They Turned Fuel Delivery Into a Franchise Empire | Caroline & Korey McDavid | Building Big Brands

In this episode of Building Big Brands with Connor Dube, we hear from Caroline and Korey McDavid. They co-founded Juiced Fuel, the mobile fuel delivery company turning a boring industry into a booming franchise. 

From going viral with zero ad spend to selling 20+ territories in their first year of franchising, this episode is packed with knowledge about brand building, organic growth, and betting on yourself.

• Learn more about Juiced Fuel: juicedfuel.com
• Reach out: info@juicedfuel.com
• Follow them on social media: instagram.juicedfuel.com

Learn more about Big Brand Ventures: bigbrandventures.com
Follow us on Social Media:
• instagram.com/connor_dube
• instagram.com/bigbrandventures

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome everybody. We are prepared. We're sitting here excited for another episode of Building Big Brands, featured by Big Brand Ventures, of course, us, a team that's taken, you know, dozens and dozens of companies to 10 plus billion dollars. And those are in our network, you know, fans of brands we're familiar with and partners, people who have done it, you know, at the $100 million level, who, you know, we see are building towards that level and beyond. And I'm actually very excited, you know, for our guests today, you know, Caroline McDavid and Corey McDavid, you know, the co-founder and the brand visionary behind Juice Feel, which is a mobile field delivery company redefining convenience. And as a woman building a brand in traditionally male-run industries, very true. The company's creative direction, marketing, storytelling, uh, with a bold modern approach. And Caroline helped grow Juice Feel from a local idea to now you guys are a nationally recognized franchise and uh, you know, staying focused on community, you guys have a family. Uh, and then Corey, of course, who's just a good looks of the operation. So, you know, with that, we'll dive right in in why don't you guys just say hey? And um, I want to start from the end, you know, talk about where you're at right now with the brand, what's happening, what's exciting, and then we'll go from there. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Yeah, I mean, right now we are taking off. We are expanding all over the country. I believe we've uh sold around 24 territories. Um, we are getting people excited all over the country with about a dozen more in the pending. Um it's exciting to see how many people want to join and how many people are, you know, still constantly following our leads uh through organic uh through organic social media posts. I mean, still the leads are coming in and we haven't done really any advertising for it.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, we are um getting really aggressive with our goals this year. You know, last year's goal to when we started franchising was let's get 10 territories, let's find 10 good operators, um, you know, make sure that we're doing this right. Uh, we sold those 10 pretty quickly and felt confident to you know get started on our 26 goals at the end of last year. So we sold 20 um last year, and our goal is to get to 100 by the end of this year. So uh we've got several getting ready to close and you know, are uh pedal to the metal right now.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

So yeah, new locations opening weekly, so that's exciting.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Huge, uh absolutely insane. And and you know, not only that, the branding, like you've done a phenomenal job on the branding, on telling the story, on creating sort of a fun and sexy industry out of one that you know really isn't like we're talking about the the fuel industry. Um, but you know, when you really dig into it, it makes perfect sense. And and we pay, you know, the we live in the world now of convenience. So making that trip to the gas station, which no one wants to do, or your boat is sitting out in the marina and you don't want to have to go deal with that. And uh in the fact that you guys can deliver fuel right to them, it made perfect sense. But how did you come to the conclusion? Because you know, there's people who've kind of semi-tried this concept before, hasn't really worked. Like, how did you come to this idea? Both of you want to share, and then um, and then what did you see that others maybe didn't?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Yeah, so I've been working in this space for um a long time. You know, I was a terminal manager here in Charleston. So my customers were the fuel suppliers, and I just saw that if you were moving a ton of fuel, there were as people that will bring it to you. That's you know, a business as old as you know, the combustion engine, right? Um, but if you were, you know, say a small to medium-sized business, a fleet of like 10 to 12 vehicles, you were pretty much left to do it on your own, meaning fuel cards, or you're just giving company credit cards to people and then you're paying those labor dollars to go and um fill up those vehicles. And so there was a lot of uh opportunity there from you know the hey, I'm gonna drop a tank on your site and we'll keep it filled up once a week to everyone else in the market that has to go to a gas station. And so we stepped in to fill that gap. Um just so happened that at the same time Caroline was also complaining about her gas station experience. And so these two things came together to, you know, I think there's there's a problem here that a lot of people um, you know, would pay a premium for, and that's what what we did.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yeah, uh, you know, it was during the COVID times, and so you know, you have a new baby, they tell you not to touch anything, like you're scared out of your mind. And so just the the stop at a gas station with germs and baby screaming, and it was like, what this is just too stressful. Can't there be an alternative option? And kind of like we talked that out, and you know, it it was a a leap at first, and then uh as it developed, I became passionate about what we're doing. And who could say uh they're passionate about gas? Not many people.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

And and I mean, so from 20 last year going into you know the goal to do 100, which I believe you guys are are probably gonna pull it off. Talk about, and you launched this officially how many years ago now?

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Uh we started in 2023, and it was just me, you know, side gigging it, you know, still working a corporate job, just trying to prove the concept and get this thing off the ground, um, you know, while also like de-risking our personal life, right? Like I have Caroline and two sons to take care of. So I can't go all in on this business that uh you know may or may not work. Um, but so from 2023 to now, so we're just entering our fourth year in business. I mean, we've experienced explosive growth and we're we're trying to keep that going.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

So and even up until a year and a half ago or or something like that, you're still you're still kind of doing that, which I I thought I think was actually smart. Like a lot of people, um, they go all in too early and you know, throw out like, hey, I can still build this business on the side, I in and still maintain, you know, cash flow coming in and all that good stuff. But you know, talk about the early, early days in you know, building this up. Like, what were some of the biggest challenges and nuances? Like, where'd you guys end up stuck? And uh, and you know, in hindsight, what would you have done differently four years ago, you know, thinking about today?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, so I just went on payroll uh this past Thanksgiving. So um it became very clear that like I was doing a disservice to both Juice and my my corporate job, right? And so I think a lot of people don't ever get to that like clear line in the sand of like you have to make one or the other work. Um, you know, I it was very clear to me, I had to pick one. And so Juice had already you know become a life of its own. And so it needed my full attention. So um that's where we're at now. Uh, but early on, there was um uh a number of struggles. So like we everything from the equipment to tech to um marketing, we've kind of experienced it all, right? Which is that you know they call it the dummy tax and franchising, right? That's why you buy a franchise, so you don't have to pay the same dummy tax that we did. Um, but I remember like our I went through this business incubator process uh and that was you know guiding me towards uh raising capital, uh, was how we initially went at this. And a few months into that, they went out of business. So claim bankruptcy.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

They dropped a lot of people. Luckily, we had something.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Who is this who was this uh business incubator that's advising me that just went out of business themselves? So that like it kind of uh shook my confidence, and uh you know the equipment we purchased was too large, like it was delivered, it was too large for the truck to fit in the truck. So I had to modify that. Like me and my neighbor were literally like sawing uh in the back in in our garage, like cutting up the skid so that it would fit into our truck. Um, we're on our fourth uh round of developers for our app, right? As what you with continued growth uh comes challenges, and you know, it's kind of one of these if you can't keep up, like we've gotta we've gotta move around you and find find another another way to to keep it going. So all these things you know, we've had to kind of overcome. Yeah, and then you guys have oh go go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Yeah, I was gonna say in the beginning, uh marketing, like you know, it was how do you market this? Who is your marketing? Like I was learning all of the terms of which um the buyer journey and what that's like for each customer. And um, we hired a marketing agency because you know that just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. And you know, as we grow and grew through that process, we could get the best click rates, we can get the best views, but we could get zero conversions with these uh these marketers. And so that's when I took over and decided to take a stab at like what that needed. And that's kind of how the you know, we go from zero to a hundred real fast when we got viral back in 2023 of November. Um, I just remember I didn't sleep for days because I was like enamored by how many people. I mean, I woke up one morning and I was like, oh my gosh, 500,000, that's so many people. And then the next warm morning I wake up, it'd be like five million and like the commons, and like I had to learn like how to manage the commons, like you can't take them personally. You had like all of those things were such a growth period for me as a person, too, but not as a business as well, because here we are now getting more attention than we even know what to do with.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

You guys tapped into something there. I mean, for the amount of franchises you have in the queue, and I mean you told me at one point almost even a year ago, even almost prior to you formally, you know, having your formation, your FDD, like all of that of the way, hundreds and hundreds of people inquiring about wanting to franchise the concept. I mean, the media, the exposure that you tapped into is, you know, franchises pay millions of dollars for that you essentially solved organically. Uh, so what was that? Like, what was that tactic that worked? Um, and uh and was it just kind of like, oh, happy accident? I just posted a lot, or you strategically you just did your homework and then found, you know, these are the things that work to get viral exposure and and then you just executed on that.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

So uh social media is kind of what I call the lottery. Um you gotta you gotta pay to, you know, play to pay, pay to play. You gotta keep putting that coin in there. So, you know, every day I would post, I'd be consistent, I took different angles. I had to find a voice that like almost wasn't mine, but was mine because it had to be relatable for almost everybody. And I would say that um we accidentally landed viral. However, you know, um moving forward using those stats and those tactics um helped grow us even more. So utilizing what worked and what didn't, and like what attracts people, what doesn't. But ultimately, like franchising was led by the people. They were asking, they were demanding. Um, at one point, I was like, there's like we had to go online and be like, we're not franchising, we're too young in the process, we need a little bit more time to get established. And then once uh once it got over 500, 600, I mean, I think now we're at almost 3,000 leads since we started this. And the, you know, that was the termination that this is something, we're on to something, it's working, people believe in us, and really we aspire to kind of create this um corporate to business ownership life, like where you know, you are tired of the day in and day out of driving to work. And now let's let's be our own bosses, and I think that we're a great inspiration for what that is.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

100%. You can think like viral, going viral, you never know when it might happen, but it's definitely not gonna happen if you're not posting. And the fact that Caroline was posting every day and being consistent, I mean, up until the posts that we had that went 14 million views, I mean, the views prior to that were like in the hundreds, but you still, you know, she's putting that coin in every day, like you said, and then and then it hits, and then it hits at a time where people are frustrated with their corporate jobs, people are getting laid off from tech and government, and you know, all these people are looking for uh a way to take control of their own destiny and be their own boss, right? And and we're offering them something that is um simple enough of a concept that you know, hey, I I know how to drive a truck, I know how to pump gas, right? But scary enough because it's highly regulated in fuel that they want to partner with us. And then Caroline's built such an amazing brand, you know, the power of our brand and power of our marketing that uh you know, we've become the credible voice in this last mile delivery of fuel that people want to partner with us. And so it just feeds the flywheel of organic leads. We haven't run a single ad for franchising, um, but we still field leads every day.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Hear that, folks. I mean, and today you're still not running any paid media, right? For your customer acquisition, just entirely organic, which is it's massive. I mean, you guys give yourselves a like again, we we see a thousand companies that come through our door every single month. And you know, I just I hope you guys do take a step back, pat yourselves on the back. I'm sure you do, but but really uh it's a very impressive feat of what you've done here. And and also you haven't even really raised that much money, right? I mean, how much have you guys raised today? Are you like what's the situation there? I don't think you've even done like a really formal round of capital raise to to this yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

We took on some friends and family uh investing, a couple hundred grand. Um, you want to allow friends and family to participate and then also to just kind of de-risk our personal finances, but yeah, we we bootstrapped this for a couple of years, and you know, early on I was I was looking to raise money and and the people that had it to give didn't want to give it, and now we don't need it anymore.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Well, and that's a like every in me personally, right? I did my first eight figures in my early 20s. I've personally built a handful of companies over the years. I've never raised capital, and and I see every single day entrepreneurs and I think shark tanks probably ruin people, you know, in this case, but um, everyone thinks, oh, once I raise money, then I'll be successful. But then you see some of the best brands out there had a very strong foundation, like you guys, where you know, money raising money is like it's a it's it's okay, it's not a must-have. And at a certain level of growth, it may make sense it to to continue to grow further and faster, or even just strategically. But you know, if you can do it from a position of strength, I mean, it's totally different business, much stronger business that way as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Yeah, I it's you talk about like luck and business, like that's probably one of the luckiest things that's happened is that people didn't give us money and then then we didn't have this uh this clock ticking of you know, we got to get returns to our investors, right? All of our decisions are made from what is best for you know, in this case, our franchisees and uh best for the business. Like that's how we make decisions. It's not there's there's no one else involved, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:38

100%. So, so on that note, too, you know, what um just as you're uh before we wrap up, like where throughout the last four-year period was there, and there always comes a time where it's like, yeah, shit, are we gonna actually pull this thing off or not? Or is it gonna go opposite? And maybe you guys didn't have that moment, right? Given your sort of track record, but was there sort of a time where you're like, we may just close the doors and move on to the next thing? Did that happen? What happened? How'd you overcome that? Did you ever feel that way?

SPEAKER_02 17:11

I mean, you you are always panicked.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

He's like, I still think we could shut down any day. Like every time we we got to close for Christmas for a couple days, I'm fearful that our customers won't be there when we open back up. You know, it's like it's a good thing, and that I constantly feel like we have to deliver for our customers through a customer service aspect, but that fear never leaves you, and that's probably common amongst most entrepreneurs is like this could all go away at any day if you're not putting in the work. And so that that's how I feel. But at the same time, Juice um has a life of its own now, and you know, we're fortunate enough to be at the helm, but this business is is bigger than than the two of us currently, and so we're just trying to guide it in the right direction.

unknown 18:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Did you have a different story, Caroline?

SPEAKER_02 18:05

No, I was just thinking about it. It's just fascinating that you know, in the beginning, I was skeptical. I was the person who wasn't all on board. That's mostly because I had a lot on my plate already as a mom and COVID and all of that. And so I let him like kind of develop what the business was up front and you know, offered opinions as we went. But like, you know, the first time we went viral, it was a moment where I was sold. And then there was this another moment where we made um half of what we made in one month uh the prior year. And so I was like, okay, that that moment as well. But you know, just we're building relationships with different vendors, um, you know, communication between vendors. There's just, you know, you put so much trust on someone else that you don't have control over. And that to me is the scariest part of running this business because you want to have, you know, a good intention with them and they you you expect the same, but at the end of the day, you don't really know. And so we've had some relationships kind of like crash and burn. And at those points, I was like, is this the end? Is this and it, you know, we figured it all out and it made um perfect sense afterwards, like where we were meant to go. And I really take like every step as our journey as a part of the storybook, no matter how bad it looks.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

So right now, and we have a lot of various people, you know, listening from all kinds of different resources and backgrounds. What are well, so first off, where can people find you? Because I know after having this conversation, I'd be like, oh, I need to go see, like, what are they actually doing? Uh, what are the best places for people to find you?

SPEAKER_01 19:40

We put out a ton of content. So uh Instagram is probably the easiest place, but uh there's a bunch of videos on YouTube as well, juicefuel.com. Click on the franchising tab if you're interested in speaking with us. That's where you um initiate the process. If you want to own your own uh juiced territory.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Um, and uh what that's it? No, and then I was gonna say uh if you want fuel, uh check our locations. We got a bunch of them open now, and uh you'll see where we're coming up, and we're always announcing our new places on social media. So um yeah, find us on on uh all social media platforms.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Amazing. And then resources, connections, maybe you guys are hiring. Like if you want to shout out anything you're looking out for, um feel free to do that now.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yeah, so we're always always looking to add to the to the team, you know, eight players only. So uh reach out to us, info at juicefuel.com.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

I love it. Well, guys, I mean again, fantastic work. I can't wait to do an update and catch up here a year from now and see, you know, where you're at. And um, it's just you know, the foundations of business they they work, they're proven, they're they're standard across businesses. And sometimes it's so simple. People don't know what direction to go. And a couple, you know, steps to the left could mean, you know, you're going one path, and a couple to the right could mean something totally different. But you guys are just handled it with such amazing, you know, you're very humble, uh, very graceful. Um, you've overcome a lot of obstacles. I'm sure some of you haven't even talked about, and uh, you guys deserve it. So can't wait to see this be a you know uh hundred million dollar, five hundred, maybe there's a B attached to this at the end of the day. Uh, but uh, but either way, guys, thank you so much for being here. And uh any last words just before we wrap up.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Thanks for having us, Connor, and and get juiced.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Uh thanks to everyone who's our biggest supporters, and thanks to our sons, because at the end of the day, our boys are our biggest supporters in this mission and a big part of what we do every day. So, Sawyer and Patterson, what's up?

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Love it. Get juiced, all right, guys. Make sure you follow, subscribe, all the good stuff, and we'll see you over on the next one.