Yoshi gas delivery launches in Nashville
Most people don’t curse their trip to the gas station, but that may be because they never considered an alternative. Now, in Nashville, they have one.
Yoshi, a gas delivery service, is officially launching in Nashville on Monday, having built a customer base over the past four months. While getting someone else to fill up a car’s gas tank may sound unnecessary, most Yoshi customers abandon the gas station once they try it, says Yoshi co-founder Bryan Frist.
“The whole mission of Yoshi is that you never have to go to the gas station ever again,” Frist said. “Everyone has to drive to get to them. It’s inefficient.”
The value is time. Instead of being late to a meeting or late getting home because of an empty tank, Yoshi comes to the consumer’s car either at the office or at home. It all happens without the customer having to walk outside. It's part of a growing national trend aimed at eliminating errands by having products delivered to the consumer with the use of mobile apps.
The Yoshi model reduces fuel emissions by leading to fewer trips to the pump, and the environmental aspects have appealed to consumers as well.
Founded by Nashville native Frist and three co-founders, Yoshi includes a team of five gas deliverers and four fuel trucks. The concept began in Palo Alto, Calif., and through Frist’s persuading, they chose Nashville as a second location.
“I kept saying we should come to Nashville, with all the entrepreneurial stuff going on in Nashville,” he said.
Apart from having a reputation as being friendly to startups, Nashville also is a top gas-guzzling city with a large population of commuters. Tank sizes tend to be bigger on average in Nashville, Frist said, and that the city has large, open parking lots also was a draw.
The concept began with David Gobaud, a California native and a computer science undergraduate. While at Harvard Law School, Gobaud worked on the business model with entrepreneur and app developer Nick Alexander and Frist, who both attended Harvard Business School. Dan Hunter, an engineer working at Stanford University and Yoshi’s fourth co-founder, created a truck that would deliver the fuel — a Ford Ranger with a U.S. Department of Transportation-certified tank on the back.
On-demand services look made to order for Nashville
They began delivering fuel to friends in Palo Alto in May and brought the model to Nashville in July.
How it works
After a user downloads the Yoshi app at StartYoshi.com, they enter their name, where they park, vehicle description and payment information. Consumers can choose an autopilot option that allows them to have their tank filled at a certain time each week. So far, 90 percent of clients have chosen an autopilot option.
For cars with a locked tank, Yoshi provides a mechanism for consumers that will prevent a tank from locking, or consumers can just leave the tank open on the day of Yoshi fill-ups.
Yoshi offers two options for consumers. Members pay an upfront cost of $15 a month and receive below-market gas rates — currently 20 cents to 25 cents cheaper per gallon. Nonmembers pay a higher rate — now about 30 cents more per gallon — than gas stations’ typical market rate, Frist said.
The company also is promoting the concept to employers as a way to provide an office perk through monthly memberships.
Yoshi makes money by buying fuel at a lower cost than at the pumps. Without the often expensive brick-and-mortar space or upkeep of underground tanks, overhead costs are much lower than a traditional gas station.
Traction in Nashville
So far, by word of mouth alone, more than 1,000 people have signed up for Yoshi in Nashville, and repeat orders have been as high as 90 percent. An office visit to one employee often leads to several fill-ups the next week for colleagues.
“Many of our members haven’t gone to a gas station in four months,” said Frist, son of Sen. Bill Frist.
Yoshi is delivering most orders to Brentwood, downtown, 12South, Sylvan Park, Belle Meade and Green Hills. It will visit new locations based on demand. So far, Maryland Farms has produced the most business, Frist said.
The company has been funded with four California angel investors, including football icon Joe Montana. Yoshi probably will raise an additional round in the next year, Frist said.
The team is still focusing on expanding services in the San Francisco area and Nashville and sees potential in cities with similar demographics, including Dallas, Houston and Atlanta.
Eventually, the founders want to explore using alternative forms of fuel, such as electric energy or hydrogen.
"The current lack of infrastructure supporting these forms of energy is one of the primary reasons why there is slow adoption of alternative fuel vehicles across the country," Frist said in an email. "Our ultimate goal is to refuel your car, regardless of what kind of fuel it might take ... and play a complementary, additive role in the adoption of these sorts of technologies."
Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.