Trevor Sperry discusses how Olympus Pines built an express tunnel car wash platform to 33 locations. He shares how the company raised capital, chose sites and matched deals to family office needs.
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About the guest
Trevor Sperry. Trevor Sperry is the founder of Olympus Pines, which he describes as a retail private equity company building an express tunnel car wash platform in the United States. He and his co-founder grew the platform to 33 locations and raised more than $500 million, according to the transcript.
Key takeaways
- Sperry says car washes appealed to him because the industry was fragmented, real estate-backed and tax-advantaged, with 65% of revenue recurring monthly and three employees needed to run a wash.
- He and his co-founder turned down a $15 million term sheet before opening a wash, then raised the first $4 million to $5 million from friends and family. Their first $110 million came from investors with an average check of about $140,000.
- He says investors backed the founders as operators because opening a car wash in the DC area can involve six city council meetings and take four years, regardless of how much capital a firm has.
- The founders kept fees low and sought more upside, which Sperry said showed investors they were betting on themselves. He took a 50% pay cut when he left his job.
- For site selection, Olympus Pines studied retail performance by zip code from 2008 to 2011, identified factors associated with stronger sites and built internal systems. Sperry also stressed visiting sites in person.
- Sperry cautioned against choosing a weaker site just to grow faster. A short delay in opening can be preferable to decades of below-average performance at a poor location.
- He recommends spending time with operators in the settings where they work. He said money alone does not solve operational problems and described visiting markets with investors so they could observe the company's work firsthand.
- Olympus Pines finds a deal before finding an investor, then works with family offices to match investments to their needs, such as depreciation, cash flow or upside.
- Sperry said the company declined a $90 million offer because it was not ready to take that capital. He emphasized growing at a pace the team and infrastructure could support.
- He advises founders to regularly reassess hiring, markets and products by asking whether they would make the same choices if starting from the company's current position.
Best quotes
"65% of of revenue is recurring monthly. Whether it rains or shines, we're still going to charge you for your monthly membership."
"So, we decided to take a step back and say, "If we can prove this model out, the economics for us are going to be so much better.""
"And so, we found an area where we could provide something that institutions really couldn't do for themselves, and we were the horses that they could bet on."
"So, what we do is is we we studied '08 to '11, all of the retail by zip code, and what happened in the Great Recession."
"So, I think actually being on the ground, technology's great, but there's a lot of things you just can't see from a desktop."
"And at the end of the day, especially in competition, it's going to come down to who out operates."
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