Business View Magazine | April 2021

91 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE APRIL 2021 concept and we played around with the idea of getting fuel delivered to your personal vehicle while it was parked outside.” Instafuel launched with just Baki and Wisam – and Baki’s red pickup truck outfitted with 100 gallons of fuel in the back. They delivered gas to anyone who wanted it, basically giving away gas for free while trying to tweak the business model. “We quickly got a lot of PR,” says Baki, “and businesses began calling. Like the local laundry delivery service phoning us and saying, “I have 10 vans, can y’all fill my fleet up at night?” and of course we told them, “no problem.” We realized quickly that the economics of a ‘B2B’ or business- to-business fleet fueling model was way better than a consumer-based ‘B2C’ business model.” That instant pivot to fleet deliveries changed everything. By focusing on businesses with five to 100 (usually Class C) vehicles and filling while they were stationary at night, refuelling became much more efficient. INSTAFUEL The next challenge for the company came from the fact that the physical equipment to make the model practical did not exist. “Here is the interesting thing,” says Baki. “We did not create the idea of mobile refuelling, it was, however, something that mainly focused on larger vehicles, predominantly heavy diesel equipment. The original market was using old legacy refuellers, 6-7000-gallon tankers. We needed something that would be smaller and nimbler – which would create a better price point. So, we built this 1500-gallon delivery truck that carried both gas and diesel and was able to fit into very small spaces. Then we gave it almost 100 feet of hose and no matter the size of the customer’s lot, we can reach their vehicles with no problem.” “Now, here is the other thing,” Nahhas adds, “because the others were delivering to fewer assets, it was easier to keep track of. Each fill was 200 to 300 gallons at a time and they were