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How One Man Poured $50M into Small Businesses

Revolutionizing RV Travel and Buc-ee's Snacks: A Tale of Two Unlikely Entrepreneurial Successes

🥚💡 An egg is a compact source of rich nutrients, delivering just what the body needs - much like our service which provides comprehensive solutions, omitting any surplus fluff. 

Your success, like an omelet, is just a crack away.

Wake up to a fresh start! Here's Breaking Egg - whether you prefer scrambled or hard-boiled, here's what's on the menu today:

  • Entrepreneur's Hustle Boosts Small Businesses with $50M!

  • One Savvy Entrepreneur Takes Buc-ee's Digital

  • Today’s top Tweets

  • Catchy Tidbits

A Not-So-Small Side Hustle: Inspiring Entrepreneur Channels $50 Million Into Small Businesses This Year

Since 2018, Joel Holland, the Chief Executive Officer of Harvest Hosts, has impressively elevated the company's membership numbers from a mere 6,000 to a staggering figure of over 250,000.

Courtesy of Harvest Hosts

Ever experienced the claustrophobia of a cubicle, the monotony of daily traffic, the burnout that comes from living life in the fast lane? Joel Holland knows it all too well. Once a tech executive living in the buzzing heart of Washington D.C., Joel longed for escape. The rat race had lost its charm, the city lights no longer seemed so dazzling.

At a wedding in Leesburg, Virginia, an idea sparked. Surrounded by the serenity of nature, a stark contrast to his city life, Joel found himself standing at the doors of an RV dealership. He was mesmerized by the cozy 'homes-on-wheels', complete with fireplaces and king-sized beds. On a whim, he and his wife purchased an RV, and their adventure commenced. They set off on a journey, unbound by city life, and experienced the freedom of exploring 48 states.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Harvest Hosts

But freedom had its costs. Their adventurous spirit was often confined to mundane campgrounds and parking lots, which hardly did justice to the scenic beauty of farms and wineries they frequently passed by. It struck Joel - weren't there millions of RVers like him, longing for unique, scenic places to park their homes?

A solution materialized - Harvest Hosts. An existing but limited service in the U.S., it connected RVers with small businesses offering unique overnight locations. Seeing its untapped potential, Joel acquired the business in 2018. He poured his energy into expanding the network of hosts and members, transforming the program into a lucrative platform that not only served RVers but also boosted the annual revenue of small businesses by $12,000 to $14,000 at no cost.

Today, Harvest Hosts is not just a membership program. It's an ecosystem supporting small businesses, a community of like-minded travelers, and an antidote to the monotony of conventional RV parks. With over 250,000 members and thousands of unique locations across the U.S., the program is on track to channel over $50 million directly into small businesses this year.

Joel's journey from burnout to breakthrough is a testament to the power of a simple idea, the longing for a scenic parking spot, transforming into a boon for thousands of small businesses across the country. The open road, it turns out, can lead to places one never expects.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Harvest Hosts

🥚💥Ex-tech exec Joel Holland has cracked conventional business norms with Harvest Hosts, hatching a small community into a 250,000-strong network that fosters small businesses. This egg-cellent innovation is set to channel a whopping $50 million this year. Remarkably egg-citing!

🥚Unleashing Humor:

The Alluring Beaver Business: One Entrepreneur Rewriting the Buc-ee's Playbook

An iconic convenience store chain from Texas, famed for its beloved treats, had no online presence. A determined entrepreneur took the initiative to revolutionize that situation.

Deep in the heart of Texas, amidst sprawling miles of interstate highway I-35, you will notice something big and extraordinary - Buc-ee's. It's not just a gas station, but a chain of convenience stores that is mammoth in its size, offering variety for everyone's liking.

However, the journey to Buc-ee's becomes not so convenient for many. Despite 46 locations, mostly in Texas, these mega-stores are often in remote places. And the most important thing, they have no online store.

The walls at Buc-ee’s are lined with nuts, beaver-themed clothes, and more flavors of beef jerky than you could ever imagine

This is where our story about Chris Koerner begins. The opportunity he saw where others didn't lead to the birth of something incredible.

Koerner was no stranger to the world of business. He has a resume filled with companies he started and sold. But his interest in Buc-ee's was one of a kind - a blend of nostalgia and business instinct.

In 2020, during the pandemic, Koerner decided to indulge in the delicious treats of Buc-ee's and went to their website, only to be shocked that they had no online store. The opportunity that dawned upon him then was illuminating: he decided to start selling Buc-ee's merchandise online.

And thus was born TexasSnax.com, a place where Buc-ee's enthusiasts could now purchase their favorite items online. Though he ran into legal hiccups, Koerner deftly navigated the waters of legal territory, changing his website's name and adding disclaimers.

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Koerner's business is flourishing, and he continues to expand, leveraging all the possibilities that e-commerce offers. His story is a lesson for all of us in how innovation and entrepreneurial spirit can rewrite the rules of the game.

🥚💥Spotting a gap in the market, Chris Koerner cracked the code by taking the beloved treats of Texan chain Buc-ee's online. His venture, TexasSnax.com, is a reminder of how innovation can transform a traditional business and scramble up the game!

🥚Laugh Together:

Top Tweet’s for today:

Want remote work? It's egg-stravaganza time! This list of online job platforms is an egg-cellent treasure trove for aspiring digital nomads.

Elon Musk, the master of suspense! HQ's goings-on tonight? We're egg-cited and egg-spectant. As always, Musk keeps us guessing!

This tweet really stirs the pot, suggesting some billionaire tycoons might not be business whizzes, but rather ace marketers who sell dazzling visions to skilled operators.

News Bites

  • The Dark Horses of Crypto Emerge Victorious: The unexpected underdogs of crypto, such as Coinbase Stock ($COIN) and Bitcoin Miners, have shown significant gains this year despite initial hurdles.

  • Crypto Rebounds as Industry Leaders Consider Future Bitcoin Rally: After a challenging period, the crypto world is bouncing back with new developments and increased interest from institutions. Some experts predict another significant rally for Bitcoin in thee.

  • Call Options - A Strategic Move for Crypto Investors: Markus Thielen, head researcher at Matrixport, suggests that as Bitcoin's trading volume and volatility decrease, investors may find it advantageous to switch to call options, potentially leading to big gains.

  • The British Museum and Sandbox Collaborate for NFT Collections: In an exciting development for digital art, the British Museum is partnering with Sandbox to launch NFT collections and create its own immersive space within the Sandbox metaverse.

  • Sequoia Capital Slashes Crypto Fund Amidst Downturn: Sequoia Capital has cut its crypto fund by 65% from $585M to $200M due to the crypto downturn.

  • Web3 Security Benchmark "The Rekt Test" to Launch: Several crypto companies are collaborating to create a new web3 security benchmark, aiming to decrease hacks and fraud.

That's a wrap for this edition!

I've seen significant shifts in tech and business, shaping our future in fascinating ways.

Stay tuned for our next edition for more updates. Until then, keep innovating and exploring!