Booster Fuels
What they do: Provide an on-demand fuel delivery service for consumers.
Problem they solve: When you see your gas gauge dipping down towards “E,” it’s often a nuisance to stop and fuel up. Working people who commute are almost always pressed for time and stressed out already. Adding a pit stop is a hassle that we often forget to factor in.
#Big50-2017 #startup Booster Fuels sends a fuel truck to corporate parking lots. Employees fill their cars by opening an app, dropping a pin, and leaving their gas caps open. Share on XHow they solve it: The founder and CEO of the company, Frank Mycroft, started Booster Fuels when he was a young parent working 100-hour weeks. Mycroft found himself in the predicament of many working people: heading to the gas station late at night, fueling up his own car (and then his wife’s car to keep her safe from having to go alone to an empty gas station).
As a former private pilot, Mycroft thought about how small planes are fueled, and he started to rethink the gas station errand that so many of us take for granted.
Booster Fuels offers its service to companies, which provide it as a perk to their employees. Each day Booster Fuels’ purple truck arrives at the parking lots of participating companies. To fuel up, employees download the Booster Fuels app, pin the locations of their cars on the provided parking map, and simply leave their gas caps open. When they return to their cars at the end of the day, their tanks are full.
Booster Fuels shows customers current gas prices at nearby gas stations, so they know that with Booster Fuels, they normally pay the same or less than they would at the gas station. Delivery is free. Customers also get their receipt right on their phones. Because Booster Fuels buys gas directly from the source, the middleman is eliminated and there are no real estate costs, so the prices are extremely competitive.
Booster Fuels truck drivers have commercial driver’s licenses and hazardous material training.
Headquarters: Burlingame, CA
CEO: Frank Mycroft. Before Booster Fuels, Mycroft was the VP of Strategy for Planetary Resources, which intends to mine asteroids. He has also worked for NASA and Boeing helping to design spacecraft.
Year Founded: 2015
Funding: Booster Fuels is backed by $32 million in total funding. Their most recent round, a $20 million Series B, closed in August 2017. Existing investor Conversion Capital led the round and was joined by Maveron, Madrona Venture Group, Version One, Perot Jain LP, and RRE Ventures. New investors include Stanford’s StartX Fund, BADR Investments, and U.S. Venture Inc.
Competitors include: Traditional gas stations and convenience stores.
Customers include: Facebook, Cisco, Oracle, and eBay.
Why they’re in the Big 50-2017: Here at Starutp50, we’re bullish about the on-demand economy. Public spaces and retails chores that people find unappealing, uncomfortable, or just annoying are giving way to mobile, on-demand startups.
For now, Booster Fuels is uniquely situated in the market, and with $32M in funding and “300 large enterprise customers,” including the likes of Facebook and Cisco, this startup is definitely one to keep an eye on.
