You’re the Boss Blog: What It Takes to Start a Company: Sleeping in a Van?

Dashboard

A weekly roundup of small-business developments.

Ever feel the need to get out of the office more? You may want to consider the example of Kevin Hong and Evan Pham.

As noted in Monday’s Dashboard summary of the week’s small-business news, the two 20-something co-founders of Dealflicks — “it’s a Priceline for movie tickets” — are traveling the country and living out of a van in an effort to sign up new customers (we first wrote about the start-up in November). So what’s life really like on the road for the ultimate bootstrappers? We had the following conversation, which has been edited and condensed.

Priceline for movie tickets? Please explain.

Our movie ticket deals are up to 60 percent off on our Web site, our iPhone app, and our Android app, and they’re available 24/7/365. We partner directly with movie theaters — over 88 percent of theater seats are currently empty — and negotiate to bring customers deals on tickets, soda, and popcorn. We’re in 150-plus locations, and we’re looking to expand to 500-plus locations before the end of the year.

Are your other partners jealous of the road warrior life? 

We’ve never asked, but if they are, it’s probably for the weekends. Every weekend we’re in a new city, and it’s fun to explore each city’s nightlife.

Starting a business can be risky, but have your lives ever been at risk sleeping in a van around the country?

Not yet.

Couldn’t you have just picked up the phone?

The theater business is a relationship-driven business. We actually had a meeting analyzing our data once we reached 100 theater locations. Out of the 100 locations we signed up, 94 of them had some type of face-to-face interaction. We were shocked, and that became the genesis of our odyssey.

When you meet prospective customers, do you tell them what you are doing? Is full disclosure a good idea in this situation?

We definitely don’t lead the conversation by explaining our housing situation. But after sharing a few drinks, the whole story usually all comes out. It definitely helps earn their respect and seal the deal. Living in a van not only puts a roof over our heads, but when we need to meet our clients, we can take turns driving and cover a massive amount of ground. The flexibility is imperative for a start-up since game plans can change day-to-day. The van never stops. If we spend time renting cars and checking into airports, we lose out.

So why not just use commission-based outside sales representatives to sell your services?

We’ve done this too — and still are doing it — but it’s simply not as effective as what we’ve have been doing.

It all sounds tiring. At what point will you get off the road?

There aren’t any particular financial goals that we must meet to get off the road. If you’re a founder of a company, you want to do everything possible to give yourself the best shot at success. You are also burdened with the responsibility of developing your company’s culture. We wanted to set the tone, to set the bar high. We believe that one day we’ll be managing a company of over 100 employees, and we wanted to ensure that we developed a can-do spirit for everyone to follow.

When you eventually hire sales reps, what advice will you give them?

Never believe a deal is sealed until you get someone’s signature on the dotted line.

What’s your best road story so far?

It had to be the time we were down in Mississippi. We ended up parking in someone’s backyard behind their barn. We sometimes sleep in our boxers, and we figured we could wake up at 6 a.m. and no one would notice. Sure enough, at 5 a.m. I see a grandma and grandpa peeking through our window. After a moment of frustration, fatigue kicked in and we went back to sleep. An hour later, and they were still there! It’s as if they’d never seen two men sleep in a van! We finally summoned the courage to get up, and we boldly introduced ourselves, still wearing our boxers. Despite the awkwardness, they were surprisingly nice. They actually offered some blankets and invited us over for breakfast.

Would you ever see yourself taking a corporate job again?

We’d rather live in a van and work on another start-up than take on another corporate job.

Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. You can follow him on Twitter.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/what-it-takes-to-start-a-company-sleeping-in-a-van/?partner=rss&emc=rss