It’s not Food Delivery, its Fuel Delivery
Maggy Ibrahim
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Former Cairo resident partner in on-demand gas delivery service in Houston
FuelMe, the newest ‘big thing’ was launched on June 1 at the University of Houston’s main campus. FuelMe is a smartphone application used to request fuel service for vehicles. This business model is following the general trend of on-demand delivery service that the general population has been leaning towards.
The user’s car and payment information are registered to the application during the download and set up process. When low on fuel, just tap the app and it will show where your GPS coordinates are then leave your gas tank open. Before you leave, a certified ‘fueler’ will fill up your tank and close it for you and you are good to go!
Grauduates of the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business Wisam Nahhas ’11 and Nour Baki ’13, acquired the idea in California. When they went to register the company name the UH graduates quickly discovered that a company offering the same service exists, so they partnered with the existing business.
“It was tested in California for six months a few years back and since we are in Houston, we chose the first major client to be here,” said Baki, “we thought it would be a good place to start.” Clientele is the backbone of this service but the approach and delivery is what is difficult. Baki said, “What we do is partner with corporate clients-anyone that has a large aggregation of cars, that way our business model can be more efficient and our fills can be faster.”
FuelMe’s success and media attention came after a long journey.
“Its always hard to get that first client,” said Baki.
Two weeks after launch date, FuelMe had 700 registered users and 120 fillups over the span of a five-day business week. 60% of users are UH faculty and majority female. “When we pitched this idea people thought of the craziest things,” said Baki, “but we did demos to show how fast, safe, and clean it is.”
The service is expecting to grow exponentially. “Right now its only a pilot since there aren’t many people on campus, its just a warm-up to the big launch in the fall,” said Baki. He also said that it will take time for people to adjust to this new concept.
“You’re changing a 100 years of human behavior. We have been filling up gas the same way and to change that idea takes a while.”
There are negotiations with other clients in Austin and Dallas. FuelMe plans to expand their business to other states in the future.
Baki accredits a lot of their success back to their university. “The university supported us a lot, they gave us our first big shot and supported us with marketing a lot,” he said.
Baki is a Syrian-American born in New Jersey and raised in Houston. He attended elementary and middle school in Houston, then moved to Cairo, Egypt where he attended Modern English School (MES). Upon graduation he enrolled at the American University in Cairo (AUC) for two years. One summer, he visited Houston and met with his childhood friend Nahhas, at that point he decided to pursue the same program Nahhas was enrolled in at the University of Houston. Baki said that his years in Cairo where some of his favorite. He still has family and friends there and hopes to visit sometime in the near future.
The service runs Monday through Friday from 6:00AM to 5:00PM at the University of Houston campus.
For more information about the service follow the links below:
Website: http://www.fuelmeapp.com
Promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGdCBfVzHN
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