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Scaling a location based workforce that the owner is visiting once a month and maintaining quality standards is hugely impressive. As the article explains the

Scaling a location based workforce that the owner is visiting once a month and maintaining quality standards is hugely impressive. As the article explains the owner is drawing his HR from the Egyptian immigrant community. As such I think the “secret” of success in this tale is the unique funnel he has developed to find motivated, highly responsible, and respectful labor. Which is almost impossible to find in the US at this point with employment reaching all time highs. Good lesson for anybody that thinks the “buy and improve” strategy is going to come from giving a near minimum wage worker a playbook and checking in once a month.

cushychicken 7y ago
>As the article explains the owner is drawing his HR from the Egyptian immigrant community. And good for him, too! He deserves to be incredibly proud of the work he's done. I can imagine that the two-hundred-odd employees he has hired represent just a fraction of the people he's positively effected - especially if they are Egyptian immigrants. Many of them likely brought their families to the US as well. I'm incredibly proud to be an American, hearing stories like this. (Unfortunately, that's in spite of our current administration's attitude towards immigrants. Let's hope that next election manages to turn that sentiment around with a new candidate.)
- dionian 7y ago
  If he immigrated legally, I'm not sure the current administration has done anything to hurt him
  - drharby 7y ago
    The fact that this is downvoted and the parent's is not for speaking down on the current admin smells of a bias. I'll save face by saying I think the administration is adverse to many people's lives
  - luckydata 7y ago
    As a naturalized citizen of the United States I can tell you with good knowledge that.you have no clue what you're talking about. The Trump administration has made legal family reunions a lot more complex and time consuming than it used to be. Many other issues too that it takes just a little googling or some good faith to discover. That's not even going in the stories of American citizens arrested for speaking a foreign language and not being released for months. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-citizens-ice-20180427-htmlstory.html https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-citizens-ice-20180... Saying this kind of stuff at this point is not morally neutral, you're actively abiding an inhuman and monstrous regime that's killing people out of bigotry and greed, you should be ashamed.
    - o-__-o 7y ago
      To be fair, as the son of an immigrant, it has been difficult for family to come visit since about 2010. I understand it’s easy to blame this administration for a lot of things, but the immigration problem began a long time ago and each presidential administration has promised change that has only f’ed up the people who follow the law.
      - luckydata 7y ago
        It's gotten a lot worse faster in the last three years. I've become a citizen under Obama and it was a pretty simple paperwork process. Things are not the same now.
        o-__-o 7y ago
        Its no worse than it was 6 years ago. Under Obama, I had family who were here legally and were not sure if they should leave because there was no guidance on whether or not they could return. I've had foreign friends here who held legal visas who left the country only to be stuck unable to return because of unclear guidance. But just like now, if you stayed illegally or entered the country illegally and didn't commit any crimes then everyone would just turn a blind eye. It's not a lot worse. It's just differently worse. If you follow the law you're still F'd.
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't take HN threads on generic flamewar tangents or into partisan battles. These are off topic on HN because they are predictable and tedious. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
llrando 7y ago
Right he gets a great work pool from his local church of people willing to go the extra mile for $15 where as typically you cant get anyone to even show up for that kind of money. Maybe access to a bit of local muscle as well if he needs it. That being said, I don't think anyone really cares how clean a gas station is you pump gas at is, but the convenience store (where all the money is made) is another matter. If its the cleanest/safest redbox/amazon box around people are going to be showing up there just for that and that's going to drive traffic, if you can add some other decent extras you might even convert them into repeat costumers. Just keeping the store clean and free of drug addicts is already a big competitive advantage in keeping customers.
- analog31 7y ago
  I kinda have to admit that I look for a cleaner gas station, especially on longer trips. For one thing, the gas station stop is also often a bathroom stop. For another, gas stations give me the creeps, and even if a dirty station isn't objectively any more creepy, the creeps are still the creeps.
  - WalterBright 7y ago
    I bought a tank of water and sand once from a sketchy looking gas station. You bet ever since I definitely buy gas from stations that look clean and in good repair.
  - a3n 7y ago
    I'm a long distance trucker and all things being equal I try to choose stations I know or guess to be clean.
- randycupertino 7y ago
  I basically only go to Chevrons because their windshield wiper stations are cleaner and kept in better repair than other stations.
swiley 7y ago
I honestly think a big problem most US companies have is a lack of training in HR. Almost none of them know what they’re looking at when they’re evaluating new employees.
- abhiyerra 7y ago
  I totally agree with this. Interestingly Koch Industries is the one company that seems to actually know and pick out people. It seems there may be a bias for picking out based on values which Said seems to be also doing based on Egyptian immigrant that goes to a Coptic church.
  - jessaustin 7y ago
    What criteria are Koch using?
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  To be frank HR seems like pre-Germ theory medicine having the reputation of being uncertain if it will needless maim or kill you vs help. Im this case the stakes are a bit lower in that they needlessly reject/fire good canidates and accept/push bad canidates for the same reason - they aren't that accurate or understanding of many hidden variables and may have bad incentives.
hogFeast 7y ago
Yep, a family friend did this at a smaller scale in a similar business (not in the US). First-gen migrant, only employed other migrants from his community (usually from extended family), they worked just as hard as he did (no exaggeration: he worked 16-hour days, and worked close to 365 a year), and he provided an absolute first-rate service (and sold out to someone else at pretty much the top tick in the industry). I actually think the tragedy of this is that we don't have people like this working at a higher level. Lots of migrants end up in these businesses because no-one else will hire them (gas stations, convenience stores, car washes, etc.)...that is a real tragedy because they would fucking trounce any politician/CEO/you name it.
- alamaslah 7y ago
  "gas stations, convenience stores, car washes" I've noticed these places being mentioned a lot in illegal immigration reports. But you have chosen to use the word "migrant"...
- kjs3 7y ago
  I'm trying to think of how working 16 hours a day, near 365 days a year isn't a "tragedy".
  - hogFeast 7y ago
    Because he enjoyed it, and he provided for his family. He came to this country with literally nothing (his family fled Idi Amin...so the real "nothing", not like most economic migrants today), and he sent all his kids (three) to private school and university. I understand this isn't appealing to the lazy, indigent middle-class person who has everything and expects daddy to hook them up with a soft job...but he is the kind of person that provides for your life and the real tragedy is that we allow so many talented people to grow up without ambition, responsibility, or even the desire to produce things for anyone besides themselves.
KKKKkkkk1 7y ago
> As the article explains the owner is drawing his HR from the Egyptian immigrant community. > As such I think the “secret” of success in this tale is the unique funnel he has developed to find motivated, highly responsible, and respectful labor. To be fair, importing cheap labor on visas with restrictive terms is a play from big tech's playbook.
MarcelOlsz 7y ago
Hey this is an unrelated comment but I wanted to get in touch about this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20834105 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20834105 Is there any way to reach you? You can drop me a line at: m [at] eveo [dot] org I want to understand your pain points more concretely and what would be valuable to you.

cushychicken 7y ago

>As the article explains the owner is drawing his HR from the Egyptian immigrant community. And good for him, too! He deserves to be incredibly proud of the work he's done. I can imagine that the two-hundred-odd employees he has hired represent just a fraction of the people he's positively effected - especially if they are Egyptian immigrants. Many of them likely brought their families to the US as well. I'm incredibly proud to be an American, hearing stories like this. (Unfortunately, that's in spite of our current administration's attitude towards immigrants. Let's hope that next election manages to turn that sentiment around with a new candidate.)

dionian 7y ago
If he immigrated legally, I'm not sure the current administration has done anything to hurt him
- drharby 7y ago
  The fact that this is downvoted and the parent's is not for speaking down on the current admin smells of a bias. I'll save face by saying I think the administration is adverse to many people's lives
- luckydata 7y ago
  As a naturalized citizen of the United States I can tell you with good knowledge that.you have no clue what you're talking about. The Trump administration has made legal family reunions a lot more complex and time consuming than it used to be. Many other issues too that it takes just a little googling or some good faith to discover. That's not even going in the stories of American citizens arrested for speaking a foreign language and not being released for months. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-citizens-ice-20180427-htmlstory.html https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-citizens-ice-20180... Saying this kind of stuff at this point is not morally neutral, you're actively abiding an inhuman and monstrous regime that's killing people out of bigotry and greed, you should be ashamed.
  - o-__-o 7y ago
    To be fair, as the son of an immigrant, it has been difficult for family to come visit since about 2010. I understand it’s easy to blame this administration for a lot of things, but the immigration problem began a long time ago and each presidential administration has promised change that has only f’ed up the people who follow the law.
    - luckydata 7y ago
      It's gotten a lot worse faster in the last three years. I've become a citizen under Obama and it was a pretty simple paperwork process. Things are not the same now.
      - o-__-o 7y ago
        Its no worse than it was 6 years ago. Under Obama, I had family who were here legally and were not sure if they should leave because there was no guidance on whether or not they could return. I've had foreign friends here who held legal visas who left the country only to be stuck unable to return because of unclear guidance. But just like now, if you stayed illegally or entered the country illegally and didn't commit any crimes then everyone would just turn a blind eye. It's not a lot worse. It's just differently worse. If you follow the law you're still F'd.
dang 7y ago
Please don't take HN threads on generic flamewar tangents or into partisan battles. These are off topic on HN because they are predictable and tedious. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

llrando 7y ago

Right he gets a great work pool from his local church of people willing to go the extra mile for $15 where as typically you cant get anyone to even show up for that kind of money. Maybe access to a bit of local muscle as well if he needs it. That being said, I don't think anyone really cares how clean a gas station is you pump gas at is, but the convenience store (where all the money is made) is another matter. If its the cleanest/safest redbox/amazon box around people are going to be showing up there just for that and that's going to drive traffic, if you can add some other decent extras you might even convert them into repeat costumers. Just keeping the store clean and free of drug addicts is already a big competitive advantage in keeping customers.

analog31 7y ago
I kinda have to admit that I look for a cleaner gas station, especially on longer trips. For one thing, the gas station stop is also often a bathroom stop. For another, gas stations give me the creeps, and even if a dirty station isn't objectively any more creepy, the creeps are still the creeps.
- WalterBright 7y ago
  I bought a tank of water and sand once from a sketchy looking gas station. You bet ever since I definitely buy gas from stations that look clean and in good repair.
- a3n 7y ago
  I'm a long distance trucker and all things being equal I try to choose stations I know or guess to be clean.
randycupertino 7y ago
I basically only go to Chevrons because their windshield wiper stations are cleaner and kept in better repair than other stations.

swiley 7y ago

I honestly think a big problem most US companies have is a lack of training in HR. Almost none of them know what they’re looking at when they’re evaluating new employees.

abhiyerra 7y ago
I totally agree with this. Interestingly Koch Industries is the one company that seems to actually know and pick out people. It seems there may be a bias for picking out based on values which Said seems to be also doing based on Egyptian immigrant that goes to a Coptic church.
- jessaustin 7y ago
  What criteria are Koch using?
Nasrudith 7y ago
To be frank HR seems like pre-Germ theory medicine having the reputation of being uncertain if it will needless maim or kill you vs help. Im this case the stakes are a bit lower in that they needlessly reject/fire good canidates and accept/push bad canidates for the same reason - they aren't that accurate or understanding of many hidden variables and may have bad incentives.

hogFeast 7y ago

Yep, a family friend did this at a smaller scale in a similar business (not in the US). First-gen migrant, only employed other migrants from his community (usually from extended family), they worked just as hard as he did (no exaggeration: he worked 16-hour days, and worked close to 365 a year), and he provided an absolute first-rate service (and sold out to someone else at pretty much the top tick in the industry). I actually think the tragedy of this is that we don't have people like this working at a higher level. Lots of migrants end up in these businesses because no-one else will hire them (gas stations, convenience stores, car washes, etc.)...that is a real tragedy because they would fucking trounce any politician/CEO/you name it.

alamaslah 7y ago
"gas stations, convenience stores, car washes" I've noticed these places being mentioned a lot in illegal immigration reports. But you have chosen to use the word "migrant"...
kjs3 7y ago
I'm trying to think of how working 16 hours a day, near 365 days a year isn't a "tragedy".
- hogFeast 7y ago
  Because he enjoyed it, and he provided for his family. He came to this country with literally nothing (his family fled Idi Amin...so the real "nothing", not like most economic migrants today), and he sent all his kids (three) to private school and university. I understand this isn't appealing to the lazy, indigent middle-class person who has everything and expects daddy to hook them up with a soft job...but he is the kind of person that provides for your life and the real tragedy is that we allow so many talented people to grow up without ambition, responsibility, or even the desire to produce things for anyone besides themselves.

KKKKkkkk1 7y ago

> As the article explains the owner is drawing his HR from the Egyptian immigrant community. > As such I think the “secret” of success in this tale is the unique funnel he has developed to find motivated, highly responsible, and respectful labor. To be fair, importing cheap labor on visas with restrictive terms is a play from big tech's playbook.

MarcelOlsz 7y ago

Hey this is an unrelated comment but I wanted to get in touch about this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20834105 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20834105 Is there any way to reach you? You can drop me a line at: m [at] eveo [dot] org I want to understand your pain points more concretely and what would be valuable to you.