YouSaid · the spoken record

Pete Warhurst

lines on the record: 99
first: 2022-05-09
most recent: 2022-05-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, you know, I financed the beginnings of the Tampa Bay area on my own, but that was quickly drying out, as you are articulating. But you know, I was fortunate. I had a lot of high net worth friends, and so I did a friends and family round and actually went to a dear friend of mine that was a doctor. And he took it to his accountant, who took it to somebody else anyway. One of the gentlemen that got involved actually ran a full fledged business model on the business. and came back fairly astonished at what this thing could grow to be like. And so I did my first round of capital raise. I think I raised $7 million on that first friends and family round.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I can stack the boxes, right? So I'm renting the boxes for virtually $15 a square foot. I think is the number I was using back then. And I could stack them three high. So I'm generating $45 a square foot for what I'm paying $5 a square foot. So I said.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It definitely caused sleepless nights. I did venture into it. Let's face it, before I even spent a dime, I tried to model it out, financially model it out. And the economics were. Very compelling, you know. The way I looked at it back in those days, I could rent a warehouse for $5 a square foot. And this warehouse was 30 feet high and a few columns in it and stuff.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He was involved in building the boxes, and we started talking about it. And so we went through version after version after version after version. And I think even today they still make minor tweaks to it. But we ended up building a lyft system that looks a lot like a bed frame, you know, with the posts and the rails and stuff. Somebody fondly calls it the Podzilla. It evolved into a piece of equipment that has never dropped what they've done over 4 million pickups and deliveries. They've never dropped a container, never had a bottom fall out of a container. So the containers were built well and the machinery was built well. And that's a pretty good testimonial.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We had to figure it out and the same guy that was building the original container went to him and he's very, very mechanically inclined. He's with me again today. He was one of the first people I met when I moved to Florida. What's his name?”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Dangling, and that's. And looked at the roll off the tow trucks that tilt beds the same way the steel cargo containers get delivered. They tilt them off and roll them off and stuff. Some people use that methodology today. My concern with that was twofold. Number one, you got to put them on some number of degrees, 30 degree angle. And people haven't packed them and tied the goods down well enough. Things are going to tumble, right? It didn't seem logical to tilt it. The leading edge when you're redelivering it, the leading edge hits the driveway first, and then you pull the truck forward in the last six inches or so the unit drops around.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. Yeah, that unit was probably pushing 10,000 pounds when it's loaded. So that was a challenge, no doubt. And we looked at off the shelf stuff. I looked at you've probably seen cranes on the back of trucks that can pick up and offload with a crane. That system, I said, geez, you know, that's going to go up with the power lines or trees and everything else. So I discounted that.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Two by four by four by four by four by You know, we started building the first one in another firefighter buddy of mine in his driveway. We started to build the boxes there and realized that we couldn't build 100 boxes in his driveway. So I rented a warehouse and we opened up a little. production line that OSHA would have put me in jail for if they had come and inspected us.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, Dave Ravella, my paramedic partner in the fire union president and stuff, helped me build the mini storage. And then he, uh, Was with me then, and so I was bouncing these ideas off of him, and he said, well, let me draw up a box. And he probably is a much better woodworker than I am. But he optimized the dimensions of off-the-shelf materials and said, we can build a box this way. And we think it'll hold up. We can build 100 of these and I could do the math and say, okay, that's what it's going to cost to build 100 of these things. And so that's what we set off to do.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The answer is yes, eventually I did sell it, but not right away. I wanted to explore and research the concept. And so it was probably a year or so after I came up with the idea before I started to try and sell them any storage”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The next challenge was how do I deliver them? And then I had to, before I did any of that, including build the boxes, I had to say, you know, what do the economics look like?”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, yeah. And I definitely looked at the big steel cargo containers and I thought to myself, you know, that's not the right container. I said, well, my wife, I use yours, the litmus test, right? Well, my wife put our stuff in that steel rusty steel container. And I said, no, that's not the right container for us. And internet didn't really provide anything. And I thought, well, you know, I'm sort of into building and things. I bet you I can build a box. And I knew that I knew that the most popular mini storage was a 10 by 10. So, you know, I thought, well, what if I do a 12x8 box, which sort of met the dimensions of plywood? I felt my wife would put our stuff in these wooden, nice wooden boxes that were clean and fresh.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I was actually driving with Roy Courtney and we were talking about another business that he had invested in that. Was picking up medical waste in a container and stuff. And I was envisioning the truck and I'd seen the trucks around and stuff. And I said, well, I said, well, there's a truck. How do we do this? And I said, What if we bring the storage to the house? It was that simple. I mean”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Literally driving down the road. Looking for a piece of property and frustrated and stuff and just one day said, what if we brought the storage to the house? And you sort of scratch your head and think, you know, how would you do that type thing? I was intrigued by the concept and the internet was pretty young back then and I got on the internet and tried to see if there was anybody out there doing something like that and I didn't find anything.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. As we started to rent up and I got more and more excited and more anxious to find another lot and just never did. I eventually quit looking because I came up with a new idea”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, if you know Pinellas County, St. Blairwater, it is very, very densely populated. And so land in general is scarce, especially when you're looking for a three-acre, four-acre parcel that's on a main artery that has the right zoning. So that was difficult. And then if you did find one, you had to do that same math where's your closest competitor and typically I'd find something and across the street was a competitor, you know. I really had a hard time and never did find the second parse, all we finally did open and we were growing quickly, but I couldn't find that next piece and continued to drive around looking.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, during my tenure, I don't think we did get to 100% before we actually had a CEO and could open, I started to look for a second site because I was so confident I had learned the idiosyncrasies of it. I'd successfully built a unit and I knew I could get more financing to do another one.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Correct. And we were in an affluent community. And everybody needs storage, especially in Florida, where you don't have basements So I was very confident, and it was convenient because I could walk to it, you know?”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I want to say the construction for the units themselves was under $100 a foot, but I want to say all and we had just over $2 million in it between the land and the buildings.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I did. The piece of land was owned by a gentleman that lived in the community, a member of the same golf club. And I went to buy it. And when he asked me what I was doing with it, and I told him I was going to build a mini store, he says, well, I don't want to sell it. I want to be your partner. I could care less. At that point, I was just looking for something to do. I said, sure, you can be my partner. Roy Courtney was his name”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the number one thing is that you only need one or two employees. So I thought, okay, that's a lot better than what I came from, right? So, having one or two employees, it was a recurring revenue. You didn't have one key customer, you had 500 customers. So if you lost five or ten of them in a week, it's no big deal. You replace them. It was high return. I mean, the margins were good, and I just started looking at it. At a coincidence, eighth of a mile from my house was a... Four week or three acre piece of property that was sitting there vacant. I thought, well, what if I put them in any storage?”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know that I really thought about a whole lot. I mean, back in that era you heard about and read about mini storage and I started to investigate that.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, you know, we bought a new home and I played a lot of golf. That was one of my hobbies. Did a little boating. I had a sailboat at the time and a little travel but started to get bored. It's not what it's cracked out up to be”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. I mean, they saw the potential and they wanted to expand for whatever reasons. And they came in and they made us a generous offer. You know, you're talking to a guy that when I started the fire department, I think I was making $30,000 a year or something. And I walked away with seven digits. You were 40.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really, really hard, no doubt about it. You know, I was traveling virtually every week. I remember waking up. Many mornings and thinking, where am I? You know, not couldn't even remember what town I was in, no less what hotel or what I was going to do the next day. That obviously puts a strain in our marriage. The business didn't last that long. We were fortunate that one of the baby bells came along and wanted to buy the business. And so that gave us our exit. But I do believe we would have cratered had we not sold.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely, and promises and commitments were made of what the system did or could do that weren't always 100% there. We could do 80% of what they asked for. And so now I'm facing them and say, well, this is what we thought you bought. It was a tough business”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, yeah, more than anybody, because that was my job. That was my half of the bill. A third of the business was to get the systems up and running. You know, Jerry was the sales guy, and he was having a ball doing it, right? He was.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Without a doubt. I mean, you know, it was easy to sell because it was a great product. And we had professionally great hardware and all this. But the installation period could run a minimum of a year and often ran two and three years to get the equipment up and running, the database loaded, people trained, the network put in place. And so, you know, our backlog of installation grew and grew and grew, and therefore the consumer was getting more and more frustrated with us. So our growth was almost our demise.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, the first three, four, five markets, I guess, were around Florida, but we ended up going nationwide and up into Canada.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. And I absolutely had a tremendous amount of people wanting to come see the product. But we would also go to trade shows and Jerry would give a talk and we'd have a booth set up.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I did resign, and that was one of the toughest decisions of my life. I saw where this business was going, and you think about your family and your career path. And I was always financially driven to raise money and live well. So I made a very, very tough decision and it worked out well for me.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Fire chief, yeah, I'm sure said to Bob, you know, why don't we sell this and Pete can take some time off from work and go down there and help him get it set up and we can make some bucks on it, whatever it is.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Correct. As it turned out, you know, as people heard about this new system in 91 was being installed around the country, they came from all over the country, all over the world to see this. So we were sort of on the bleeding edge, and they either approached Bob or they'd approach the fire chief and say, how can I get this in my city? And Jerry being progressive thinker.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Again, this is a guy that didn't know anything about computers, but we were actually setting off printers in the fire stations, opening fire station doors, alerting bridges that the fire truck is coming, have the bridge down. And so we automated a lot of processes and we literally took a dispatch process down from several minutes to tens of seconds, 15, 20, 30 seconds to get the appropriate equipment on the road.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, his name is Bob Timberlake, and he has an electrical engineering degree. He was working for a power company had a software company called Econometrics Associates.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. So the chief came to me and said, would you be interested in helping me implement the 911 system? I said, well, sure. I mean, I'm willing to look at it and stuff. He says, well, what do you know about computers? I said, not a damn thing. Are you willing to learn? I said, sure. So the goal was we had, I think it was 23 or 21 fire districts within Pinellas County, which is St. Pete Coit, basically. And I think there was 21 independents. Anyway, the problem with 911 is the people are going to be able to dial that three digit number, and it's got to ring somewhere. And They didn't know where to ship that call or whether to the 23 or 21 whatever it was department. So where do I transfer that customer to?”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah. I tell people that if I go back and do it tomorrow, I'd do it in the heartbeat. It was the most rewarding thing I ever did in my life.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In the fire department. He says, I got to tell you, I'm here because he told me I have to be here and I'm asking if you guys, if anybody wants to go to paramedic school, but I want you to know. I hate the idea. I don't want paramedics. I'm not going to support paramedics. But I'm asking if anybody wants to volunteer. I stood right up and threw my hand up and I said, I'm in. But that was my real passion. I mean, fighting fires is one thing. And you're saving property and stuff. But going through paramedic school and saving lives is something completely different. I was one of the first paramedics in the state. I want to say in the first hundred paramedics in the entire state.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, my first day on the job was, as I said, November 1st, 1973, the night before a tornado went through and wiped out mobile homes, killed a few people, unfortunately. And I'm in the state for three weeks, and I show up on the job the very first day. I go out and I look at this devastation and I think to myself, holy cow, what have you gotten yourself into, you know? But, you know, I went through the training, the fire chief came out one day and they had a mandatory meeting at night. And he said, listen, guys, he says, the mayor wants us.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We were on a 2448 shift. So that meant you showed up at 7 o'clock in the morning, you went home 7 o'clock the next morning. And then you had two days off. And I remember thinking to myself, you know what? They're still looking for a lot of firefighters, right? They had a big hiring going on, and I thought to myself, I'll work the second day for free. I was enjoying myself so much. Wow.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everything I owned went in that MGB. On October 6th, I arrived. And by November 1st, I was on a paid department in Largo, Florida, which is...”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. I heard that they were hiring firefighters down in Florida. And my best friend at the time had moved to Florida. And I said, you know what? I'm just going to do it. I packed up. I had an MGB, which is, you know, a little like a little triumph. I don't know if you know the car or not, but a very small.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no. You basically would listen for the fire whistle to go off. At that time, we didn't have pagers or blackberries or anything like that. And they hooked into your phone at home and it gave a rapid ring so you knew it was a call. But yeah, you weren't obligated to put in at any time. I always went on training drills and took the first eight courses and went to all the meetings. And I was deeply ingrained in it.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, right. That was life changing. Had to be 18 to join the volunteer fire department, and as soon as I was 18, I signed up and I joined the fire department.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I was out at the gas pumps. I think I was pumping gas, or I was cleaning the pumps. I mean, my station was out at the gas pumps being ready for the next customer. And all of a sudden behind me I heard a screeching of the brakes and a thump. And yells and horns. And I ran up there to see what went on. And a little girl had gotten hit by car. And I stood there and I looked and I really didn't know what to do or how to do it and stuff. And I ran back into the gas station and called the local fire department, which literally was a quarter of a mile away, you know, a third of a mile away. And it was a volunteer department, but they showed up and took the girl off. And unfortunately, she did not make it. But it was hard for me to watch and not be able to help.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was full service though when I was there it was unheard of for you to pump your own gas. Right. My primary responsibility was to go out and be pleasant and pump the gas.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, no, he'd go to bed seven o'clock. He was two. There was the occasion that I'd be coming home at two and he'd be going out and he'd just shake his head.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I did. Yes, I did. I enjoyed going in. It was early morning and they made sure they put me to work. But I want to say there was maybe. Six son guys in the actual warehouse repackaging and they had a dozen drivers or so.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We used to call him a chicken plucker, but he would go into the city around two o'clock in the morning and he'd come home around three o'clock in the afternoon. And they would receive poultry in all prepared as far as cleaned and raw. But they repackage it basically and deliver it to shipyards, hotels, airlines, things like that. And so they were sort of the middleman between the farms and the end user, the high-end users.”
2022-05-09 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · PODS & Red Rover: Pete Warhurst · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT