When I was in college, I had an idea for a prepaid taxicab card for students. In 2000, prepaid cards were common for college students. I had just graduated and experienced it firsthand. There was a meal card for food. Everyone had phone cards for calling home from pay phones. I knew a lot of people who didn’t have cars. I thought if their parents were offered a prepaid taxicab card, they might buy it.
With no product yet, I sent a letter to incoming parents of freshman students at Emory University, my alma mater. My friend worked on the admissions board and gave me a list of parents and their addresses. I sent a nondescript letter to them offering a prepaid taxicab card. There was no letterhead, logo, or service in existence for that matter. I wanted to see if people would pay for it. If they did, I’d build a service.
Nine parents out of 1,100 signed up! That wasn’t a bad response rate for direct mail for a new idea. I decided I needed to set up a taxicab company that would accept my card. I was in business. I quit my job in the insurance business (I lasted three months) and started working from my apartment.
I had saved $25,000 from selling books door to door in college, and that was what I lived on. I asked my parents for an investment, and they invested $30,000 from the proceeds of my grandpa’s farm sale. I had some money to get started.
Money ran out faster than I thought it would with an employee and a marketing budget. By the spring of 2001, we were nearly out of money. I needed investors—and fast.
We had signed up other students in Atlanta from other mailings. We had started to build out other markets and had some signups there too. But none of it mattered if we didn’t have money. Joe now had a child, and his need to provide was greater.
I told Joe I needed to raise money. Joe mentioned that Todd McWhirter would be good for me to talk to, as he loved to invest in startup businesses. I knew of Todd—he had been a sales manager when I sold books. I recalled meeting him on an evening cruise in Puerto Vallarta on a reward trip. He had a beard down to his chest and had just completed an 18-month honeymoon traveling around the world. He looked like it!
Todd hosted an Easter gathering at his house in 2001, and Joe invited me to come. We played croquet, and Todd was very interested in hearing more about Fortis Riders and our taxicab card.
By the end of the evening, he asked me for more information and said he was very interested in investing. He needed some numbers and something official-looking to show his fellow investors. Todd and his friends had just cashed out their investment in Stomp Inc., a CD-labeling equipment company. Stomp made CD labels when people used to burn their own CDs, and they had just sold their business to Avery Dennison. Todd’s friends were looking to him as the guru for their next strike. Todd thought Fortis might be it.
I needed something to look official. I told my roommate, Ron, who worked at a business brokerage in Atlanta. Ron said I should talk with Jim Town, his colleague at the brokerage. Jim might help me look official. I didn’t know what that meant, but I reached out to Jim to find out.
I met with Jim, an older gentleman and Army veteran who had worked for decades buying and selling businesses. He told me what I needed was a hypothetical evaluation. I said, “That’s great. One more thing, though—I don’t have any money to pay you.” Jim said he would see what he could do.
The next Monday, Jim sent me a 50-page hypothetical evaluation of Fortis Riders, showing how we could be profitable. I had a business plan, but this took it to another level. I told Jim thank you and sent it on to Todd. Jim became a friend and mentor of mine for 20 years until he passed in 2021. Fortis named our highest internal reward after Jim Town.
By the grace of God, within a few weeks we raised $250,000! We were in business and now had the funds to drive our push—the fall move-in season of 2001. We invested everything into direct mail, getting access to campus bookstores, and creating collateral to let campuses know who Fortis Riders was. I even convinced Harvard University to let us sell at their campus bookstore.
We were on our way! Little did we know that the world would change and the market would collapse on September 11 of that year….
To Be Continued