drove a diesel SUV.
Now there's less diesel pumps. So a lot of times you're waiting
on the diesel pump to open up and, you know, crying kids, you
know, hot in South Carolina. She just hated the whole
(01:23):
experience. But also at the time, I was
terminal manager for the bulk liquids terminal here in
Charleston that brings in all the fuel to the greater
Charleston area. So my day job was literally like
monitoring the, you know, who the suppliers were, who their
customers were, which, which gascustomers could actually move
(01:44):
the needle in the area. And that just got me looking
into, you know, seeing how, how we could move more barrels
across our rack. You know, that was, that was my,
my main job. But in doing that research, I
saw that there was really no onethat was supplying fuel to the
(02:05):
little guys. Like if you're moving a ton of
fuel, there's plenty of suppliers that'll bring you
bring you gas. You got a big tank on your yard
'cause you run a big construction company or
something. There are guys that will supply
that. But there was no one who's
taking care of boats, no one's taking care of small businesses,
no one taking care of personal vehicles.
And so when my wife was having this problem, I was like, I'm
(02:27):
the guy to fix this solution andmake it better for everyone.
Yeah, you're like, of all people, I'm the one most
qualified to fix this problem. Yeah, yeah.
No do with it. No one can.
Now, was there ever a moment where you kind of were thinking
about this idea and then you sawa truck driving around doing
mobile fuel delivery and you're like, oh, this is a thing?
Yes, so when I started thinking about the idea, you know, of
(02:50):
course you dive into research and you and you find find
companies doing it across the country and and it seemed to be
like it was a growing trend, butit was just like it's just
becoming popular. And I know people have tried it
in the past and never worked outfor one reason or another, but
it seems to be gaining in popularity.
(03:10):
I mean, certainly coming out of COVID, like, you know, delivery
services and convenience and anything that could like keep
you safer and limiting interaction with, you know,
things that like a gas pump thateveryone in the public has to
interact with was becoming popular.
And so we're kind of able to jump in on that, that trend.
(03:31):
But, you know, the mobility services and, and delivery has
been a growing trend for, you know, decades now.
And so why not gas? Like why is gas not a part of
that? It's something that we need, you
know, every day, so. Did you know of anyone doing it
in Charleston? No one was doing it the way that
(03:52):
I envisioned, which is is kind of what we're doing now.
You know, I did, I remember one time, so I was also in the South
Carolina guard at the time. And I remember you making one of
my trips up to Columbia, SC to do my, my flying.
I passed this truck and I won't,I won't say the name of this
company, but they're a small fuel delivery couple.
(04:15):
I was like, boom, someone's thinking like I am.
But it wasn't like help. They beat me to it.
I can't do this idea now, you know, like there's there's
plenty, there's plenty for for us to Ollie, you know, like I
can't service every customer andCharleston, neither can another
company. So plenty of plenty of room to
grow and plenty of room for competition.
(04:37):
How long after you saw that truck were you in business?
From napkin sketch to like actual launch was probably like
a two year process, but that wasn't because I was like
planning the whole time. You know, I had a career change
and, you know, just put it on the back burner because, you
know, life, you know, trying to de risk, you know how I'm going
(04:59):
to pay for the mortgage and also, you know, start up this
business. So that that was really why I
took the time. And but yeah, we launched and we
delivered our first gallons December of 22.
As I always say, beginning of 23was our like first first month
in business. And so we're coming up on two
years now. OK.
(05:20):
When you first started, did you quit your job?
Did you do this on the side? What did that look like?
No, I did. I do it on the side and you
know, fortunately I I work remote and and I'm able to
manage both. I have a lot of support from,
you know, my family and to able help.
But yeah, literally the whole first year was, you know, me and
(05:41):
my spare time making deliveries and just kind of fine tuning the
equipment, the operation, our app, you know, the financials,
all of that. And so then after that first
year, my brother graduated from Clemson and I convinced him to
come on full time. So now I got a full time guy
(06:02):
doing that. And so it's allowing me to
continue my my day job and then focus on growing the business on
the side without having to be inthe truck making those
deliveries. OK, so you you still have your
job then? Still have my job.
Yep. OK, you did you say you have an
app? Yeah.
Yeah. What did that look like?
Like how much would it cost to develop that and what all does
(06:24):
it do? We started.
Through a call, we'll call it a incubator, that kind of helped
me get going. And part of their part of their
offering was they would help me build the MVP version of the
app. And so once I got that delivered
to me, I remember it was very limited from, you know what I
had explain the scope to look like this was not it.
(06:46):
I, I couldn't even actually takeorders and process payment in
it. But they're like, no, you just
need to get it out there. And I'm saying no I I can't even
take payment on this. It doesn't work.
But you know, and messing aroundin the back end, I was able to,
I don't know if the developer left an Easter egg for me or,
(07:07):
you know, it was just there by accident, but I reached out to
him and I was like, Hey, what doyou want to come work on this
with me? Like just us.
And, and he was all about it. And so he's still working with
us today. And but the app allows us to,
you know, take orders, make requests, so schedule, send out
push notifications. So how it works is the customer
(07:29):
signs up, they can insert their fueled their vehicle types, they
can make a request, a driver will claim that request, they
get notified that the request has been received.
And then the driver will, you know, notify them when they're
on the way and then when they'recomplete and then they can see
their invoice, you know, how much they were charged and, and
(07:51):
all that. So.
OK, so I'd imagine your app is pretty simple, like they're
you're querying a database of makes and models, years, colors
maybe like plate number or whatnot or no.
Yeah, Anything that can help us,you know, get make sure that
we're delivering to the right place.
You know, we don't, we don't do just vehicles.
(08:11):
So, you know, think generators or boats or, you know,
excavators or something. So we have like a special note
section where they can just put all that info in their gate
codes for access to certain places.
And then they can pay from the app and schedule it.
Yep, Yep, schedule and payments all done through this.
(08:32):
OK. So when you first started, what
did it like buying your first asset look like?
Did you buy a truck? Did you buy a tank?
How much did that cost? Did you retrofit a truck?
How much all in did it cost and what did that process look like?
Well, the first thing I bought was the the app.
You know, I had that first and then I was able to kind of show
people the idea and like let them play with this, like
functioning version of it. And so they, they could start to
(08:55):
see the utility of it. And I was able to take that and
do like my first call family friends round and, and we were
able to raise 100 grand. And that allowed me to buy my
first skid, which is the equipment that drops into the,
the truck bed. So that gave me two tanks, you
know, pump, metering system, hose, all that, everything we
(09:15):
needed to actually deliver the fuel.
Then I bought a truck, I would say all in, you know, it was a
used truck. Paid like 40 grand for it and
the skid cost me, you know, another 20.
You know, that app, that part ofthe process, we are probably 10,
maybe 15 grand into it. So we were able to get going for
(09:37):
less than 100 grand and start actually, you know, making
money. How many gallons is your skid?
Our current configuration we canhold 400 gallons per skid.
They come in 119 gallon compartments, separate tanks 4.
OK. So 400, is that like 400 on a
truck then? Like in a truck bed?
(10:00):
Yeah. Wow, so that's like £2500 worth
of gas. Yeah, 2600.
Yeah, fully. Loaded.
OK All right, So you develop theapp first.
You get people playing around onit, trying to break it.
It works. You get the truck, You get this
kid, you're in business. You never quit your job.
How do you get your first customers?
(10:21):
I guess back up a little bit. We had run some before I did any
of that, we run some Facebook ads just to see if there was any
sort of appetite this in our area.
And we put up a landing page andwas actually getting people like
clicking on the ad and then submitting their information to
try to sign up for this businessthat didn't exist yet.
And so love it. Actually I, I used that click
(10:45):
through rate that we were able to establish over a few weeks of
testing, I mean modelled out thenext three years of what I
thought our business. Yeah.
And how has that gone very accurate or no?
It's. Way off, but yeah, yeah, it it,
it gave me enough, you know, I felt like it was viable.
(11:05):
And so I was willing to make theinvestment and then I did all
the things we talked about. But so getting getting my first
customers was yes, start, start running those ads again.
Except for yeah, we could actually deliver.
And then mostly word of mouth. I remember like our first
stranger customer. Oh my God, like we don't know
who this person. Is, yeah.
(11:28):
That was really exciting. How much time had elapsed
between when you got the leads from the Facebook ads and you
were actually able to deliver onthem?
So gas is a, it's a weird one. And this is a like, I don't know
how, not really unique, but a challenge that we definitely
have to deal with is like peoplehear about us, like, oh, that's
(11:48):
a really great idea. I would love that.
Oh, but I don't need gas right now, so don't sign up.
Who doesn't need the gas right now?
Like you don't need it now, you'll need it in two days.
Like what? Right.
And, and so then when they do need it, they're like, oh, I
need it now. Like I don't have time to like
figure out this app and make a request and wait several hours.
You know. And so that was, you know, a
(12:09):
unique challenge took some education to like trying to get
get people to change their habits of like you don't wait
till you're on E like get in there, make the request and
then, you know, your gas stationexperience is literally you get
home and press a couple buttons and it's done.
Right now is actually the perfect time to start something,
(12:30):
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(13:12):
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So how much time was that then? Because I'm thinking like it, if
I opt into some service like this from a Facebook ad and any
(13:33):
more than like a week passes, like it's out of sight, out of
mind, it's going to be really hard to convert me at at that
point. Initial sign up to delivery was
within days. I mean like.
Even when you were just running the test to the landing page.
Yeah, our, we, we didn't have any sort of like funnel to like
nurture these ads. It was like sign up, sign up and
(13:55):
then you can make a request right from there.
And so it was pretty instant. And I remember like initial
launch, you know, we, we were able to get like our first dozen
or so customers. And then it was like, OK, now
what, you know, how do we, how we keep growing?
And it was, it was just me sparetime.
So like, you know, how do we manage the expectation of the
(14:16):
customer, You know, when I stillhad to work a job.
And so we were really careful about not growing too quickly,
but also, you know, keeping every customer happy because
what we're really building is, you know, reoccurring repeatable
revenue. Like gas is a commodity and it's
(14:36):
low margin business. So you've really got to start
stacking those customers and building that revenue.
And so that's the most importantthing was like getting our
customers on board, getting their trust, getting them in the
habit of making the request and then all of a sudden they're all
their fuel spend is now with us and now we can start getting new
(14:57):
customers. You know, each we found in our
first year like an average vehicle it's like $2500 a year.
So if you're a family of two vehicles like daily drivers,
it's like 55 grand a year. So if our margin, you know, you
know, 1520% on a subscriber likethat, you know, you could do the
(15:19):
math on how many customers you need.
And also made us realize like, you know, the, the residential
side was, was how we started, but that wasn't, that wasn't
going to be viable long term. Like we had to start finding
some higher, higher margin options and some bigger ticket
items, you know, and that's whenwe started getting into the
(15:40):
fleets and then ultimately into boats.
OK. All right.
So let's talk about your your pricing and your margins and all
that because 30 bucks a month, 2vehicles, 5 bucks a month to add
additional vehicles, fuel price based off of lowest price within
3 miles. How did you mark the gas up?
Do you buy at wholesale? What are your margins like on
both the monthly flat fee and the gas?
(16:03):
Well, I don't know how much I want to get into the specifics
of the gas prices. I mean, we certainly sell the
gas for more than what we get itfor.
I know that even a gas station doesn't make much money on gas,
right? And and they buy a pretty big
volume. So that what is just.
What does that look like for you?
The average margin on just regular gas is is like 15 to
(16:26):
$0.20. We try to get that up to $0.30.
So $0.30 per gallon is the goal.It's tough to do on regular gas
because like I said, it's, it's the replacement opportunities
are so easy. Yes, this gas station's all over
the place. And the only differentiator
(16:46):
between, you know, the gas station next door and the gas
station a little bit further down is the price, you know, and
so you're constantly competing with that price.
And so my idea was, you know, keeping, keeping the overhead
extremely low and and being ableto, you know, make a little bit
more margin because of that. OK.
(17:07):
So one family will spend about $5000 with you over a year,
that's what you said. OK.
How many refills do you do per month for an average family?
Typical is like once a week, maybe once every 10 days, so 3
to 4, three to four refills a month.
I will say some customers, you know, we didn't put enough
(17:28):
guardrails up, so like. They take advantage some.
Customers would, yeah, one vehicle will fill up at work,
one vehicle will fill up at. So we'll get, we'll get requests
for the same subscriber at two different locations on the same
day. And I'm just like, come on.
Yeah. So it since it says the fuel
(17:49):
price is based on the closest gas station.
Basically are you you're not filling up at a gas station?
Are you in reselling it or are you using like your your
employer to fill up? We're buying wholesale.
OK. OK.
So you're just using that price to base what you charge them
because that's kind of like the market price for their
neighborhood or whatever. That's right.
And and we're. Kind of getting away from that,
we haven't fully like relaunchedour, our pricing updates, but
(18:15):
you know, in, in order to match the lowest in your area, like
you're using software like GasBuddy or, you know, Waze or
somewhere that publishes gas andthey're reliant on, you know,
third party inputs that are either out of date, fat
fingered. And then are you talking about
cash price or credit price is it's too unreliable?
(18:37):
And so we're just going to startdoing a fixed price.
Yeah, smart. You're, you're, I know there's
like one or two nationwide brands.
Is, is that how they do it? Because I've learned in
companies I've started where I see like a big player doing,
doing it one way and it's like, oh, what are they doing?
Oh, they're so dumb. Like no one likes that.
I'm going to do it this way. Like I'm going to, I'm going to
(18:58):
be so innovative. I'm going to reinvent this
market and then I, I get 6 months down the road, I'm like,
this is terrible. That's why they do it that way.
I should have just copied them exactly.
I've learned that so many times.Have you had learnings like
that? Yeah, it's, it's, you know, I
feel like the pricing of fuel is, is kind of, it's always like
(19:18):
the secret sauce, like you can'tfigure out why someone is
pricing it this way. Like is it a loss leader for a
gas station so that you come in and get a chicken sandwich
instead? You know, and, and so I see
other fuel delivery companies they don't necessarily advertise
their per gallon price in every market is, is PO very different.
(19:41):
You know, Charleston doesn't have a pipeline that comes to
Charleston. So everything comes in by ship.
So if you go further West and you're receiving barrels off the
pipe, it's see your pricing is going to be different depending
on the season. We've really just run with that.
What you just read is our pricing and store current
pricing and it hasn't changed for the first two years because
(20:02):
the price of gas is almost de minimis at this point like we
are really building. Trust and a brand and getting
that customer base out. So what you mentioned boats, is
that kind of where this is heading or are you trying to
learn more into the fleet delivery stuff?
(20:23):
We're, we're trying to do it all.
You know, those are like our three business lines right now.
It's, you know, I've got a team of four and we're handling all
three of those simultaneously. At, at some point it will be,
you know, marine fleet and then residential will have to be
separate the, the marine side certainly like where I feel like
(20:48):
that's our bread and butter. Like no one, no one is offering
the service that we're offering,being able to bring out the, the
volume that we can and deliver it out to a dock without your
boat having to leave that dock. There's, there's, there's no one
in town that can do that. Yeah, OK.
What's next for the business? How do you see this scaling?
(21:09):
More trucks in Charleston, Different cities with more
trucks, more boats, more fleets.Yeah.
So we definitely want to dominate locally, but we we also
plan on expanding. You know, I never never meant
juice to be just a local brand. You know, we intend to grow this
(21:30):
as big and as kind of starting that as wide as we can.
We've we've gone viral several times on our social media.
We're very transparent about, you know, how we started this
business, what we do day-to-day.We just share what we're doing
and people love it. People want to, we have people
copying us. We have people who want to do
juiced in their city. And so your franchising is
(21:54):
probably the route that we'll gobecause like I mentioned
earlier, fuel was like very likehyperlocal, the competitiveness
of the price of fuel. And so you've got to like be in
the community and know the community and know who could
benefit from your services and, and be able to build that trust
(22:15):
that, you know, hey, when you'rebringing the fuel, you're doing
what you're saying you're doing.You know, when they go out to
start their vehicle, it's going to start the next day because
you delivered the right fuel. And so the only way you could do
that, I think is by having someone from the area who is
willing to put in that work in alocal market.
(22:36):
I see it as a like perfect play for a owner operator.
You think like a truck driver who he might be able to make,
you know, 80 to 100 grand over the road, but he's gone all the
time driving. And here he can still be a truck
driver, but also own his own business essentially a lot more
outside. So I feel like, you know, that
(22:58):
is like the perfect, it's a perfect job for like, you know,
an owner operator to be able to scale his own business locally,
but certainly regionally. We're going to expand within
our, our footprint as far as we can reach before I feel don't
feel comfortable managing at allunder, you know, original juice
fuel umbrella. And then the natural progression
(23:21):
is vertically integrated into the wholesale supply side, which
that, that is my background thatmakes the most sense.
Once we're moving enough volume to justify, you know, being the
wholesaler ourselves, now we cansupply all of our own retail
locations. What is your turn like if you
get a residential customer? Are they, is it one of those
(23:43):
deals where like they just fall in love with it?
Like I don't know how I ever lived without this.
And they almost exclusively fillup with you.
Or is it kind of like people tryit, they use you sometimes,
What's more normal? The more normal is we have
almost no churn. People sign up, they try it,
they love it. Even the ones that don't use it
very frequently, like, I mean, you read our pricing, it's very
(24:06):
reasonable. Yeah.
And so it's almost worth it for someone to use to have it as an
emergency service. You know, if it's raining one
day and I don't want to get passed or, or, you know, someone
to just have that Peace of Mind that, you know, fill up my
daughter's car instead of, you know, having to give her a
credit card, you know, to go to to and from school or whatever.
(24:28):
Yeah. So we, we do have some of those
customers that don't use it veryfrequently, but rarely do we
have someone sign up and just say, you know, this is too much
of, of a hassle for me to make arequest.
You know, the Tom slots are never available that I need.
That really hasn't been the case.
OK, see this is interesting because I, I would use this, but
(24:50):
I, I wouldn't in a sense becauseI drive a Tesla and I aside from
that, I love gas stations like Iwalk into a gas station every
time like a kid in the candy store.
It's. Like I'm going to.
Get a Red Bull. I'm going to get some chips.
Like I eat like garbage when I walk into a gas station, so I
would miss that. Are you planning to offer like
charging services at some point or how have you thought about
that? We certainly mentioned that like
(25:12):
we're in the diligence phase of,you know, raising capital right
now for our expansion. And so that very question has
been asked and we're building a logistics network.
So it's easy enough to put a a generator on the back of a truck
and offer that service. It's just not where our focus
is. Just like, you know, I think a
(25:32):
marketplace for mobile services will eventually where we're
heading to. You know, if you're in our hat
every week, every two weeks making a fuel request and every
time you sign in it says what, what service are you looking
for? Fuel tire oil, you know, and
you're hitting fuel 95% of the time, but that time you need a
(25:52):
oil change. Why are you not going to go back
to that that app and, and selectoil change?
So I think that is another way that you know, we're we're
looking at going, but right now gas is, is where we're focusing
and we want to be laser focused on that and do the best we can
there. Yeah, OK, man.
Well, this is an awesome story. I appreciate you sharing it.
(26:14):
And anything else that you wouldadvise people to do, Like what
if someone in Sacramento wants to start this?
What? What would you tell them to do
that you wish you would have done differently when you
started? I would start delivering the
boats immediately. Interesting.
If I could do it over again, that's what I would do just
because at least in in our market, it's a huge demand
(26:36):
that's, that's, that's unmet. And so that the cell is a lot
easier, you know to convert 1 when getting gas in your boat on
the water is a really expensive and B really inconvenient.
And you're in Charleston. So I mean perfect market for
that. And honestly, this is for anyone
(26:56):
interested in starting a business.
It's like you just you just got to do it.
You just got the I band and and go out and you'll figure it out
along the way. OK.
Well, Corey, thank you. Where can everyone find you if
they want to reach out? Best place is our Instagram
follow along our story, like I said, we we post everything that
we're doing every day. So very, very cool content
(27:18):
there. So juice fuel on Instagram.
Also, you can check out our website, juicefuel.com.
All right. What you think?
Please share it. With a friend and we'll see you
next time. On the Kerner office.
If you're moving a ton of fuel, there's plenty of suppliers
that'll bring you gas, but therewas no one who's taking care of
boats, small businesses, no one taking care of personal
vehicles. It's a huge demand that's unmet.
What we're really building is repeatable revenue, stacking
those customers, getting them inthe habit of making the request,
and then all of a sudden all their fuel spend is now with us
(00:20):
here, family 2 vehicles like Bailey drivers, It's like 5
grand a year. When you first started, did you
quit your job? No, I do it on the side.
The whole first year was me in my spare time making deliveries.
Mobility services and delivery has been a growing trend for
decades now. And so why not gas something
that we need every day? What?
(00:41):
If someone in Sacramento wants to start this, what would you
tell them to do that you wish you would have done differently
when you started? Why don't we start by you?
Just tell me who you are and what you do.
Corey McDavid I am the founder of Juice Fuel.
We are a mobile fuel delivery service.
OK. And what gave you the idea to
(01:02):
start that? So it started with, you know, my
wife, we had just had her, her second child and, and she hated
going to the gas station. She drove a diesel SUV.
Now there's less diesel pumps. So a lot of times you're waiting
on the diesel pump to open up and, you know, crying kids, you
know, hot in South Carolina. She just hated the whole
(01:23):
experience. But also at the time, I was
terminal manager for the bulk liquids terminal here in
Charleston that brings in all the fuel to the greater
Charleston area. So my day job was literally like
monitoring the, you know, who the suppliers were, who their
customers were, which, which gascustomers could actually move
(01:44):
the needle in the area. And that just got me looking
into, you know, seeing how, how we could move more barrels
across our rack. You know, that was, that was my,
my main job. But in doing that research, I
saw that there was really no onethat was supplying fuel to the
(02:05):
little guys. Like if you're moving a ton of
fuel, there's plenty of suppliers that'll bring you
bring you gas. You got a big tank on your yard
'cause you run a big construction company or
something. There are guys that will supply
that. But there was no one who's
taking care of boats, no one's taking care of small businesses,
no one taking care of personal vehicles.
And so when my wife was having this problem, I was like, I'm
(02:27):
the guy to fix this solution andmake it better for everyone.
Yeah, you're like, of all people, I'm the one most
qualified to fix this problem. Yeah, yeah.
No do with it. No one can.
Now, was there ever a moment where you kind of were thinking
about this idea and then you sawa truck driving around doing
mobile fuel delivery and you're like, oh, this is a thing?
Yes, so when I started thinking about the idea, you know, of
(02:50):
course you dive into research and you and you find find
companies doing it across the country and and it seemed to be
like it was a growing trend, butit was just like it's just
becoming popular. And I know people have tried it
in the past and never worked outfor one reason or another, but
it seems to be gaining in popularity.
(03:10):
I mean, certainly coming out of COVID, like, you know, delivery
services and convenience and anything that could like keep
you safer and limiting interaction with, you know,
things that like a gas pump thateveryone in the public has to
interact with was becoming popular.
And so we're kind of able to jump in on that, that trend.
(03:31):
But, you know, the mobility services and, and delivery has
been a growing trend for, you know, decades now.
And so why not gas? Like why is gas not a part of
that? It's something that we need, you
know, every day, so. Did you know of anyone doing it
in Charleston? No one was doing it the way that
(03:52):
I envisioned, which is is kind of what we're doing now.
You know, I did, I remember one time, so I was also in the South
Carolina guard at the time. And I remember you making one of
my trips up to Columbia, SC to do my, my flying.
I passed this truck and I won't,I won't say the name of this
company, but they're a small fuel delivery couple.
(04:15):
I was like, boom, someone's thinking like I am.
But it wasn't like help. They beat me to it.
I can't do this idea now, you know, like there's there's
plenty, there's plenty for for us to Ollie, you know, like I
can't service every customer andCharleston, neither can another
company. So plenty of plenty of room to
grow and plenty of room for competition.
(04:37):
How long after you saw that truck were you in business?
From napkin sketch to like actual launch was probably like
a two year process, but that wasn't because I was like
planning the whole time. You know, I had a career change
and, you know, just put it on the back burner because, you
know, life, you know, trying to de risk, you know how I'm going
(04:59):
to pay for the mortgage and also, you know, start up this
business. So that that was really why I
took the time. And but yeah, we launched and we
delivered our first gallons December of 22.
As I always say, beginning of 23was our like first first month
in business. And so we're coming up on two
years now. OK.
(05:20):
When you first started, did you quit your job?
Did you do this on the side? What did that look like?
No, I did. I do it on the side and you
know, fortunately I I work remote and and I'm able to
manage both. I have a lot of support from,
you know, my family and to able help.
But yeah, literally the whole first year was, you know, me and
(05:41):
my spare time making deliveries and just kind of fine tuning the
equipment, the operation, our app, you know, the financials,
all of that. And so then after that first
year, my brother graduated from Clemson and I convinced him to
come on full time. So now I got a full time guy
(06:02):
doing that. And so it's allowing me to
continue my my day job and then focus on growing the business on
the side without having to be inthe truck making those
deliveries. OK, so you you still have your
job then? Still have my job.
Yep. OK, you did you say you have an
app? Yeah.
Yeah. What did that look like?
Like how much would it cost to develop that and what all does
(06:24):
it do? We started.
Through a call, we'll call it a incubator, that kind of helped
me get going. And part of their part of their
offering was they would help me build the MVP version of the
app. And so once I got that delivered
to me, I remember it was very limited from, you know what I
had explain the scope to look like this was not it.
(06:46):
I, I couldn't even actually takeorders and process payment in
it. But they're like, no, you just
need to get it out there. And I'm saying no I I can't even
take payment on this. It doesn't work.
But you know, and messing aroundin the back end, I was able to,
I don't know if the developer left an Easter egg for me or,
(07:07):
you know, it was just there by accident, but I reached out to
him and I was like, Hey, what doyou want to come work on this
with me? Like just us.
And, and he was all about it. And so he's still working with
us today. And but the app allows us to,
you know, take orders, make requests, so schedule, send out
push notifications. So how it works is the customer
(07:29):
signs up, they can insert their fueled their vehicle types, they
can make a request, a driver will claim that request, they
get notified that the request has been received.
And then the driver will, you know, notify them when they're
on the way and then when they'recomplete and then they can see
their invoice, you know, how much they were charged and, and
(07:51):
all that. So.
OK, so I'd imagine your app is pretty simple, like they're
you're querying a database of makes and models, years, colors
maybe like plate number or whatnot or no.
Yeah, Anything that can help us,you know, get make sure that
we're delivering to the right place.
You know, we don't, we don't do just vehicles.
(08:11):
So, you know, think generators or boats or, you know,
excavators or something. So we have like a special note
section where they can just put all that info in their gate
codes for access to certain places.
And then they can pay from the app and schedule it.
Yep, Yep, schedule and payments all done through this.
(08:32):
OK. So when you first started, what
did it like buying your first asset look like?
Did you buy a truck? Did you buy a tank?
How much did that cost? Did you retrofit a truck?
How much all in did it cost and what did that process look like?
Well, the first thing I bought was the the app.
You know, I had that first and then I was able to kind of show
people the idea and like let them play with this, like
functioning version of it. And so they, they could start to
(08:55):
see the utility of it. And I was able to take that and
do like my first call family friends round and, and we were
able to raise 100 grand. And that allowed me to buy my
first skid, which is the equipment that drops into the,
the truck bed. So that gave me two tanks, you
know, pump, metering system, hose, all that, everything we
(09:15):
needed to actually deliver the fuel.
Then I bought a truck, I would say all in, you know, it was a
used truck. Paid like 40 grand for it and
the skid cost me, you know, another 20.
You know, that app, that part ofthe process, we are probably 10,
maybe 15 grand into it. So we were able to get going for
(09:37):
less than 100 grand and start actually, you know, making
money. How many gallons is your skid?
Our current configuration we canhold 400 gallons per skid.
They come in 119 gallon compartments, separate tanks 4.
OK. So 400, is that like 400 on a
truck then? Like in a truck bed?
(10:00):
Yeah. Wow, so that's like £2500 worth
of gas. Yeah, 2600.
Yeah, fully. Loaded.
OK All right, So you develop theapp first.
You get people playing around onit, trying to break it.
It works. You get the truck, You get this
kid, you're in business. You never quit your job.
How do you get your first customers?
(10:21):
I guess back up a little bit. We had run some before I did any
of that, we run some Facebook ads just to see if there was any
sort of appetite this in our area.
And we put up a landing page andwas actually getting people like
clicking on the ad and then submitting their information to
try to sign up for this businessthat didn't exist yet.
And so love it. Actually I, I used that click
(10:45):
through rate that we were able to establish over a few weeks of
testing, I mean modelled out thenext three years of what I
thought our business. Yeah.
And how has that gone very accurate or no?
It's. Way off, but yeah, yeah, it it,
it gave me enough, you know, I felt like it was viable.
(11:05):
And so I was willing to make theinvestment and then I did all
the things we talked about. But so getting getting my first
customers was yes, start, start running those ads again.
Except for yeah, we could actually deliver.
And then mostly word of mouth. I remember like our first
stranger customer. Oh my God, like we don't know
who this person. Is, yeah.
(11:28):
That was really exciting. How much time had elapsed
between when you got the leads from the Facebook ads and you
were actually able to deliver onthem?
So gas is a, it's a weird one. And this is a like, I don't know
how, not really unique, but a challenge that we definitely
have to deal with is like peoplehear about us, like, oh, that's
(11:48):
a really great idea. I would love that.
Oh, but I don't need gas right now, so don't sign up.
Who doesn't need the gas right now?
Like you don't need it now, you'll need it in two days.
Like what? Right.
And, and so then when they do need it, they're like, oh, I
need it now. Like I don't have time to like
figure out this app and make a request and wait several hours.
You know. And so that was, you know, a
(12:09):
unique challenge took some education to like trying to get
get people to change their habits of like you don't wait
till you're on E like get in there, make the request and
then, you know, your gas stationexperience is literally you get
home and press a couple buttons and it's done.
Right now is actually the perfect time to start something,
(12:30):
and you guys know I'm always talking about starting local
newsletters. Local newsletters for your city.
Job listings for your field. A weekly roundup for your hobby.
You know, just taking. Whatever you know and sharing it
with people who want to learn. This is one of the lowest risk
ways to build something that pays you over and over and
Beehive is by far the easiest way to do it.
(12:51):
You can monetize and grow your subscribers with their built in
AD net. You can sell digital products or
paid subscriptions directly to your audience.
And yes, they've even got an AI website builder and a podcast
integration now. I've been using Beehive for two
years and I cannot recommend it enough.
It is not just a newsletter platform anymore, it is the
(13:12):
entire creator infrastructure. So don't wait for January.
Start now. Head to beehive.com/chris for
30% off your first three months.That's B EE.
HIIV. Dot com slash Chris.
So how much time was that then? Because I'm thinking like it, if
I opt into some service like this from a Facebook ad and any
(13:33):
more than like a week passes, like it's out of sight, out of
mind, it's going to be really hard to convert me at at that
point. Initial sign up to delivery was
within days. I mean like.
Even when you were just running the test to the landing page.
Yeah, our, we, we didn't have any sort of like funnel to like
nurture these ads. It was like sign up, sign up and
(13:55):
then you can make a request right from there.
And so it was pretty instant. And I remember like initial
launch, you know, we, we were able to get like our first dozen
or so customers. And then it was like, OK, now
what, you know, how do we, how we keep growing?
And it was, it was just me sparetime.
So like, you know, how do we manage the expectation of the
(14:16):
customer, You know, when I stillhad to work a job.
And so we were really careful about not growing too quickly,
but also, you know, keeping every customer happy because
what we're really building is, you know, reoccurring repeatable
revenue. Like gas is a commodity and it's
(14:36):
low margin business. So you've really got to start
stacking those customers and building that revenue.
And so that's the most importantthing was like getting our
customers on board, getting their trust, getting them in the
habit of making the request and then all of a sudden they're all
their fuel spend is now with us and now we can start getting new
(14:57):
customers. You know, each we found in our
first year like an average vehicle it's like $2500 a year.
So if you're a family of two vehicles like daily drivers,
it's like 55 grand a year. So if our margin, you know, you
know, 1520% on a subscriber likethat, you know, you could do the
(15:19):
math on how many customers you need.
And also made us realize like, you know, the, the residential
side was, was how we started, but that wasn't, that wasn't
going to be viable long term. Like we had to start finding
some higher, higher margin options and some bigger ticket
items, you know, and that's whenwe started getting into the
(15:40):
fleets and then ultimately into boats.
OK. All right.
So let's talk about your your pricing and your margins and all
that because 30 bucks a month, 2vehicles, 5 bucks a month to add
additional vehicles, fuel price based off of lowest price within
3 miles. How did you mark the gas up?
Do you buy at wholesale? What are your margins like on
both the monthly flat fee and the gas?
(16:03):
Well, I don't know how much I want to get into the specifics
of the gas prices. I mean, we certainly sell the
gas for more than what we get itfor.
I know that even a gas station doesn't make much money on gas,
right? And and they buy a pretty big
volume. So that what is just.
What does that look like for you?
The average margin on just regular gas is is like 15 to
(16:26):
$0.20. We try to get that up to $0.30.
So $0.30 per gallon is the goal.It's tough to do on regular gas
because like I said, it's, it's the replacement opportunities
are so easy. Yes, this gas station's all over
the place. And the only differentiator
(16:46):
between, you know, the gas station next door and the gas
station a little bit further down is the price, you know, and
so you're constantly competing with that price.
And so my idea was, you know, keeping, keeping the overhead
extremely low and and being ableto, you know, make a little bit
more margin because of that. OK.
(17:07):
So one family will spend about $5000 with you over a year,
that's what you said. OK.
How many refills do you do per month for an average family?
Typical is like once a week, maybe once every 10 days, so 3
to 4, three to four refills a month.
I will say some customers, you know, we didn't put enough
(17:28):
guardrails up, so like. They take advantage some.
Customers would, yeah, one vehicle will fill up at work,
one vehicle will fill up at. So we'll get, we'll get requests
for the same subscriber at two different locations on the same
day. And I'm just like, come on.
Yeah. So it since it says the fuel
(17:49):
price is based on the closest gas station.
Basically are you you're not filling up at a gas station?
Are you in reselling it or are you using like your your
employer to fill up? We're buying wholesale.
OK. OK.
So you're just using that price to base what you charge them
because that's kind of like the market price for their
neighborhood or whatever. That's right.
And and we're. Kind of getting away from that,
we haven't fully like relaunchedour, our pricing updates, but
(18:15):
you know, in, in order to match the lowest in your area, like
you're using software like GasBuddy or, you know, Waze or
somewhere that publishes gas andthey're reliant on, you know,
third party inputs that are either out of date, fat
fingered. And then are you talking about
cash price or credit price is it's too unreliable?
(18:37):
And so we're just going to startdoing a fixed price.
Yeah, smart. You're, you're, I know there's
like one or two nationwide brands.
Is, is that how they do it? Because I've learned in
companies I've started where I see like a big player doing,
doing it one way and it's like, oh, what are they doing?
Oh, they're so dumb. Like no one likes that.
I'm going to do it this way. Like I'm going to, I'm going to
(18:58):
be so innovative. I'm going to reinvent this
market and then I, I get 6 months down the road, I'm like,
this is terrible. That's why they do it that way.
I should have just copied them exactly.
I've learned that so many times.Have you had learnings like
that? Yeah, it's, it's, you know, I
feel like the pricing of fuel is, is kind of, it's always like
(19:18):
the secret sauce, like you can'tfigure out why someone is
pricing it this way. Like is it a loss leader for a
gas station so that you come in and get a chicken sandwich
instead? You know, and, and so I see
other fuel delivery companies they don't necessarily advertise
their per gallon price in every market is, is PO very different.
(19:41):
You know, Charleston doesn't have a pipeline that comes to
Charleston. So everything comes in by ship.
So if you go further West and you're receiving barrels off the
pipe, it's see your pricing is going to be different depending
on the season. We've really just run with that.
What you just read is our pricing and store current
pricing and it hasn't changed for the first two years because
(20:02):
the price of gas is almost de minimis at this point like we
are really building. Trust and a brand and getting
that customer base out. So what you mentioned boats, is
that kind of where this is heading or are you trying to
learn more into the fleet delivery stuff?
(20:23):
We're, we're trying to do it all.
You know, those are like our three business lines right now.
It's, you know, I've got a team of four and we're handling all
three of those simultaneously. At, at some point it will be,
you know, marine fleet and then residential will have to be
separate the, the marine side certainly like where I feel like
(20:48):
that's our bread and butter. Like no one, no one is offering
the service that we're offering,being able to bring out the, the
volume that we can and deliver it out to a dock without your
boat having to leave that dock. There's, there's, there's no one
in town that can do that. Yeah, OK.
What's next for the business? How do you see this scaling?
(21:09):
More trucks in Charleston, Different cities with more
trucks, more boats, more fleets.Yeah.
So we definitely want to dominate locally, but we we also
plan on expanding. You know, I never never meant
juice to be just a local brand. You know, we intend to grow this
(21:30):
as big and as kind of starting that as wide as we can.
We've we've gone viral several times on our social media.
We're very transparent about, you know, how we started this
business, what we do day-to-day.We just share what we're doing
and people love it. People want to, we have people
copying us. We have people who want to do
juiced in their city. And so your franchising is
(21:54):
probably the route that we'll gobecause like I mentioned
earlier, fuel was like very likehyperlocal, the competitiveness
of the price of fuel. And so you've got to like be in
the community and know the community and know who could
benefit from your services and, and be able to build that trust
(22:15):
that, you know, hey, when you'rebringing the fuel, you're doing
what you're saying you're doing.You know, when they go out to
start their vehicle, it's going to start the next day because
you delivered the right fuel. And so the only way you could do
that, I think is by having someone from the area who is
willing to put in that work in alocal market.
(22:36):
I see it as a like perfect play for a owner operator.
You think like a truck driver who he might be able to make,
you know, 80 to 100 grand over the road, but he's gone all the
time driving. And here he can still be a truck
driver, but also own his own business essentially a lot more
outside. So I feel like, you know, that
(22:58):
is like the perfect, it's a perfect job for like, you know,
an owner operator to be able to scale his own business locally,
but certainly regionally. We're going to expand within
our, our footprint as far as we can reach before I feel don't
feel comfortable managing at allunder, you know, original juice
fuel umbrella. And then the natural progression
(23:21):
is vertically integrated into the wholesale supply side, which
that, that is my background thatmakes the most sense.
Once we're moving enough volume to justify, you know, being the
wholesaler ourselves, now we cansupply all of our own retail
locations. What is your turn like if you
get a residential customer? Are they, is it one of those
(23:43):
deals where like they just fall in love with it?
Like I don't know how I ever lived without this.
And they almost exclusively fillup with you.
Or is it kind of like people tryit, they use you sometimes,
What's more normal? The more normal is we have
almost no churn. People sign up, they try it,
they love it. Even the ones that don't use it
very frequently, like, I mean, you read our pricing, it's very
(24:06):
reasonable. Yeah.
And so it's almost worth it for someone to use to have it as an
emergency service. You know, if it's raining one
day and I don't want to get passed or, or, you know, someone
to just have that Peace of Mind that, you know, fill up my
daughter's car instead of, you know, having to give her a
credit card, you know, to go to to and from school or whatever.
(24:28):
Yeah. So we, we do have some of those
customers that don't use it veryfrequently, but rarely do we
have someone sign up and just say, you know, this is too much
of, of a hassle for me to make arequest.
You know, the Tom slots are never available that I need.
That really hasn't been the case.
OK, see this is interesting because I, I would use this, but
(24:50):
I, I wouldn't in a sense becauseI drive a Tesla and I aside from
that, I love gas stations like Iwalk into a gas station every
time like a kid in the candy store.
It's. Like I'm going to.
Get a Red Bull. I'm going to get some chips.
Like I eat like garbage when I walk into a gas station, so I
would miss that. Are you planning to offer like
charging services at some point or how have you thought about
that? We certainly mentioned that like
(25:12):
we're in the diligence phase of,you know, raising capital right
now for our expansion. And so that very question has
been asked and we're building a logistics network.
So it's easy enough to put a a generator on the back of a truck
and offer that service. It's just not where our focus
is. Just like, you know, I think a
(25:32):
marketplace for mobile services will eventually where we're
heading to. You know, if you're in our hat
every week, every two weeks making a fuel request and every
time you sign in it says what, what service are you looking
for? Fuel tire oil, you know, and
you're hitting fuel 95% of the time, but that time you need a
(25:52):
oil change. Why are you not going to go back
to that that app and, and selectoil change?
So I think that is another way that you know, we're we're
looking at going, but right now gas is, is where we're focusing
and we want to be laser focused on that and do the best we can
there. Yeah, OK, man.
Well, this is an awesome story. I appreciate you sharing it.
(26:14):
And anything else that you wouldadvise people to do, Like what
if someone in Sacramento wants to start this?
What? What would you tell them to do
that you wish you would have done differently when you
started? I would start delivering the
boats immediately. Interesting.
If I could do it over again, that's what I would do just
because at least in in our market, it's a huge demand
(26:36):
that's, that's, that's unmet. And so that the cell is a lot
easier, you know to convert 1 when getting gas in your boat on
the water is a really expensive and B really inconvenient.
And you're in Charleston. So I mean perfect market for
that. And honestly, this is for anyone
(26:56):
interested in starting a business.
It's like you just you just got to do it.
You just got the I band and and go out and you'll figure it out
along the way. OK.
Well, Corey, thank you. Where can everyone find you if
they want to reach out? Best place is our Instagram
follow along our story, like I said, we we post everything that
we're doing every day. So very, very cool content
(27:18):
there. So juice fuel on Instagram.
Also, you can check out our website, juicefuel.com.
All right. What you think?
Please share it. With a friend and we'll see you
next time. On the Kerner office.
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