On their own

 

It all started helping their buddy haul off some movie theater seats.

Two years ago, Dan Shuman and Brad Bondroff couldn't believe their friend was paying $2 to $5 per seat to haul away rows of movie theater seats. Shuman and Bondroff figured there had to be a more profitable way to get rid of the seats.

"We started hammering the phones and found a buyer," Bondroff said. The longtime friends made $10,000 removing seats for someone who didn't want them and selling them to an interested third party.

That's when Shuman and Bondroff realized were in the wrong businesses. Within a year, Shuman, 29, gave up his investment banking career and Bondroff, 28, left the commercial leadership program at General Electric Co. to form the Asset Store LLC in 2004.

In its first year, the Baltimore business grew tenfold. To keep up with demand and save costs, the partners formed TAS Logistics LLC, a sister trucking company this spring.

"We created a market that wasn't there previously," said Bondroff, the company's president.

The Asset Store liquidates and then sells assets for a variety of industries. The company specializes in hotel, office and heavy equipment liquidations but also sells medical and restaurant equipment. The company hauled furniture from 500 rooms at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore when the hotel renovated its guest rooms.

Like many small companies that grow quickly, the young entrepreneurs worried about their supply chain. Shuman and Bondroff noticed they were too reliant on outside trucking companies.

"If FEMA needs a generator in a day, we have to make sure it gets there," Bondroff said.