Today we’d like to introduce you to Mario Medina.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Growing up in the Dominican Republic (DR), I equated wealth to being synonymous with success. My first thought when I found out I was going to the U.S. was, “wow, now I have the opportunity to be rich.” There is literally a world of difference between the DR and the US – endless opportunity versus no opportunity. It took years of dream-pursuing and hard lessons learned before I finally got it; success in life and business is never about money.
Post college, I got a taste of the corporate world at Canon. That was interesting, but I knew it was not for me. I then ran seven clothing factories in the Caribbean. Also interesting, but again not for me. Finally, I got lucky with a position at Digitec, one of the incumbent Teleco’s in the DR, who tapped me for their new US division, which I ran as President. There, I learned two things about myself: 1) I am an entrepreneur, and 2) I love technology. After leaving Digitec, I worked as a business consultant for a black car service in Miami. After experiencing the sorry state of the industry, fax machines and phones, but loving the logistical challenge, I decided to start my own company, Moveo, as a technology-forward ground transportation company.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Bumps, bumps and more bumps. But each one was an opportunity to learn and innovate. This cycle of bumps, some existential and some annoyances, spawned the creation of an internal development team that has now disintermediated all the old-school logistics and management via phone calls and faxes.
We’ve been impressed with Drvn, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We got into the business simply because passenger ground transportation has always been the stepchild of transportation, not in the same league as air, sea, and rail. Technology passed over passenger ground and left it with phones and fax machines. We see it as a logistics challenge that technology can solve. To that end, we have developed a very serious set of tools to manage the coordination – changing schedules, changing routes, changes in timing and other change management challenges that come with providing scheduled service – requisite for providing any, and all, types of passenger transport. With that, we seek out the best independent operator drivers in key markets like Houston to provide service excellence. As mentioned, our clients are themselves serious companies and individuals where service precision, discretion, presentation, and old-world manners are all demanded.
We have many clients in Houston (and Texas in general), including Carnival in Galveston, the University of Texas, JW Marriott and other Houston-based companies.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
COVID-19 was brutal but by far the best thing that ever happened to Moveo. The brutality was to watch our revenue go from the best month we ever had (February 2020) to zero in less than a week. But the entire team hunkered down, took pay cuts, and we focused on our infrastructure (housekeeping, in a sense). We got ISO 9001 certified and registered with the federal government as a transportation provider.
From there, we looked for opportunities that might come from COVID-19. We were able to contract with a Major League team for the ground transportation logistics and delivery of officials to every game from their homes since they couldn’t/wouldn’t fly due to the ongoing health crisis. We also were able to work with the military, providing ground transportation and logistics for the Afghan rescue mission (Operation Allies Welcome) at bases in Indiana, Washington and Virginia. Neither one of these opportunities would have been realized without our commitment to investing in the company.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://drvn.com/en/car-service-houston/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ridedrvn/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ridedrvn
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ridedrvn
