What they do:
Invented the first "tow truck" for emergency road service
Inspiration:
One day, when business school executive John Wiley and his son were driving near Chattanooga TN, their Model T Ford veered to the right, crashed down an embankment and flipped upside down in a creek. They called auto mechanic Ernest Holmes for help.
About the business:
It took Holmes eight hours to pull the car out of the creek -- using rope, block & tackle and six men. Vowing he'd never go through that again, Holmes went back to his shop. There, he mounted poles, pulleys and chains onto the back of a Cadillac chassis and created the first tow truck. Within a few years, Ernest Holmes tow trucks dominated the emergency road service industry.
In the latest episode of the Why Didn’t I Think of That? Podcast, Bob Smith and Greg Anastos sit down with thinkofthat.net blogger Benjamin Christopher and discuss the first of their Axioms For Entrepreneurs, “Re-think Your Industry.”
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This entrepreneur invented a way to help his distressed customers — and start a new industry — at the same time. Hear the story of auto mechanic Ernest Holmes and the invention of the Tow Truck.
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