The Beginning
An intro to the modern day founder
In October 2012 I moved back in with my parents. I drove a U-Haul from Scottsdale, Arizona to Marin County, California, making it back just in time for the final World Series game. The San Francisco Giants WON and the energy I felt from this city has not changed since. It was one of the best welcome home gifts I could have received after leaving so much in Arizona. I had just left a well-paid job with Altria, where I learned a lot about sales management, corporate America, and myself. I also left behind a place where I had built up 6 years of bold memories. I was ready for a fresh start though, and knew with my passion for technology, San Francisco was the place for me. Having started two small companies before, I was confident I could network and inspire others to follow a new dream with me. I had a small amount of income from my Airbnb’d condo in Scottsdale at this point and my savings were dwindling. I needed a way to make money while maintaining enough time to network. For months I would attend 10+ meet-ups per week, exchanging business cards and scheduling follow-up meetings. This unsustainable networking sprint was invaluable for helping me build a network, absorb the energy everyone had towards their own ‘projects’, and assess the tech scene for myself. My caffeine tolerance from ‘meeting for coffee’ was sky high.
One evening, a controversial story popped up on the TV. It was about a pink mustache angering the local taxicab companies. I was intrigued, did some online research, and quickly decided how I was going to make next month’s rent at my new San Francisco apartment. I took the for-sale sign off my car and picked up the phone. Three weeks later I was a Lyft driver, chatting with like-minded people about anything and everything while promptly getting them where they needed to go. Lyft was not only a good source of income; it helped further assimilate me with the tech community. It was now early 2013 and almost all Lyft passengers were early adopters working in tech. The most common question I heard and still hear is, “what else do you do?” Maybe it’s the BMW or maybe most Lyft drivers only do it part time, but either way this question was just what I was looking for. It was my opportunity to tell random people a little bit about myself. If they were intrigued, as most were, I would lightly talk about business. I learned a lot about the variety of tech positions people were in, exchanged contacts with some notable tech founders, and even got a few dates from those brief encounters.
A couple hundred rides later, I had a good gauge from the reactions I was receiving about different business concepts I had, and one was the clear winner. I then began answering the question “what else do you do?” with “I run a ‘startup’” and when asked what we did, I gave them my elevator pitch. I didn’t really run a startup at this point— I just wanted to learn how people reacted to my pitch and talk through the random questions fired at me about the ‘startup’. A few hundred rides after that and I had my pitch down. Questions I didn’t have the answers to, I researched. I would Lyft some passengers multiple times a month and each time they would ask about the progress I had made. It was a great day when I told one of my frequent passengers about the amazing team I formed, the product we made and the satisfied customers we have. His reaction floored me; I may have even run a red light.
Lyft served and still serves as a source of income, think-tank, and stress reliever for me. I left a comfortable lifestyle, consistent paycheck, and lots of intangibles behind in Arizona. I took the memories, friendships, and lessons I learned and confidently drove toward my life-long goal of starting a company. In a little over 5 months my team and I have built an amazing product called BottlesTonight, established strong partnerships, user acquisition channels, and paying customers. This efficiency in developing a business would have never been achieved if it weren’t for my ability to earn money with Lyft. It has been 6 months since I started Lyfting and I still enjoy doing it in my spare time.
“Lyft Bump!”
