By Staff

FindingBenjamin.com reporter Joe Cicero sat down with Omar Soliman, the founder and CEO of College Hunks Hauling Junk via Skype. Unfortunately, the recorded video quality did not turn out very well. We decided to transcribe the entire interview, which can be seen below.

Q: Omar, could you start off and tell us a little bit about your company and give an overview of what you guys are all about?

A: We are a full-blown junk removal company. People call up to have furniture, debris, and yard brush removed. We show up at the house with our trucks and provide the labor. We’ll go inside the house, we’ll go around to the back yard, we’ll go into the basement or attic and remove all the unwanted items. The way that we charge is based on how much space the junk fills up.

Q: So you’re not a moving company, you just take what people don’t want?

A: Exactly.We are not a moving company, we are a junk and trash removal company.

Q: What do you do with all the junk?

A: We recycle and donate about 60% of the junk that we remove. We sort through everything and donate and recycle what we can, and the rest goes to different transfer stations and landfills in the area.

Q: How did the company start up?

A: My buddy Nick and I grew up together and we were looking for some ways to earn some extra money. My mom had a beat up cargo van that she used for her furniture store, and we borrowed the van, put up some flyers around the neighborhood that said College Hunks Hauling Junk. 6PM that night my cell phone started ringing with people that needed service, so that’s how the light bulb went off and we realized there was a demand for this kind of service. My senior year of college I wrote a business plan for a year-round junk removal company called College Hunks Hauling Junk, and it won first prize in the University of Miami business plan competition. I started the company after college, invested some money, and bought a truck. Our operation in D.C. grew from one truck to eight trucks in less than two years.

Q: How many employees and locations do you have?

A: We have 23 franchise locations, plus our corporate office in Washington D.C. In terms of system wide employees, we have about 200 that work for the franchisees of College Hunks Hauling Junk.

Q: We watched you guys on ABC’s Shark Tank the other night, and we see that you have plans for a new business called College Foxes Packing Boxes. What exactly are your plans?

A: We haven’t officially started that business yet, which is essentially a sister company to College Hunks Hauling Junk, but it is a “move preparation” and a professional organizing company. If someone were getting ready to move, instead of packing their things themselves, they would contract out College Foxes Packing Boxes to sort through all of their materials and pack up boxes. They will come prepared with all necessary materials, too.

Q: What stage are you at in establishing College Foxes Packing Boxes?

A: It’s in the preliminary stages right now. Part of the reason we went on Shark Tank was to raise some money to get the business started. We are pretty tied up with College Hunks Hauling Junk so it’s hard for us to do two things at the same time.

Q: So even though you didn’t take the deal, do you still think the Shark Tank experience was a good one?

A: It was an awesome experience. You hear all these things about reality television not being real and being scripted, but that was all real. It was real emotions, real business people, and it really showed what it’s like to go in front of venture capitalists. They aren’t going to be nice to you, they are going to be up front and in your face. All around it was an awesome experience though and I would definitely do it again if I could.

Q: Did it give you a lot of exposure? Did you see any impact from being on the show?

A: We got a lot of exposure, definitely on the franchise side of things. It got our name out to people all over the country that still haven’t heard of College Hunks Hauling Junk. We are a pretty affordable franchise to start out with compared to other franchises like 7 eleven or McDonalds. In this type of economy, a $70,000 investment is nowhere near as bad as, let’s say a Subway, which costs $500,000 to $1,000,000.

Q: Do you have any other future plans?

A: Right now, our goal is just to continue to grow College Hunks Hauling Junk. We really think we can be a 50 million dollar company in the next five years.