Rethinking Rideshare: Deliver Construction Supplies, NOT People or Food

rideshare services vehicle Oct 21, 2021
 

For most people, their vehicle is considered a "liability." But you can turn that liability into an asset when you deliver the perfect passenger for Curri: Construction & Industrial Supplies. ALL types of vehicles are welcome and needed on the Curri platform. Remember, "supplies" come in all shapes and sizes! No people, no food. Plus, Curri boasts higher pay than Uber, Lyft, and Amazon. Listen to CEO, Matt Lafferty, talk about the opportunity at Curri.

Some of this weeks episode highlights are:

6:48 Well, I mean, we're essentially augmenting and replacing fleets that distributors and wholesalers have previously had to rely on. And that's the big thing there. They're realizing there's all these cogs that they've had to deal with that don't perfectly match demand all the time. And so having an elastic fleet through Curri allows them to perfectly match their demand with supply when they use it. That's a huge benefit to them and the entire industry.

12:12 Build what people want, what people need. And so we didn't build anything until the customer had identified it and said that they would use it. So that - rather than like, Hey, we have this great idea. Let's just launch it and build it.

11:04 Sometimes you just need to listen to the customer and be flexible enough to not completely pivot, but adjust. Sometimes you do have to completely pivot. And so that was just our whole mindset through this whole thing. And now we're solving one of the biggest inefficiencies in the US and in the world.

--- Full Raw Transcription Below ---

Matt Lafferty (00:00):

Basically I had no plan B on, on Curri. It was, you know, I moved back from overseas and you know, quickly realized what the potential of this was and just was all in. So I did close down the sunglass company and just, you know, sink or swim, you know, and just, just went for it!

Introduction (00:27):

Welcome to the SideHustle Lounge. If you're looking for flexible ways to earn income, grow your mindset, and live the lifestyle you've always dreamed of, you are in the right place. So lower the lights. Grab your favorite beverage and join your host. Founder of NotaryCoach.com and Amazon bestselling author of Sign and Thrive: How To Make Six Figures As A Mobile Notary And Loan Signing Agent, Bill Soroka.

Bill Soroka (01:01):

Cheers and welcome to my next guest for today. Matt Lafferty co-founder and CEO of Curri. Matt, welcome to the show.

Matt Lafferty (01:11):

Hey, thanks for having me, Bill.

Bill Soroka (01:13):

I appreciate you hanging out here in the Side Hustle Lounge. I've been looking forward to our conversation because you took an idea I had 25 years ago and you modernized it. Not that I created it, but you modernized it and you took it to the level that it really needed to go in today's marketplace. I've been excited to talk about this. You're in the construction and industrial supply delivery industry, right?

Matt Lafferty (01:39):

Yeah. That's great.

Bill Soroka (01:41):

How would you… Tell me a little bit about what Curri does and for those who are listening, it's spelled CURRI. You'll find the details in the VIP room of the side hustle lounge, but Matt, what is Curri?

Matt Lafferty (01:56):

We allow people to move anything construction, industrial, industrial related on any type of vehicle at the click of a button, essentially. And I mean something small, like a box of nails or 30,000 - 40,000 pounds of 21 foot copper pipe, whatever they need to move.

Bill Soroka (02:16):

It seemed like this is a long time coming and it also feels like you solve two problems. You help suppliers, you help crews that are out on the job, but also you help side hustlers, like us people or gig workers like us build an additional income stream or create an asset out of a liability using their vehicle for that. And one of the … as I was exploring and researching your company, one of the quotes, I like the most was that you deliver construction supplies, not people or food.

Matt Lafferty (02:53):

Yeah. We, we, we call that the perfect passenger, right? You get to listen to your own music, roll down your windows if you want. You know, they're not - construction supplies, aren't getting drunk in the back of your seat or, you know, you have to worry about that type of thing…

Bill Soroka (03:08):

Throwing up everywhere, right?

Bill Soroka (03:10):

Yeah. What's the perfect passenger? It's definitely construction supplies. But a huge motivation, but it was also just the fact that there, you know, we're able to provide like better pay and wages for for a driver moving construction supplies because you know, the demand is so much higher and the moving of supplies is, is more it's more I don't want to say like more needed, but it's just, it's more just like basic economics. If you've, if you have a construction crew on a, on a job site and they're all making prevailing wage, like, you know, 90 bucks an hour or so you know, and then they need supplies. Then, you know, we, we fulfill that like, like critical bottleneck that the whole industry feels. And so we're able to pay our drivers much better.

Bill Soroka (03:59):

It seems like there's a, more of an urgency in some of those cases too, right? Like you've got to get that supply right away. Otherwise other things get jammed up down the road.

Matt Lafferty (04:07):

Absolutely. It's all about where the product is and how fast they can get it. Whereas, you know, before Curri they'd have to rely on, you know, just delays are going to get it themselves. And that's also not efficient use of their time. And it's, it's a huge inefficiency in the whole entire industry.

Bill Soroka (04:26):

So your timing feels about right. Who is the, who is your ideal customer who hires you?

Matt Lafferty (04:35):

Yeah, so, well, let me get the backstory too. We, we first started and launched towards general contractors. And they, they loved it. They, they wanted and they used it, but there's just, there's this thing in the industry where they actually expect delivery to be, to be provided by their distributors and suppliers. So those selling them, the construction supplies. And so because of that dynamic, we started to really focus all of our attention in, on the construction wholesalers and distributors. And that allowed them, we realized that that created a very nice effect for them. If they're able to provide delivery in a timely manner, they increased their sales. They can also deploy their capital towards … cause distributors they're, they're just sales organizations, right. They just need to sell more.

Bill Soroka (05:30):

They're just a wholesale company, right?

Matt Lafferty (05:32):

If they, if they can, if they can sell more and make their customer happy, their customer being the contractor Curri comes in, says we have an elastic asset, light fleet and no touch of a button.

Matt Lafferty (05:44):

They can send whatever they want in an efficient way. Like if it's a small item, they can send it a smaller vehicle. They don't have to send it in like they're like giant box truck every time or whatever they might have or outfitted them with. They just know they can deliver whatever they need when they want to. And so there's no there's no mental gymnastics. They need to go through like, is a truck available? Am I going to be able to sell this? Or when can I deliver this? It's just like, yeah, I can deliver it. And then, and then we move it. And then so they, they make more sales because their customers are, are just stoked.

Bill Soroka (06:15):

Yeah. So is there any other part of the transaction that's being like the supply chain that's being being solved by the service that you're providing? I mean, aside from the fact that maybe a general contractor doesn't have to send a $90 an hour employee to pick up a $26 piece of equipment what else is being, what's the bigger picture?

Matt Lafferty (06:48):

Well, I mean, we're, we're essentially augmenting and replacing and like fleets that distributors and wholesalers have previously had to rely on. And that that's, that's, that's the big thing there. They're, they're realizing there's all these cogs that they've had to deal with that don't perfectly match demand all the time. And so having an elastic fleet through Curri allows them to perfectly match their demand with supply when they use it. So that's, that's a huge benefit to them and that the entire industry.

Bill Soroka (07:27):

So as far as the industries go, that you serve, how big are these industries? Are they only busy during high volume housing markets like we're getting now, or can we count on scalable business throughout the year?

Matt Lafferty (07:43):

It can be scalable business throughout the years. So throughout the year. So how big is industry guessed? It's so construction and industrial sales revenue in one year just in the U S alone is $2.3 trillion.

Bill Soroka (08:00):

That's pretty big.

Matt Lafferty (08:00):

Yeah. So that's, that's just us. And so we've done a lot of research and what is the amount that goes into the movement of those supplies and materials that are sold in a given year and it's roughly 5%. So the overall (inaudible) in the United States is about 115 Billion. And as far as seasonality goes, yeah. So Curri is serving multiple different verticals within the construction industrial industries. So if like I'll just give you some examples, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, lumber, waterworks. I mean, there's, there's, I mean, you name it. I mean, we're even moving, you know, industrial supplies and you know, metals and things of that nature. So there's really nothing we're not moving.

Bill Soroka (08:52):

And how did you see this opportunity, how did this come about?

Matt Lafferty (08:55):

You want the long story, the medium story, or the really, really short story?

Bill Soroka (09:03):

Give us the short one. Let's get into, we'll get into the good stuff after that. I'm curious how these origin stories come about.

Matt Lafferty (09:09):

Yeah, so the, the, the super short one we were looking at movement of movement things, and we saw food as just like a herd mentality with low margins with as more of like a B to C opportunity. And we didn't understand what (inaudible), so me and my co-founder Brian Gonzalez, we didn't understand why people were… Why that was a thing. But we understand why it's a thing, you know, high frequency and all that. But we started looking at it. There's, there's a ton of other things that need moving. And my co-founder had just purchased a house and, you know, it's a bit of a fixer-upper.

Matt Lafferty (09:48):

And there was a plumber there and we just started chatting with him for a bit, and it was a long-term project. And he was one of the supply store every day, probably for over an hour. And you know, we did the math and like, wow, this is, this dude is losing like a month, a month of the year, just, just in, in productivity. So we started looking, that's what sparked our interest. And then we, we ended up just chatting with him and he's like, build this just like very much the YC, you know, Y Combinator approach, like build, build people, want what people need. And so we didn't build anything until, you know, the customer had identified it and said that they would use it. So rather than like, Hey, we have this, we have this great idea. Let's just, you know, launch it, you know, build it.

Matt Lafferty (10:38):

They will come type of thinking everything. We iterated on feedback from customers we were working with directly. We still do that. That's like a major core component of what we do. Everything we've built has been from customer feedback, not just an idea that we have. So I think that's something that like a lot of entrepreneurs need to focus in on more is entrepreneurs can be like creative and have great ideas. Sometimes they're ahead of the market and some ways it doesn't get adopted. But sometimes you just need to listen to the customer and, and be flexible enough to not completely pivot, but adjust. Sometimes you do have to completely pivot. And so that, that was just our whole mindset through this whole thing. And it's and now we're solving one of the biggest inefficiencies in the US or in the world.

Bill Soroka (11:31):

Was this your first business?

Matt Lafferty (11:34):

No, no, not that, not my first business, but I mean, I don't know. I mean, I graduated college and then went to you know, into the music industry. My band got signed, so I did that for awhile. And then, you know, moved, moved overseas with my wife for about seven years, living in Laos, not a business though, just running with you know, a nonprofit. I did like a bit of a side hustle with, you know, I launched some sunglasses. I had I designed, but, you know, I didn't, I didn't want any like distractions from what I was focusing on here, just because the opportunity was so big. So…

Bill Soroka (12:16):

When you're talking about solving global problems, that is a whole other level. And I wanted to I think we did a really good job here. Just painting the vision so of, or the opportunity here. So do you have a footprint with Curri in all 50 states? Like, do you have drivers in all 50 states? Are you scaling your growth from your launch in 2018?

Matt Lafferty (12:42):

So, okay. We, we launched January, 2019. I always drive home that point. Like, Hey, we're not even three years old yet, but yeah, we're, we're in the lower 48. So excluding Hawaiian, Alaska. Okay. But we're in, we're in all the states.

Bill Soroka (13:01):

I think I shared with you that I, I, I had an idea like this in the early two thousands, because I was working with my uncle. He was an electrical contractor and I, he hired me because he wanted me to follow in his footsteps and be this project engineer. And I clearly wasn't for me, like number one, working in an office, being in construction that just wasn't the right fit. So I used to daydream in my office and I would look out the window and I would see these like beater cars pull up and people in sweat pants, jumping out, grabbing blueprints, dropping off boxes. And it was the courier service that we use. There wasn't like no standards at all for them. They were just, I don't know what their model was, but I said, I bet we could do better. I bet I could have a truck that represented my customers better. I bet I could wear a polo shirt and jeans and represent these companies a little bit better. So I started a construction, courier service service doing that. And I got, I was able to build it up to about five trucks, but we ended up selling it to one of our competitors way back then, but I wish I would have had the foresight to even consider doing an app because that's essentially what you've got now. Right. You've got an app that helps the logistics and tying the drivers and the opportunities together.

Matt Lafferty (14:24):

Yeah. And, and for the driver and the customer. But we also have obviously like a web, a web app and software for the for, for our customers, distributors and suppliers to use as well.

Bill Soroka (14:36):

Yeah. So that's an easy way for them to get in and just book what they need. Right. Yep. So let's talk about the opportunity. What's this look like? I noticed and tell me if I'm looked at the right article or not, but that you've got really two opportunities or for drivers, right. The hot shots and the route drivers?

Matt Lafferty (15:00):

Yes, we have. I mean, yeah. So, so our customer will select will. Self-Select what kind of, what kind of vehicle is needed? Also, we get insights into materials being moved, distribute. So obviously there's like recommendations for vehicles to match. And then there's different services that we provide. We provide, you know, hot shots, which is just like, you know, an A to B delivery. And so that's, that's one iteration of it. And then there's, multi-stop deliveries where there might be one or two pickups from different locations or from a single location. And then there'll be multiple, multiple drop-offs. And then there, and then there's routes. So routes are they're more scheduled they're there on whatever cadence our customer chooses could be five days a week. It could be three days a week. And those are typically done with I actually, I mean, we have some with pickup trucks with that nature pickup trucks and a trailer box sharks or flatbeds and yeah. And that's, that's another iteration of the services we provide. And so that's what our, our drivers would be implementing.

Bill Soroka (16:10):

Right. So what's, it actually looks like a day in the life look like for a Curri driver.

Matt Lafferty (16:16):

Well, I would actually know because I, me and my co-founder were the first drivers, so I, I would drive around my Focus.

Bill Soroka (16:25):

Your Ford focus.

Matt Lafferty (16:26):

You know about this? Yeah. I have a, oh yeah. That's where I told you when I was stuck in traffic in LA, right. Yeah,

Bill Soroka (16:33):

Yeah,

Matt Lafferty (16:34):

Yeah, yeah. So it's I mean, I enjoyed it. Like, I think, you know, when we were first picking up, like I was saying, we were, you know, I was, I was picking up in our customer was the contractor. Right. So, I mean, I remember early days just like sending, sending commands on, on my phone. So it would look all automated on, on the UI for the customer, like, you know, arrive at pickup. And it was me, just me and my co-founder are there, like texting through our system. And then it was like, send a Twilio message directly to them. So it just, it felt automated. It felt it was, I mean, it was like, it was working right. They were getting information, but you know, a little bit of Wizard of Oz with me, like texting and whatnot. But it was, it was still fun.

Matt Lafferty (17:22):

You got to see like the impressions of the customer, like man, like these, they are stoked right now. They, they, I mean, they couldn't believe that they could get their supplies that fast. I mean, so I say that cause like, there's a feel there's like, it's a good feeling. It feels good. Like you're, you're, you're making someone's day. They're they're able to finish their job on time. And, and also not only that, but like, you're, it's our cool, like the fact that you're bringing parts and supplies that are going to become permanent or semi-permanent fixtures in buildings and infrastructure. So that that's really cool. I love that part. The fact like, wow, cause you know, you deliver food and then, you know, then what happens to the food? You know,

Bill Soroka (18:07):

You don't want to see the results of that…

Matt Lafferty (18:10):

But you know, you're delivering construction supplies and it's, it's, it's just rad to be part of that process. And I'm like one of the biggest industries in the US right, or in the world construction, it's just, it's, it's, it's hiding in plain sight. It's the biggest thing out there. And so we're like a great aggregator being able to bring all these people to make the whole thing more efficient. And, and then not only that, but you get to enjoy the benefits of it. Right. If you move in some materials for like maybe even pavers or whatever whatever's going on, like it's cool. Or even just individual homeowners. Cool. That made their day.

Bill Soroka (18:50):

Oh yeah. I can see that you almost got to be a hero to the con the, the job site or whatever it is. And then I still do it, even when I do loan signings, I'm like, oh, I did a signing at that house. Or I met at that hotel and I did a loan signing, but you can do that this job too and say, oh yeah, I delivered this to that bridge project. Or that high rise.

Matt Lafferty (19:10):

Exactly fun. We've delivered stuff to Tesla. We've just delivered things, but we've not, we've actually done some stuff to Amazon. So that's funny. So, yeah. It's cool. It's really cool. Yeah.

Bill Soroka (19:25):

It sounds like a fun gig. So as far as the day-to-day work goes, cause I know there's probably people listening and they're like, all right, I've got a car, I've got a truck or a van that I might be able to lose it or use for this. And we'll talk more about that in a minute, but what's the actual work look like? Do the drivers count on having to lift this heavy equipment into their vehicle? What's the loading and unloading look like what's what is that part?

Matt Lafferty (19:50):

Well, here's the beauty of it. Drivers shows up at the distributor and the distributor loads up the truck. I mean, unless there's something small, like, like, like, yeah, they're not going to walk, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's, it's a grocery bag full, like, like obviously you're going to end up carrying that unless you're some sort of like prima donna and just like, no, carry this to my car now.

Bill Soroka (20:15):

Prima Donnas no need not apply. Right?

Matt Lafferty (20:17):

Go ahead and apply because you'll still get work. The thing is like the distributor loads it up if it's going to another distributor, cause that's a branch transfer, we call them. So then the distributors going to be unloading as well, driver will take a picture of the supplies, a pickup then driver will take a picture of the supplies at, at drop-off, you know, a lot of, a lot of that's done just, you know, for insurance purposes, making sure that the goods and supplies that were picked up are, are not broken for example, and then dropped off. And it's also just, and then there's, then there's tracking as well as provided to our customer. So, I mean, that's, that's, that's typically what it looks like. It's, it's, you're, you're driving and taking pictures that pick up and drop off and we just, we just thought that was a cool flow. I mean, with loading up, like they load up the truck and then if you're going to a job site, there's a, there's a crew typically onsite. That's like unloading that stuff for you. So, or they're equipped for it.

Bill Soroka (21:16):

Nice. And then you can listen to whatever music you want in between roll the windows down and not have to passenger to worry about exactly. There you go. How does the how did the assignments come through? Is it strictly on the app?

Matt Lafferty (21:33):

Yes.

Bill Soroka (21:33):

How do they, how do you know what who's eligible for certain types of deliveries? Like a Ford focus, can't carry everything, right? So

Matt Lafferty (21:44):

When you, when you, when you sign up, you will, you will let us know which, what type of vehicle you have. And so that that'll go into our database and then when our customer self-selects what type of vehicle they need, or we know what type of materials and supplies are being moved then you know, just like any other platform, you'll get a notification to accept or accept or decline or, or ignore whatever.

Bill Soroka (22:14):

Excellent who do so to help you meet your client demands right now, who would you consider are your ideal driver prospects?

Matt Lafferty (22:25):

Everybody who has a car pickup truck van. I mean, we literally use everything under the sun. If someone has, like, these are in high demand pickup trucks with, with pipe racks we'll take those all day. You know, F-150 F=250's, whatever with with or without a trailer. So trailers are really helpful. We've been using those a lot. Folks with box trucks, stick bed trucks, everything. So everything.

Bill Soroka (22:58):

Even Ford Focus?

Bill Soroka (23:00):

Even Ford Focus. We've actually determined like what, like what percentage within certain, certain verticals actual will fit in a car and what they can bring. So that's sort of fun too. The fact that there's still a lot of work even for cars of that size, but the thing, the reason why we work is because that's why our customers use us is because we can actually offer everything they want a one-stop shop, so that's us, and they want our software. So…

Bill Soroka (23:26):

That's yeah. Nice. Yeah. So what makes a, what makes a driver stand out on your platform? Like how could they become a preferred driver that gets more jobs? Is there a way to do that?

Matt Lafferty (23:41):

Oh yeah, we have a rating system. Just, just like the others. So, you know, customers can, can, you know, make comments and rates just like ratings, just like you can with any type of, you know, online review of a service. And so that helps also, you know, just, just free frequency, like being on there, being active, being active on the app, that those things help as well.

Bill Soroka (24:08):

I know there's that you require a criminal background check. Yeah,

Matt Lafferty (24:11):

Of course. Yeah. Just like every other gig platform out there. So yeah, we're, we're very diligent with those.

Bill Soroka (24:19):

Excellent. And is there any other guidelines or requirements that the driver would have to meet in order to drive for you?

Bill Soroka (24:29):

You know, besides having a driver's license and car insurance and those types of things, but

Matt Lafferty (24:34):

I mean, that pretty much covers it, like, you know, insurance, pass a background check

Bill Soroka (24:40):

Any uniform requirements or anything like that?

Matt Lafferty (24:42):

No, we don't require uniforms, you know, that's because our drivers are independent contractors, so i mean we have, we have recommendations of, of playing it. Like you, like you notice, like if, you know, I mean, just like, like Uber, like they'll, they'll, they'll put out like help articles or like they call them like tips for success, things, things of that nature. Yeah, I mean, we're, we're, we're a flannel we do recommend close toed shoes, so that's, that's a thing we recommend just for a driver's safety.

Bill Soroka (25:17):

Excellent. I can see so much opportunity here. This is exciting. Now I want to talk specifically because I know everybody who's listening to this right now wants to know what the opportunity really looks like. Like I'm sure they're thinking I've got an F-250, is it worth putting a pipe rack on how much money can I make this? So do you have, I know it's really difficult to specifically quote income numbers, but what's a realistic, realistic part-time income. If somebody was in a city with over a hundred thousand people and it was growing?

Matt Lafferty (25:52):

I mean, it could be 17 to 35 an hour. Just depends. What type of vehicle you have or what type of you know, the multiple services that we offer that you're fulfilling?

Bill Soroka (26:02):

How urgent are the orders when they come in and do some of them get scheduled in advance?

Matt Lafferty (26:09):

They all vary. So some of them are on demand and urgent. Some of them are more of like a same day, like non rush type of frequency, and others are quite advanced with like a specific route with multiple stops. So yeah, basically everything out of the sun. I don't have the exact percentage ratio for you on, on each of those, but it can be all of those things.

Bill Soroka (26:38):

How do you pay your drivers?

Matt Lafferty (26:41):

Through a system called Stripe Connect. It's, I'm not sure if you're familiar, but you know, just ties in directly with like, you know, ACH payments.

Bill Soroka (26:51):

Do you, are, is it like a weekly pays at three to five weeks out daily,

Matt Lafferty (26:56):

Daily? It's daily paid.

Bill Soroka (26:59):

Nice. Yeah. So if they did five jobs that day, they get paid once for all five jobs

Matt Lafferty (27:04):

Yeah. In, in aggregate for that day.

Bill Soroka (27:06):

Yeah. Huge. Yeah. Huge.

Bill Soroka (27:10):

Well, that gets my wheels turning, but I also want to kind to I'm going to tell everybody if you're interested in learning more about Curri, you can visit https://www.sidehustlelounge.com/vip room, and I'll have links to Curri. So you can download the app, poke around a little bit and check in with their support team and that have any of your questions answered from their support, and help articles. They have a great website, that's full of information, but as we wrap up here ma I'd like to you, you kind of touched on this earlier with your sunglass company, but I want to know what other side hustles you have going on, or income streams that you might have going on. And if you've opted not to take any of those on right now, I'd like to understand why.

Matt Lafferty (27:55):

I mean, it's, it's, I have none other than Curri that I'm I'm, it is it takes every bit of effort and focus that I have to, to throw at this. So but I, I used to, you know where this… Basically I had no plan B on, on Curri. It was, you know, I moved back from overseas and you know, quickly realized what the potential of this was and just was all in. So I did close down the sunglass company and just, you know, sink or swim, you know, and just, just went for it!

Bill Soroka (28:45):

Yeah. Burn the ships. You're all in on this one right now.

Matt Lafferty (28:48):

Ya exactly!

Bill Soroka (28:48):

To do that. It takes number one, I would say a clear vision of where you're going, or at least what the next couple of years might look like or what you want to create or the impact. But it seems to me that you'd have to have a pretty clear 'why', like, why does this business have to work for you? What's important.

Matt Lafferty (29:07):

My family, I mean, that was, that was, that was one thing you know, moving from overseas and coming, coming back to the states with no income for a long time. You know I was living with my in-laws just, I dunno. I mean, it was, it was, those are hard times, man. I was like, you know, you know, on, on Medi-Cal. I mean, it was just it was some, you know, more that the, you know, burn the ships, like here we go, like have to make this work. But it was also really driven just by the massive like I was saying, like, it feels good to solve a massive problem. Right. So in the early days, like going to all the construction sites and chatting with contractors, I just developed like a huge respect for their work. They work really, really hard, and I noticed that when they can get their supplies, like they can, they can get back to their families in time like can provide for their families even better.

Matt Lafferty (30:13):

And, and if they can be more efficient, that means they're going to be able to provide for their families better and they can also meet deadlines better manage their time with their families. And, and that goes for the drivers as well. I mean, the drivers, like you know, I would, I would tell a driver from, from door dash or Uber or any of those, just like hey join Curri. You're you're gonna be able to make more. And so I don't know that that was a huge motivator for me, was family and, and solving massive problem.

Bill Soroka (30:43):

I really liked that because you were playing a pivotal role in making not only your dream come true, but taking care of your family and helping another driver whose dream might be a little bit different, but once the flexibility of their schedule to earn some money and spend the time doing the things they love with the people they love. And then with the construction workers, you're making somebody else's dream that dream literally come alive. I love when you can see a tangible result of someone's thinking in your you're playing a critical role in that. So that's exciting. Anything else that you'd like to leave? Well, actually, I have one more question for you. Yeah. How do you how do you connect with your customers? Or how can someone in our audience connect contractors or suppliers they might know to you? I mean, are you still looking to grow that side of the business?

Matt Lafferty (31:37):

I mean, yeah. I mean, if, if I think they, the easiest thing they can do is just point them to their website. It's like going to be super clear to any distributor supplier. They're like, oh, Hey, I'm their customer. And sign up super easy. I mean, to, to get started. I mean, we, we, we spin up routes and deliveries all the time for, for distributors and suppliers nationwide. So what website we'll do all the heavy lifting as far as that even, even on the driver's side. So if someone has to drive, you know, www.Curri.com and as well as for distributors of suppliers, same website,

Bill Soroka (32:11):

Love it. What any last minute advice that you might have for a side hustler, with a dream?

Matt Lafferty (32:19):

Be comfortable with a fair amount of ambiguity, right? And some people thinking, thinking you're absolutely nuts or crazy, or maybe slightly irresponsible. Thing is like, I do know some like entrepreneur, like, Hey, like that that's not going to work because you're not listening to your customer, you know, where they just keep going down a path, like if being able to live in the ambiguity and, you know, people think you're a little bit nuts for a bit, you have to be comfortable with that. Like, I mean, for, so doing it for so long people just saying like, won't, you know, will Google do that? Won't Uber do that. Won't, you know, and, you know, I, I, I had great reasons and I would tell them why, like, no, you just gotta keep, keep going in spite of that. So, and to have some balance to.

Bill Soroka (33:07):

What's that mean?

Matt Lafferty (33:08):

What's balanced mean, well, one, there's no such thing, but make time to like, do something fun. And it's like, mine's just like, you know, time with my family. That's that's, that's very important to me. I mean, I started surfing. I I'm terrible. But that sort of gives me some good mental space at least once, once or twice a week. And people asked me if I surf and I them I'll no, I'm just, I'm just a man floating in the ocean. And sometimes I get, I'll get a wave and sometimes I'm in the wash cycle, so…

Bill Soroka (33:38):

Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like that would be me. I just saw this, I follow this family on Instagram called the Bucket List Family. I think they've got like this eight year old. That's like filming himself surfing waves with his like 12 year old sister. And I'm like, so jealous of that kind of life, because I can't even stand up on the paddle board. I'd be in the wash cycle the whole time. They had love that you've done that.

Matt Lafferty (34:02):

Have you seen the handles ones. You can grab the, have you seen those ones? Are they got handles on this side?

Bill Soroka (34:06):

No!

Matt Lafferty (34:07):

My neighbor has when he brings his little girl and just like, so she grabs on the handles and is able to stand up, but I think I do have some other other advice that just like hit me. Like, I, I think it's really like, if you, if you're going to be doing something like it could be fairly, fairly big. Like, I, I do think the support of a co-founder and going into that dynamic together, like really helps ease that that, that burden that can feel that can be like, it's, it's just better to share a burden with someone when you're like, you know, you're in the trenches together. And then I think you can move and progress faster in that way. So, yeah.

Bill Soroka (34:50):

Would you say that … and Brian is your co-founder correct?

Matt Lafferty (34:53):

Yep. Yep.

Bill Soroka (34:54):

Would you say that you each have certain strengths that compliment each other?

Matt Lafferty (35:00):

Yes. Yeah. It's, it's, what's crazy is we were friends for like, you know, 12 years before, and we'd never even started like thought or like mentioned or discussed starting a business together, but we both knew each other's personalities really well. And, you know, I call him mind palace just because whatever, Hey, dude, how's this work, you know, he's just maybe some Sherlock Holmes, you know, you know, he goes into mind palace and just, yeah. So that's sort of a cool dynamic we have yeah, I mean, just, he he's, he's our CTO you know, head of technology. So he just understands that side of the business, the technical co-founder, whereas I'm more like, you know, you know, business negotiations and things of that nature. So

Bill Soroka (35:45):

It sounds like a great team. Great advice too, Matt, thank you so much for carving a little bit of time out of your busy schedule. I know you have a lot going on and I truly appreciate it. And if you're listening and if you're interested in exploring Curri visit https://www.sidehustlelounge.com/vip room, and I'll have the links and stuff to Curri, or of course you can go to Curri.com. That's CURRi.com. Matt, thank you so much.

Matt Lafferty (36:10):

Thanks Bill. Appreciate it.

Bill

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