Why Did I Start Hauling Buddies
Well, here I am. Writing a post about how I started Hauling Buddies. It's been a while, and I'm probably still not ready for this, but hey, "Just do it" Right?
Let's start with the "Who"
My name is Andrew. I'm 33 yrs old, and I use to work on cars for a living. I didn't mind doing this, and I was good at it. Working at all levels from the "Oil Change Guy" all the way up to "Lead Tech" and "Shop Manager". I have an excellent mechanic ability that allows me to take stuff apart and put it back together ( Usually, it will work again, haha ). I think this helps with where I am today with Founding a tech startup and the considerable endeavor. I like understanding things. Not just that, it works by the "Why". I'm a self-taught Ruby on Rails Developer (Started with Flash - Action Script/PHP). I love Rails and wouldn't change it for the world.
So how did an Auto Mechanic start an animal transport marketplace... Crazy right?
It started off by helping my mom with her Facebook groups (No one in my family has the same level of tech ability...)
No really, She was starting her own company for patient transports to help generate revenue. She would haul horses for people on the weekends. (She owned a couple at this time) In a stroke of genius. She started a Facebook Group, Horse Hauling, to help people connect and find hauling jobs and help people find the right transport companies. This was before I even understood what Arvid Kahl (@arvidkah) talks about in his new book "The Embedded Entrepreneur" (embeddedentrepreneur.com). Still to this day, it makes me think about how little things can change you years later.
Mind you, I was working on my Automotive career. So I never gave it much thought until I saw how massive this was becoming. It leads to a ton of problems about modding the groups, infighting, and scammers.
Hauling Buddies started to form in my head. How can I build something to tame this wild west of animal transport. After coming up with a model that matches what they were doing in the groups. (Transport Request, Upcoming Routes, Quotes). It was time to sell it. More on that next...
This was the first blog post I have written! Thank you for taking the time to read it! ๐ค