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College Hunks Turn Summer Gig into Multimillion Dollar Business

Learn how Friedman and Soliman made hauling junk sexy and why chasing your vision is more important than chasing money.


Can you turn a summer gig into a multimillion dollar franchised company? Former schoolmates, Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman think so. In 2005, the twenty-nine year old co-founders launched a junk hauling service for image conscious consumers, College Hunks Hauling Junk – a US-based junk removal service.

Learn how Friedman and Soliman made hauling junk sexy and why chasing your vision is more important than chasing money.

Company: College Hunks Hauling Junk
Founder: Nick Friedman, 29; Omar Soliman, 29
Location: Tampa, FL
Industry: Waste Management
Startup Year: 2005
Startup Costs: 100,000

 How I Got Started:

College Hunks Hauling Junk started when my high school friend, Omar Soliman, and I borrowed his mom’s cargo van and went around town cleaning out garages, basements, and attics, and helping people move.

We won an entrepreneurship competition during our senior year of college, and then launched College Hunks on a full-scale after a brief stint in the corporate world.  We recognized the increasing societal demand for the decluttering of home and office spaces. As a result, we envisioned bringing a clean-cut image to the junk removal business by recruiting college students to remove the unwanted items.

The company now has over 40 franchises nationwide, and our vision is to become the largest employer of college students in North America.

Best Success Story:

Our biggest company success story is when we were selected to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show to assist a family that had a hoarding problem. Our teams handled all of the removal, donations, recycling, disposal, moving and storage.

This was our ah-ha moment, when we realized that we had truly created something that can have a positive impact in peoples’ lives, and Oprah agreed.

Biggest Startup Challenge:

Biggest startup challenge for us was being young, inexperienced, and having limited access to funds. We were fortunate to get access to credit cards that allowed us to launch the business. We also aligned ourselves with mentors and successful entrepreneurs who helped give us coaching and insight in handling our challenges.

#1 Tip for Entrepreneurs:

Start with a vision, create a strategic plan, and live by it. Don’t chase the money, chase the vision, and the money will eventually come.

 

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