I Roasted His Car Wash Startup — Then Gave Him a $4M Plan

Paulo is trying to bring Flipwash, a successful Brazilian car wash concept, to the United States.

In Brazil, the company has grown to more than 140 locations and roughly $4 million per month in revenue. The model is simple: instead of making customers drive to a traditional car wash, Flipwash sets up inside shopping malls, office buildings, parking garages, and other places where people already park their cars.

But the U.S. market is different.

Paulo has five locations open, but he is stretched thin, undercapitalized, and trying to scale before proving the model works in one flagship location.

In this conversation, David Heacock breaks down the real problem: growth is not the number of locations. Growth is revenue, profit, repeatability, and focus.

They discuss:
- Why traditional car washes may be vulnerable to a more convenient model
- How Flipwash grew in Brazil
- Why the U.S. expansion has been harder than expected
- The danger of confusing footprint with business growth
- Why Paulo may need to stop opening new locations
- How to turn one Austin location into a true proof of concept
- The math behind a potential $4M+ opportunity
- Why investors care about repeatable unit economics
- How focus can unlock capital
- Why local awareness matters more than national branding
- How social media could become a growth engine for the business
- When entrepreneurs need to shut down distractions and go all in

This is a real-time business breakdown of a founder with a promising concept, but too many plates spinning at once.

The lesson is simple: prove it once, build the system, then scale.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This dude take on a business you thought about starting is making $4 million per month. This is Paulo. He has the dream of bringing Flipwash, a successful Brazilian car wash company, to America.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

With thousands of locations everywhere because of our setup, it's simple, it's cheaper, it's easier.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

But Paulo is just starting his journey and he's got a lot to learn. You're trying to do too much.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

You're about to watch us create a plan to go from startup to multi-million dollar franchise. It won't be pretty, but it's the most cutthroat and real business advice you'll ever watch. You haven't proved it once yet. So what that tells me is your biggest problem is your spread too thin. This is gonna be hard, but I want you to make one promise to me. Yeah. That you're not going to open any more locations. I would either shut down every other location or let's talk about the business. So yeah, like in terms of revenue, employees, like what does the business look like today?

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Okay. So right now, just five locations uh open so far.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Just five. Five is a significant number, it's something to be proud of.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Uh yeah, yeah, because uh I'm I'm comparing a little bit with Brazil, because in Brazil, right now we have 145 locations. Yeah, so the the revenue, the sales, and everything is huge compared to just those five locations here. We just started here, you know. Uh for the locations, we reached the break-even, you know, because uh the process of getting to the market is different from Brazil. In Brazil, everybody knows what we are doing, everybody knows uh they can go to a shopping or office building and wash their car, yeah. Not here, you know. So we had the projections for the business here in the US. Um, but right now we are going to the like for this main location in Austin, we just turned two months there, and we are reaching our predictions. All right. So, like for example, um I went for this location. The the prediction was to have like 50,000 a month uh revenue in revenue. Okay, 50,000.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

200,000 a year, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Yeah, no, no, a month. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, sorry, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just like I like to think about it. Yeah, faster than me. You're right, of course. And 35% uh profit margin, you know. So this is uh just a regular and average location. Of course, we have small locations that make less money.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

When you're calculating your profit margin, are you taking into account rent or no? Yes, yes, that's that's that's after everything, everything, and and unlike other car washes or more traditional American car washes, um, you don't have much equipment cost. Is that true?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

That's true, yeah. So my setup is very cheap and faster.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

So it's not much depreciation, which is my biggest issue with exactly car washes in the US.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Yeah, like for example, I I don't have to buy uh huge equipment, I don't need to build uh something structural, you know. I don't have to have the recycling water system, it's really expensive. I I don't need that, you know. So everything is so simple. Yeah, uh our system, since we created this in-house, uh, we just look at in the market, the parts and everything we can put together so that it can work, you know. And we've been doing this for 12 years and work works great, you know. So my upfront investment is really low compared to American car washes, traditional.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

So I guess if you had three active last year, or and you got opened the fourth at the end, like what was the total revenue from your car washes last year?

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Uh around 250,000. Total? Yeah, total. Yeah, 250,000.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

So you think you think that the Austin one just one could be 600,000, and that's because you're in a much better location.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Exactly, exactly. Like Miami locations, uh, they are small locations inside office buildings. Yeah, they just work from Monday to Friday, nine to five. Yeah, you know, so it's very restricted, uh, flow of people, flow of cars, but it's different from Austin. I'm in the largest uh shopping mall, 5,000 cars per day in the parking garage, you know, 5,000 cars per day, working seven days a week, you know, so it's much different. Uh I can sell really expensive services like, for example, ceramic coating, uh 1500, just one service, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah. So walk me through what your team looks like today. Like obviously, there's you who uh who else um in the business.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Okay, so since uh I started Philippi Wash in the US, I have a partner. He joined the company. Uh actually, in the beginning, he was just my consulting guy. He was providing me consulting of how to structure the company. And two years later, he became a partner, you know. So right now he's located in in New Jersey, but he he took care of numbers, you know, numbers, uh projections, uh spreadsheets, you know, this kind of thing, uh, agreements. And then I just uh run the locations. So right now in the US, it's just the the two of us. I have the the third partner, the founder in Brazil. So he's always here, of course, uh with us, really close to us to see how the things going, bring uh insights, you know, especially because uh he's from operations in Brazil, so there uh his insights they are very powerful to us. But that's the the structure of the company and the employees in the locations, like I have the managers in the locations and also the the technicians, you know, the guys who wash the car, who perform the services. That's the the the the structure of the company. But uh since we are still growing and opening new locations, I need to hire more people. Like I need to hire one trainer, you know, a nationwide trainer, uh, people for marketing, you know, people to help me to do the service because right now actually I'm doing everything by myself, I'm working for six people at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah, yeah, but you don't have the revenue yet to be able to afford that.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Exactly. I I saw uh one of your last videos, the A3000 magic number. Yeah, I still didn't get there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

So yeah, so far I have to go just so people understand, like I was like um once you get to like basically a million dollars a year, $83,000 a month, that's generally when you start getting enough escape velocity to be able to start hiring hiring people. Exactly. Um and being able to afford to do that. So um, so your your hope and belief is that your Austin location is what's going to do that?

SPEAKER_02 6:39

I I hope so, or maybe we'll contribute a lot for that, maybe uh 50%, you know, of the 83,000, you know, let's just say 40, 50,000.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

So when we're talking about the business today, how are you financing it? Where is the money coming from? Bootstrapping. So you're you're so basically um, you know, you're you're self-funding, you don't have any outside money coming in.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

So sometimes we do, you know, like family. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

As I've as I'm just guessing, I'm just guessing that you don't actually have the it's not producing enough money to really be self-sustainable yet. There's you couldn't afford like employees and this kind of stuff. Like if you have them, but you have to have them do the work, like you're obviously you don't have much, much if any money left over.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Exactly. You're right. Yeah, at the moment we don't, you know. So like friends, family, they are just contributing to us. Oh, can I I I can buy 10% of this location? Okay, that's fine. So right now we we are working like that. We are still reaching the uh the break-even of the the locations, you know, especially for the Austin location. Uh, maybe in two months, uh we'll have some revenue, you know, some some profit coming, you know. But so far uh we are just bootstrapping the locations.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

One other question I don't want to lose. Sure. Um, do you do do you do anything on a subscription model at all, or is it always just on a per service basis?

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Not yet, because like for subscription, uh for automatic car wash, you pay like 10-15 bucks a month, and then you can wash unlimited. For my system is a little bit complicated because uh I have one or two employees working per car, you know. So just one hour of an employee, it's the whole monthly subscription for an automatic car wash, you know. So my subscription needs to cost uh much more. I still don't know how much people are willing to pay for a subscription, but it's a plan that we have.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Have you um tried experimenting with it at all?

SPEAKER_02 8:35

I tried my first location, the the the very first location in Miami. Uh I had some customers paying for subscription. It was in a in a very good place, you know. So people there they drive fancy cars and everything, so they are fine with the subscription prices, but right now in a shopping mall, it's an open space. It I think it's a little bit different. But yes, uh, it makes part of the plans, you know, so that we can adopt the the subscription model because right now the the car wash customers they are used to do that, you know, all around.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Yeah, I understand. Um, what uh does success look like for you uh a year from now and 10 years from now?

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Actually, our goal is to become the largest car wash brand in the United States, you know, with thousands of locations everywhere. Uh because of our setup is simple, it's cheaper, it's easier, you know, so we can be almost everywhere. Yeah, so that that's the goal of the company to be the largest brand in the country. So to be recognized for customers, they can go to every other location that we have and be and have the same treatment, the same services, you know. So people they don't have to drive to a car wash anymore. Uh, I want to people understand like they can go anywhere. Oh, I'm just going shopping or having a lunch, going out to dinner and have my wash, uh my car washed where I am, you know. So that's the vision. I think that will be the success because I believe the the American market, it's the largest in everything in the world, yeah. You know, so within Brazil, we have 140 locations. I believe here we can have like a thousand locations.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Yeah, you're gonna have with your model. I I believe you absolutely could. Um so what are the things that are gonna keep you from achieving that?

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Right now, the the biggest challenge is the cultural uh behavior. You know, uh I'm trying to make people understand they can wash their car anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

I would argue that it's not cultural behavior, I think it's um marketing and education. Um like I think that having an in a having a conversation with you here, um, you know, it makes per I I can follow it. It makes perfect sense. I understand why you're differentiated. Um and you know, I do think that in the US, um, I actually did a short-form video about this, I think I published a couple of days ago, funny enough, um, where I over the summer hired a couple of kids to come and wash my car. I think I found them on Google on Google Ads, um, and it was a mobile car wash and they a traditional one, not not in the way that you do it. Um, but you know, when they come and they detail your car and whatnot, I mean you end up you pay a premium for that, but you know you're you're paying for that convenience. And um, so I I I don't think that I I think that there is a a market for it, but I think that um my my suspicion is that nobody knows knows you exist. Um so it's more of a marketing and education problem than a cultural problem.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Yeah, uh I understand, yeah. Education problem, of course. Um yeah, people are not aware of you. We we are in the market doing this. As I told you, people will still they they park in front of the car wash and they ask them, hey, what is this? What what are you doing there? You know, it's an education problem, of course. Um, but even though, like when tell them, you know, uh and because this parking garage right now in Austin, we have two office buildings and a shopping mall, you know. So we I I have like 40% of the people they are there, they are there every day. You know, they are similar every day, they are talking to me every day. And even though they don't bring their car, you know, because they are just uh focused when when they arrived in the morning, probably they are focused in the work. Oh, I I have to go to the office, I have a lot of stuff to do. They don't even remember, you know, I'm there, and then they probably they when they think to wash their car, they still drive to a car wash, you know. I I understand it's a mix, but of course, uh make people aware of what we are doing, of my brand, of the concept, of the the the company.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

The retail piece of it makes a lot of sense to me. Like I look where we're filming, there's a big um you know, um retail center right next to us. And I could imagine that people that are going shopping for on the weekend or just shopping in general could say, Hey, if yeah, if I could just drop off my car and get my car washed while I was doing my shopping, that would be something that would be valuable. But I would have to know that that exists to be able to want to do it.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Exactly. Exactly. So right now, of course, any location we are, we we have um marketing uh work being done.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Like what does that look like when you say you have marketing work?

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Uh we we talk with the the other stores, you know, we try to make some kind of uh cross-marketing with other locations, with other uh the retail around, you know, make some uh promotional coupons for them. Uh we spread uh like a frames or signage in the parking garage, you know. We try always to to show people um the location, the the result that we are doing uh right now, especially in Brazil, because in Brazil we have a lot of time, we have a big presence online, you know, we have campaigns running all around.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

I mean, social media marketing was paid for this. I mean, you can and you can target around particular areas. I mean, like that, that would be the playbook almost certainly that I would follow.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Yeah, so we we do that, this kind of thing here in the US, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, also LinkedIn, you know, for the the property managers, for the parking companies, for for them to let them know we we exist, you know. So we start receiving some like requests for this kind of from this kind of company, property managers. Hey, I saw your company, I want you to come to my building, you know. So we are also starting to to have uh location requests. Yes, yeah, that's right. Like airport, you know. So the parking management company, they they are calling us, hey, I saw your company. I think it's very interesting to have you on my location, because they are looking forward to raise their revenue.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

So I guess that goes back to the question is what's actually keeping you from growing?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

That's a good question. I I would say, of course, I I think the sometimes the the easiest response is money.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

If I have money, I so what would you do if if if you had another $500,000 today, what would you do with it?

SPEAKER_02 15:17

I will build build my team, you know, hire people to help me, really good people, you know. Uh everyone doing something that I believe uh right now I'm needing because I can't handle everything at the same time. Like I have to be in the location, I have to talk with the manager, I have to train some people, and then I have to sign a lease agreement. You know, I'm doing everything at the same time. So I would hire a really good team, you know, to start uh growing in a very organized way, you know, step by step, one location after another, and make this profit. Having money right now would help me to plan my my growth, you know, in a very sustainable way, especially hiring good people to help me making this happen.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah. Seems to me that if I were in your shoes, making the Austin location really successful seems like your best bet. I mean, one thing that makes me a bit nervous, you said you just opened a second location already. I understand. Um, the problem is that you don't have the system. Like if I gave you that $500,000 today, um then I would worry that you haven't perfected the system that works yet. And like the the key is like if if you build that Austin location to $600,000 a year and it really is um producing the $200,000 of profit that you believe you can on that $600,000 a year, then you will have people giving you as much money as you want to go out and open those locations. Um so the money, if if you can prove that you can do that in Austin, the money is not the problem. Um, you know, I guess because there are lots of people that will come and invest and say, hey, I can see that you did this in Austin. You can show, you can prove it to me. You can show me all the economics, you can show me your playbook, you can show me how many people it takes, you can show me what success looks like. And then um like, yes, I will invest. Uh uh, how much does it cost you to open per location? Okay, 100,000 location. I'll invest five more 500,000 locations doing the same model. That's how this business worked. That's how Chipotle worked, that's how you know every you know, yeah, franchise type location works. But the problem you have is you haven't really built, you haven't proved it out in one location yet.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Yeah, that's right. That's right. I I understand, I can see this uh situation right now. But uh we work also based on the Brazilian example, you know, because uh Brazilian it's a very successful.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

But but what what what what is your goal here in the US? No, what what is your what is your stated company goal that you that you proudly told me? It's to be the largest, largest in the United States, yes, yeah. Yeah, so but what I was telling you is in the United States, if you want to make this work, yeah, making it work in one place first, then you will then it will then it will ultimately allow you to build what you say you want to build.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah, it makes sense. Uh actually, I I made this question for me a lot of times, you know, um, because I I think I have um a kind of anxiety because we're trying to do too much.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah. I I know because you're trying to run three locations in Miami that are not making you any money, um, and you're trying to open another location while trying to get your flagship location off the ground. You're trying to do all of that, and that creates a lot of anxiety because that's it's as hard. That's that's likely it's impossible to do all of that.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

It does. But um actually the system, you you you spoke about the system. The system, we have the system, uh, I think per location. The the locations they are working, they are running, you know. Uh I I understand we we want to grow fast, you know, maybe faster than it it's possible. I I understand that, but we have some kind of opportunities. Like, for example, uh those companies or the mall or everything else, they ask it the house, hey, I need your location here, I need another location here. Like, for example, uh two of those locations in Miami, the small locations, uh, we just uh set up them because uh the those companies requested us.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yeah, so we we we just so so I understand what happened, but what I'm telling you is in order to grow fast, you need money. The only way you're gonna get money is proving that you have a model that works. And you know, of course, people want demand because have demand because they want you to pay them rent. It's like saying, yes, I I have if you want to um set up a car wash in my office over here, I have demand, it's empty. You can I'll I'll I'll like you want to pay me $100 a month, yes, please. But like that doesn't mean it's good for you. Um and and so I think that you're you're chasing the wrong like growth is not number of locations. It's number it's you know revenue and profit ultimately is what you're chasing, right? Like I'd imagine like if you if you believed you could have one location that um where everybody would come, it would be the largest car losh in the United States, you'd go all in on that, you'd go all in on that location. Um obviously you have to be fra you have to be distributed to be successful in your business, but the only way you're going to achieve that is by proving that you can do it really well one time, and then going up and opening one more location, proving you can do it really well again, and then maybe you say, I want to open two at once. You do that really well, and then you say, Okay, maybe I'm gonna I'm gonna open four. Then you do that really well, maybe I'm gonna go open or go open eight. But it all starts with proving it once. You haven't proved it once yet.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Yeah, no. You understand? Yeah, yeah. We we start everything at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Yes, you know, yeah. And so so it's not proven because and you're not going to be able to prove like to really get it off the ground, like you just like you're here in Miami, I know partially because of me, but it's up to to to visit your team to your team. You have to manage them. Like that, you're not in Austin building out your flagship proof of concept. Like if you spent the next year just doing that, getting it to $600,000 a year at the $200,000 profit margin, you prove that, then you say, Hey, I'm gonna go do this again next year. And then once you do that, then you start scaling exponentially. Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Yeah. So other thing, um I understood, like, for example, in in the United States, uh, things happen much faster than, for example, in Brazil, you know. So that was because uh our plan was to to open uh

SPEAKER_00 22:00

uh a few locations at the same time you know so the the the first thing we we thought about it was the the footprint of our brand you know let's put our brand you know so people can can see us in different locations so let let's show our brand to the market you know so yeah but see i i uh not to beat a dead horse but but you care about localized demand like like it uh how i like to think about it like let's say i ran a flip wash super bowl commercial i spent the six million dollars i run the flip wash super bowl commercial is that going to change your business i mean the the answer is no because people may remember it for a day then they know but then everybody's gonna look at like they're not gonna be able to get your service maybe in your couple locations it'll you'll get a bump for a week and then it goes down because you're not a national company yet so like what you care about is you want everybody in one location to know who you are you want to put all of your energy all of your focus on that one location and have everybody within that zip code know who you are you don't want like but like what you're doing is you're taking all that energy and you're um distributing it I actually did a stupid short form video about it was like a late a laser focus has lots of laser energy versus it's a distributed flashlight right um but what you're doing now is you're taking all your energy and you're spreading it out and so nobody's gonna know who you are because you're you're uh you're not everywhere you just have like a like a little speck a lot of different places versus really being something in a small area right you understand I understand I understand I I understand this kind of uh of development can like dilute right trying to boil the ocean right and and and that's and it's that's impossible it's complicated yeah so it's not complicated it's impossible it's impossible yeah but like for example for the locations the when when we have those requests to open new locations we we have this happening all the time requests they want to give you they want you to pay their money but but in this case uh we do a uh a really uh good evaluation of the location like for example if you see the location uh couldn't be profit we don't go there i i i refuse a lot of proposals because i understand we we we have our um uh milestones you know so that we can evaluate the place to see if it fits uh uh one location of flippy wash or not so i i say no for a lot of them you know so just a few locations we we if they check all the box and then i tell okay that's good we we can we can try this location this is is how we have been okay doing i i can tell this is gonna be hard but i want you to make one promise to me yeah that you're not going to open any more locations until you prove that your big Austin flagship location is hitting the numbers that you say that that you're forecasting that it can okay do you understand uh yeah I do I mean I think you can probably make that happen in in months so I don't it's not like I'm I'm saying oh don't do anything for right for years but yeah I I worry like you're you're work you're thinking way too much about other locations without actually proving that you have a system that actually works yet like having a small location that basically pays for an employee and break even is not a proof of concept yet. That's not that's not an investable concept. Right. But an investable concept would be something you know doing 600 grand a year that makes $200,000 a year that you can then you know replicate for you know $100,000 I'm just making up a number of startup capital, which I'm guessing it would like you could you could do that. That's an investable model because then an investor somebody like me would come in and say yes like that's that's now open 10 locations or but they have to fit this criteria and you have to you're gonna have to prove that within a three month period you can get it up to break even and then within nine months you can get it up to this to this level or whatever the time frame is but you have to prove it. You have to prove it yeah so so in this case uh because of the the experience again we had in Brazil we believed uh it was easily replicatable here you know because right now in Brazil we are doing like four million uh per month you know uh 48 million uh a year you know in in revenue uh we have a lot of locations so the system uh proved to be working really good there for 12 years now you know it's very profitable in Brazil so because of that because of our previous experience we just imagine hey let's do the same thing here here the market is much much bigger than in Brazil so as I said in the beginning we can do thousand locations here you know we're starting with the same process development process that we did there I still believe you can but you have to prove it with one right just one and then after you prove it with one go prove it with the second and then you go do it the third time right and then that's how you ultimately stack it to a thousand but you got to prove it with one first yeah so as as why are you so resistant to that though like you don't I can tell that that that you don't like it I I understand no I I understand I I don't think I'm resistant uh I just think I believed in the the uh in the previous experience that we have you know because like you work it in Brazil so so so it that's not resistance this is just uh I'm trying to do the same thing we did there that that's it you know I I understand it takes time like to reach the break even to make the locations profit here you know profitable here uh to make some money with those locations but at the same time uh I I understand like um I'm just trying to create brand awareness you know uh just put some footprint of my brand but I also understand it's really hard to make to boil the ocean you need brand brand awareness in a localized area like if everybody that goes to this shopping mall knows who you are um then you can have a profitable location in this shopping mall it doesn't matter if nobody else in the in the world knows about you except that those people that come to this mall every day then you can have a successful location so that's your that that's your benchmark like if you take the same if you if if a hundred times or or a thousand times more people know about you but it's distributed across the United States, it's not going to do you any good because they're not here to they're not here where your car wash is you're in a local business. You're not playing a national brand game you're playing a local game I think that's where you're that's that's where you don't you you need to change your mindset. The other thing is like you tell me like your your biggest your biggest problem or what you would do with money like this is always the the the the thing to me when somebody asks uh say oh more money would help what would I do with money I would go out and hire more of a team right yeah so what that tells me is your biggest problem is your spread too thin meaning meaning that you're putting your energy too many places. I mean that that's the biggest problem that that's your biggest problem right that's what that's what that's what you're telling me when you say I need more money and that's because I need to go hire a team people so so how do you fix that without money you concentrate your focus on one thing on something that is manageable and prove it and then ironically that will unlock the money that you need to then do it again and again so that's the unlock. Yeah it makes totally sense you know because right now as I said I'm working like four five six people at the same time I've been doing everything I I have to travel a lot you know just to check those locations to see if everything is good I'm in Miami I'm in Dallas I'm in Austin you know all around yeah because I I don't have people uh I I understand like for just one location it's much easier to manage just one location to make it profitable to build a system that is then replicatable right to build to to know exactly what you need so if you get that money you know what to do with it right yeah but in in this case uh because of the system you know so we we have this kind of experience building the system not in the US not in the US that's right and so you have not like I think that you have to you have to recognize that your start like you have a great car wash system that that I I don't I don't know I'm not a car wash expert but but I I makes perfect sense to me like I love the concept like genuinely I think it's a great concept right um so that's a great system but you don't have a business system when I'm saying system a business system that that is replicatable you don't have that in the US yet you have to build that it's gonna look different than it does in Brazil you have to build it from scratch that's why you have to prove it once which I believe you can like I genuinely like this is this is definitely a business idea that can work like I I have no doubt that this business can work. Like it makes perfect sense to me. The one thing that would make me nervous you want to take a guess you want to take a guess is to what it is no it could be self self-driving cars.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

How do you how do you how do you think about that I know it's not a left field but that's the one thing long term that would make me nervous about right so self-drive cars you mean for the the car wash market or for my business model for both for both okay so even even though the the self-driving cars they need to be washed anytime you know it makes sense and your bottle actually probably makes a lot of sense for yeah yeah like for example uh right now I'm in Austin uh I'm close to the largest uh electric manufactured cars in the US you know so we also have plans to do something with them you know uh like the the self-driving cars uh are you not allowed to say their name is that a part of your contract is that what it is no no it's not you know uh I just I was thinking you're talking about Tesla Tesla yeah yeah exactly we I I live close uh gigafactory yeah they just built uh 7000 parking spaces garage for their employees you know and guests and everything else so of course uh I have the plan to go there and set up a location inside the parking garage will be much easier for me to manage since I'm close there.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

But uh self-drive cars like um much easier to manage because you're closer there but then what's gonna happen to your other locations we got to make one first we got to change up because I mean that yeah you're seeing you the opportunity is huge and you see that I I see that like it makes makes perfect sense. So you're getting um you're like the person whose um bit appetite is bigger than their eyes are bigger than their stomach right you see all this stuff everywhere and you want it all like you want it all but you you but you have you can't lose perspective of the fact that you're in this business to make money. And so how are you going to make money? It's by taking a step back and really understanding the system that you're building and then going out and cherry picking the best opportunities saying okay I know this will transfer over here. I'm gonna do this like then you start building your pipeline but you got to prove it first you got to make you you got to have the system first that then is going to make you money the money building system right that then is going then you can say hey now I know this will work and I can start printing money by going and opening a new location given the conversation we just had like what do you what does success look like a year from now yeah a year from now it's just make the the current locations that we have uh profitable so that they can prove the process so uh from that point we can create our system to replicate as much as possible you know that's the goal that's the goal if if you knew what you knew today right would you open all the locations that you have uh no no I didn't you know I I would say more no's you know yeah yeah and but but I guess I guess and not to put you on the spot with it but like are there any locations that you think are taking more energy than they're ever likely to be worth that maybe you need to walk away from yeah uh that's right so especially you know with small locations like because just to manage a a a team it it's a big problem. Yeah it's not easy to and you don't have enough revenue like I if you if you did $250,000 of revenue last year um and like what what I worry about and the reason I'm harping on it is because I want to help you but is that I I worry that you know putting any energy into something that's not going to work is wasted energy. And so sometimes the hardest thing to do and I've had to do this and and I've talked about it publicly in my freight business and in an HVAC service business sometimes the the answer is to walk away and to refocus your energy on the thing that you know matters. And that's hard to do as that's hard to do but you don't want to give up it's human nature but it's not giving up it's re it's taking your limited energy and going all in on something that you know will work.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

I I agree I agree uh I I I I question me a lot about this kind of situation about these things uh I I'm always asking me uh when is the time to say no or when is the time to stop you know to reveal things you know I understand that and I also uh it's really um it's a very fragile point for us to to realize so until where we can stretch or when is the time to stop you know and make our questions you know quest questions ourselves uh of course I in in the let's just say one year two years ago of course I I wouldn't have opened those locations some of them I I wouldn't have say no for them you know um but but when we have this kind of appetite you know to grow the company to make things happen I I think it's really hard for you to see things clearly when is the right time to say no the right time to stop or the the right time to give the next step I I understand what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

Yeah I guess you know what would happen if you said if if you said okay I'm not going to spend more than five hours a week on anything that is not the Austin flagship location what would happen to the rest of the locations if you didn't if you said if you said Polo you five minutes five hours a week that's all I have of ex time to deal with whatever issues other than that nothing would they still exist or were they not not no they wouldn't work yeah yes and see then and then this this is your problem yeah I I I understand uh I understand it's a lot right now you know uh I feel like I'm I'm spinning a lot of plates at the same time because you are yeah I am I am I definitely am you know yeah I I'm working very self-aware yeah yeah I am I I'm working every day for 12 hours 14 hours a day every day non-stop you know I'm traveling a lot just to handle everything because I had this kind of vision let's open as much as you can we can me my team you know just to to put the brand on the there's a uh at least an American expression work smarter not harder and this is this is the this is the the this is the situation for you and you know the the biggest cheat code is to to work smarter and harder is really the reality because you're a hard worker and I know you're gonna work hard and be successful ultimately but if you focus yourself um you're gonna you're gonna move way quicker you're gonna grow way faster if you focus and that's that's the irony about it is like if you focus it you're gonna find that you're actually going to achieve your goals way quicker but you're doing it right now on extremely hard mode you're working way harder than you need for for the outcome that you're getting yeah so some sometimes I I ask myself you can stop I'm telling you you don't have to ask anything I'm giving you permission this is you you gave I I I I I firmly believe this this is the answer for you.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

That's right. You just gave me the answer that I I've been questioning myself that's right you know but I want you to really believe it really do something with that like I guess I see like you're you're you're like you're so you're still resistant to no no I'm not no I'm not actually I I'm listening uh to your um and a analysis you know about the whole situation I I'm listening to you of course you have uh much more experience you know doing things growing than me because I I just started you know a few years ago well sometimes I think just like for experience or not I think an outside perspective is sometimes helpful because like you can't when you get in when you get when you're so close to it it's sometimes hard to to see from it.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Yeah I we all go through that.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

Yeah it's especially step back. When we are inside the situation it's really hard to to realize uh the whole thing you know what's happening at the moment and step back so I think a vision from someone else from outside you know it's much valuable to try to to to show me things you know how the things could be different. So to put you on the spot like what do you think or not what do you think what do you what are you going to commit to doing after we get out of here like what what is what are the next steps for you okay gonna look like I will reveal uh the the process that I'm taking right now you know so this um the moment that I'm uh passing through open uh a lot of locations you know working as crazy to manage everything at the same time probably I will reveal all this situation and I will try to risk from my list you know what's uh is what's not essential you know so just to focus on what is essential and prove my concept as you said just take one good location and try to prove it you know try to make some money from that like one one thought exercise I would have for you yeah um because I was just doing the numbers in my head uh but I think you're onto a great business and and um I think it's a I think it has the potential to be an investable business actually and I don't think that very often like let's just think that let's just think through the math as we're sitting here today.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

Right. Like if like you believe that you can get your Austin location to six hundred thousand dollars a year making two hundred thousand dollars of profit right that that that's that's that's that's the that's that's the math that you that you believe that's possible for that location. And because of your business model um you know or I guess I never asked you how much startup cost do you estimate um to for that? Yeah depends on the size of the location but for the Austin for the Austin location it was around a hundred thousand so I didn't I guess right so a hundred thousand dollars okay so let's say you prove that you prove that model out right um and then somebody comes in and says okay I want to open a hundred of these so that means that I would be doing sixty million dollars a year um making twenty million dollars a year profit with a 10 million dollar investment so you're telling me I could get a 200% return on my capital if you prove out your model. That's that's what you're that's what you're you're saying. So what I'm telling you is if you just go out and prove that model, then you're going to have you're going to have a tremendous amount of success whether you do get the 200% capital return on capital yourself with your partners or or you go out and you get investors people will be lining up to sign up for for for to invest in you. But it all starts with proving you can do it once the first one. Yeah you understand yeah yeah so like where where my mind where like I think if if you're worried about thinking too small think about okay well what if I scale this but you have to know what you're scaling like you don't like right now you don't know if you're scaling out like if I were investing you today I don't know if you're gonna go do what you're doing in Miami if you're gonna go do this Austin model. What are the numbers really look like I don't know but like you prove it once and then my head said okay I now I know how to scale it but go out and do that once and then um and then do it as many times as you possibly can if the if you can get those economics.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

Right. Yeah I I think like uh we were so obsessed with the idea of the pest you know uh but you and then we were conflating growth of locations with growth of business and profit they're two different things yeah yeah they they are different but uh what what's the the the process of thinking about that as soon as we we spread with growth locations our profit also will growth you know so that was the the the first uh thinking process you know but we understand they are two different realities right now you know so we are growing locations we have a lot of work we have a lot of things to to manage and the profit still are not coming you know they are uh reality uh apart from each other you know but as I said I think we were like vicious on the the initial idea of the the past success that we had in Brazil you know because the process was smoothly we got there in Brazil 100 plus locations four million dollars in revenue so it's easy to do the same thing here you know so but I I understand it's not easy you know it's it's not the same process I I'm just starting again you everything's easier everything's hard it's all about perspective you have to do the hard thing at least once and then you then you can replicate it but it's like the you're it's like trying to do too much no matter no matter what like if you if somebody tried to do the same thing in Brazil trying to do it all once would probably still fail because um you know it's the details that you learn to like really nail down the process by doing it once.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Like once then you can scale it but you but you've got to deal you've got to You've got to get those details nailed down once. You're not going to get those details nailed down if you're trying to do it in a lot of different places. Um, one thing I want to ask you about, which I think is interesting, is I do think that there's a rising trend of entrepreneurs like yourself finding um businesses that work in other countries and bringing them to the US. What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Yeah, I think yes, uh, it's a trend. I've been seeing a lot of this happen, you know, even from Brazilian companies. We have a lot of uh Brazilian companies here in the US uh selling franchises and growing here. And the the opposite is also the same. People taking uh good ideas of business from the United States and think taking it to other places, you know. So sometimes it worked, uh, but sometimes it just doesn't. Uh for those Brazilian companies, like half of them, they closed in the second year here in the US. They try to replicate that, and the second year is gone. Uh because they didn't have the system. Uh probably the the American person. They made the same mistake that you're uh I I'm uh yes, that's right. I I'm aware of that, you know. I always thinking about that. I I'm trying to be very careful, you know, with this kind of situation. Uh having right now an American partner, uh, he lives in New Jersey, I I think uh it can help me a little bit, you know, but of course it's not a guarantee of nothing, you know. But I understand the process was really complicated for those kinds of businesses. Some of them, especially right now, because of technology, uh because of systems and also AI and everything else. Uh when we don't depend a physical structure, when you don't depend a lot of people, you know, it's easier to make this kind of situation successful, you know. But like for me, I understand for me, for my company and for my project here, it's a uh big risk, you know.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

I'll leave you with this. If I had one dream for you, if I had a if I if I could if I could be you for six months, right? This is what I would do. And there's not even quite a question to me. And so I just I'll leave you with the thought bubble, and you can decide what you want to do with it. I would go all in on my one location. Um, I would I would either shut down every other location or minimize the bleeding as much as possible, um, and go all in on this one location and making it work with the idea of proving my model to what we just said of the the 600,000 with $200,000 profit. Because I would know that if I did that, then I had a cash machine. Like you, like you would not believe how, like if I had a model that I really believed could scale that way, that is like uh that is a dream for anyone. Uh, because you have a very capital-like model that you can go out and scale um over and over and over again. But you want to, I would really just go all in on building that that system, that business that I believed in, um, because then I knew I could sell it. But I like if I had that kind of economics, I wouldn't want to sell it. I'd find a way to go finance that myself. Um, but I would be all in on that. And then the second piece of it, which I think will go a long way to helping you to build that dream, um, would be I would take all this excess time that I found because I'm not traveling around, I'm not doing all this other stuff, and I would start videoing myself while doing this, like like people on YouTube and Instagram love car content. Um, you see them everywhere. Like I like people and I own car dealerships, like like it's a big, it's a it's a um big niche. And um, I would take all my excess energy uh uh uh into building my system for my awesome location, and I would start filming it, getting people's permissions to film their cars if they if you need to have permissions to do that, get get testimonials and put all my excess energy into doing that and building up that to the biggest location you can. You do that, and then you know, the the the growth will take care of itself after that. But I would take uh but I would take all my excess time and go all in on doing that, yeah. Because I because like to to fulfill your dream of your 10 plus years, people got to know about you. I agree with you. Yeah, how are you gonna make that happen? Well, yeah, that that this is your this is your play. Right.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

The the online accounting, you know, the the social media, yeah, it helps a lot.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

It needs to be you. I mean, you're the you're you're you're the guy to do that. Um but um but you can't do that while I'm traveling, yeah, doing everything everything. I I understand. So so if I were if I were you, if I could live, if I could go live in your shoes today, right? I would you know take a hard look and I would figure out a way to make that plan happen.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 48:49

Um, because if you make that happen, then everything else will fall into place. There's no question to me.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Yeah, we we have actually we have so so many ideas. Uh like we can improve the business or we can add more services, we can make more innovative, uh, you know.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

And you can experiment with that if you do that in in one place. Pick one place and experiment until you make it work in one place. Experiment as much as you want, film all that experimentation and show show that and and and show people what you're doing, prove your value in that location, right?

SPEAKER_02 49:19

Yeah, because since the beginning, um I I like to say that we are one of the most innovative uh car wash companies in the market right now because of the services that we offer, because our process, and also because of the the concept, the model that we developed, like how we offer this service to the market.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

From what you explained to me, I totally get that. It makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_02 49:42

Yeah, so of course, we can explore a lot up on this, you know. So, yeah, I just don't have too much time to to do it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

But which is why you have to focus your time in the right in the right area. Yeah, you're the highest and best use of Paulo's time, like where is that going to be? It's and I think I believe it would be in that two-pronged approach that I outlined.

SPEAKER_02 50:02

Right. Yeah, this is uh uh great advice, you know. So it's very important for me to listen uh from from people from outside my business, you know, uh how they see it, uh how they see my business happening, you know, or even uh uh how they understand uh what I can stop doing what I'm doing, you know. So, like like for example, we stopping doing this because it's not working, you know, because as we said, I'm so immersed on everything right now, you know, we it's really hard to see clearly the the ways that we have to take to make it happen, you know. So this is very important to me, especially because when I when I'm doing everything by myself, you know, I I can I can see around, I can see clearly.

SPEAKER_00 50:45

Yeah. Well sometimes it's you know, refocusing and taking but may feel like a step back, although I honestly don't think it's a step back. Um it's putting all your energy in one direction, and then that's how you ultimately get to the escape velocity that allows you to do to do the scale otherwise, right? Um, but I mean I think you have an amazing story, and like you know, I you know do videos about all types of business ideas um that I try to find relatable, and the the mobile car wash is one that comes up a lot. Um, and you know, I do think that you know you're a testament um to the fact that uh you can start you know knocking door to door with basically no equipment and and ultimately turn it into a successful business. And um you you've done that, but um, I think you could take it a lot further, and I look forward to uh watching that journey.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

Okay, okay, sounds good. We will we will watch to it. Yeah, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

Thank you, thank you, Paul. I I appreciate you having the conversation with me today.

SPEAKER_02 51:44

Thank you, David. It's a pleasure to me uh to be here to talking to you. I've been watching to your content, it helped me a lot, you know, uh during my my day-to-day, especially during my work, because I identify real situations that I'm facing now. And it's so uh clear when I when I watch to you, you know, talking about those challenges. For me, it's uh a really valuable uh content, what we talking to people, you know, through I I I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 52:15

I mean, I would say like the things that I'm most passionate about, like this whole focus idea, oftentimes come from um me um not following that advice and um getting myself in trouble and learning learning learning the lessons the hard way. And so the things that I get most passionate about come from my failures and not not wanting to see you or anybody else um you know go through them. And um and you know, I just like I have a tendency still to this day to want to do too much and to to go too too many different directions and to try to solve too many problems. Right. I think it's the nature of all of us entrepreneurs, we all want to grow faster, we all want to do more. I still suffer from the same, the same problem. Um, but that's why I think um I get so passionate of like when I see you know someone that you know I I see making some of the same mistakes that I've made. It's like, oh no, like let's let's let's refocus a little bit here because I just think it'll it'll be so much better if you do.

SPEAKER_02 53:09

Right. Yeah, you can save us a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of money, you know.

SPEAKER_00 53:14

That's that's that's that's my hope. Uh but we're all we all it's a constant learning process and none of none of us have it figured out. Uh it's a learning process, but that's also what makes business so fun, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 53:24

It is, yeah. And sometimes so stressful too.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

And stressful, but uh yeah, you got it's fun. But but but um it beats the alternative to me of having a of of of being bored and not and not having anything that you're passionate about or have meaning around you. Yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you, David.