Today we’d like to introduce you to Armir Harris.
Armir, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I came to the United States at the age of 16 with my mom and sister as political refugees from Albania. To help the family, I started working with my uncle to support his growing cab business. At first I helped with reservations and some paperwork. Then I went to Boston College for a few years where I learned the ins and outs of the city and met Merrick Levy – our COO – so it was a great experience!
After college, I went back to work for my uncle. In 2012, when the Democratic National Convention was being held in Charlotte, I got a call from the DNC asking if we had 60 buses they could charter. Of course, I did not have the buses but it did spark an idea: I could aggregate buses from outside of Charlotte to fulfill this need. I worked with supposedly competing companies to aggregate the right number of buses, which meant we all won work instead of everyone losing it. From this, Shofur was born. Today, we service more than in 100 cities nationwide, including Boston, and we have more than 5,000 buses that we can access at any time.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No startup is ever completely smooth – there are lessons learned and changes that must be made. Some of the biggest struggles we have seen involved explaining what we do and scaling. The bus industry has been the same for years: call individual companies, get multiple quotes and then select one. We are changing that to make it easier on bus owners and riders. However, with that comes the challenge of explaining what we do without sounding cliché or confusing. Once we could easily provide an overview of what we do, we got momentum going.
Additionally, scaling with the right resources and people was tough. Partially because we were figuring everything out on our own. We bootstrapped our way to where we are today, so we didn’t have a VC to turn to when we need to get questions answered. That said, once we figured it out, we skyrocketed and have continued to grow rapidly since then.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Shofur – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Shofur provides bus reservations nationally. We can reserve buses for everybody from church groups and sports teams to businesses of all sizes to students for graduation and even bachelor/bachelorette parties. We have access to more than 5,000 buses, serve more than 100 cities and at the end of the day, zero accidents.
As we built the company, we built it around superior customer service, earning the trust of our customers. We engrained that in the DNA of our company and everyone who works for us must be dedicated to ensuring the customers are always the top priority.
We believe in a commitment to not only quality, but also to our clients and the industry. As a lot of people know, being in a startup isn’t easy. The first few years require sacrifices and determination. You can plan and plan and hope you’re prepared, but something will come up unexpectedly. By staying determined and dedicated to provide great quality service for our clients, we have found that we can accomplish our goals.
Contact Info:
- Website: wwww.shofur.com
- Phone: 1-800-436-8719
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shofur_bus/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RideShofur
- Twitter: @Shofur
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