Costa Kapothanasis
@CostaKapo
Followers
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Following
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Statuses
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💼 Fastest growing oil change only QL in USA 🇺🇸 ⚙️🛢 Costa Oil™ @CostaOilCo 🦞 Formerly Portland ME 🦀 Now DC @CostaOils Racing | Over 200 Franchises sold
Washington, DC
Joined July 2009
Here it is, the whole scoop on how I went from 1 quick lube as a side business to owning 20, creating a brand, and franchising - selling over 160 franchise locations in the past 2 years. A thread 🧵.
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I’m literally scheduled to buy a Jaguar F-Pace tomorrow and I am strongly considering cancelling the transaction.
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@CharlesColtonKY More, like - if this is the direction Jaguar wants to go its almost certain they are no making good business decisions in other aspects of the business such as engineering and service. But your take is certainly something insecure folks would care about.
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I would vote for @AndrewYang in the general election and I’ve never voted for a Democrat for federal office. I know I’m not the only one, and I feel like no one is talking about this. #businessowners.
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My business is 1 of 10 business that will be in Gary Vaynerchuks book Crushing It! I wrote a book in 2017 how I started my business and how I did it with no money. My business does 5 million in revenue. Much due to Crush It! My book is "Zero Down Business"
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One of the highlights of @MonsterMile was finding out @ryanellisracing invited a boy named PJ who was a big @BubbaWallace fan and completely under the radar both these guys made PJs day. No media, no agenda, just two good guys putting a smile on a kids face. Glad it was my car
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@scottoulli5 Best car I ever have driven was a 2011 Jaguar XF - Tata has been doing a fine job building cars.
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@SteveGaudio I have a Maserati right now and I love it, but my favorite car I’ve ever had is a 11 Jaguar XF. Thought I’d dip my toe back with the brand because I enjoyed that car so much.
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@DavidLeeShon It makes me question whether the brand will exist in the future - and also the general concern for allowing this business decision to made in the first place, what other bad decisions are being made in service, engineering, parts etc. My favorite car I’ve ever had is a Jaguar XF.
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The Planet Fitness CEO email making rounds doesn't have the best grammar. I think you would be shocked how many CEOs of major corporations don't. It is not indicative of anything.
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Has anyone else notice an uptick in retail employees automatically tapping no tip on your behalf before prompting to insert/tap card?.
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@askthepublicist @CharlesColtonKY If they are moving out of cars and into fashion this may work.
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Bit of personal news. We’ve officially closed on our house in Montgomery County MD. 10 min drive down New Hampshire Ave puts us in the heart of DC. We’ve got 3 acres which is super rare in this area. Couldn’t be happier. PA chapter is over which is bittersweet.
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Your dad building a business $0 to $10m pre internet is more impressive than you taking it $10m to $100m. IMO.
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We have perfected the model for turning that into this:
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Took awhile for these to come in but I’ve got about 300 of them to sell / gift. Thoughts?
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In a decade of being in the oil change business I have never sued a customer until this week. It’s not about money it’s about a principled stance on something that really bothers me. Let’s talk about fraudulent charge backs.
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@askthepublicist @CharlesColtonKY How many non middle aged white men have you ever seen driving a Jaguar.
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@mcuban Disingenuous post mark. Everyone who is in the college overrated camp always nuances STEM, Law, Medical degree exceptions. We’re talking about underwater basket weaving degrees here.
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I have to change parties to vote for @AndrewYang in the primary in Maryland. If he doesn’t win I will change back. The reason why his number is so much higher is he is an inclusive candidate.
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Do you have 3000 sq ft of unused commercial property and you want it to generate extra income? We want to hear from you! Our small foot print allows us to go into spaces none of the other brands will go. And we have the best looking building
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Remember that $48k building everyone loved so much. Almost ready for open.
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On New Years Eve an insured drunk driver drove through a building that I own and operate one of our stores. The insurance company sent a check for $14k which would barely cover 1 of these 15 ft overhead doors. I rejected the offer outright. The car went right through the natural
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“My son in law is about to be one of the youngest VPs in U.S. history”.“So there is still time for him to become a doctor?”.
It blows my mind that @JDVance's relatives look just like mine. :). This is the greatness of America.
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The unsold and listed but not sold was way higher than the sold for a long long time. Even this takes time. @garyvee
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@roblabonne Gotta get rights to it upfront. Learned this the hard way. Our original building design was owned by the architect and he held it ransom for $150k.
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@jackmurphylive @roblabonne Jack he isn’t going to have a white stranger in his house around his kids 24/7.
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Knoxville is our latest store to open. Unfortunately we won’t pass 50 locations by EOY but will be shooting for 100 in 2024
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Difference between having a tenant and not having a tenant apparently
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Brought all @CostaOilCo employees to @MonsterMile. No vendors, clients or people needing to be shmoozed. They had a great time and @ryanellisracing gave everyone a show. Best finish in a Costa Oil car with a P13.
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How come all furniture stores are always going out of business? And how come they never do?.
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Might do the thread on how I went from banking (retail, brokerage, asset management) to owning a single quick lube in Harrisburg PA to having 20 corporate stores within 6 years and selling over 160 franchise locations in less than 2 years.
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Some exciting news at @CostaOilCo - I can talk publicly about because I announced it to the entire franchise system on a town hall yesterday - I have bought out all shareholders in the Costa Oil franchise system including our seed investors and strategic investors. I am the sole
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Welp hit the algo - don’t have anything to promote but here is some pictures of my favorite NASCARs that have my name on them
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@EthanDriskill I found a dead Terrapin on Bald Head Island NC this morning and reported it to the conservancy they nearly shut down the island to document the situation and figure out what happened lol
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Business ownership isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Woke up to emergency calls from the Natural Gas co
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Simultaneously estatic and genuinely heart broken for @ryanellisracing who deserved that top 10. Awesome team finish for @TeamAlphaPrime . I guess the top 10 will have to happen at @MonsterMile
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We get maybe 5 of these per year in normal years - there has been a recent uptick. Sometimes you have to stand for something.
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Who wants to see it
Make Sure you Check Out our Latest Additions to our Previously Owned Collection Category! Some Real Gems in this round!. Order Here:
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Guys I don’t have time to spend arguing on the internet when I have people wondering why we won’t honor their $35 oil change coupon only to find out they drive a semi
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Cash advanced several credit cards on paypal into a down payment on a single quick lube in Harrisburg PA that has turned into 16 corporate stores 58 franchisees under contract and a brand worth 8 figures.
What was the best investment you ever made?. % wise.
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I had to have this up on our wall in the reception area of the HQ
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I was just targeted by a facebook ad for the Key Bridge collapse 🫥
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I posted in a "Business For Sale By Owner" facebook group that has 200k members that we were seeking quick lube buildings - pits & tandem doors. A franchise broker DMd me "Should the CEO of a franchise be posting in fb groups? Doesn't that look unprofessional?" . My franchisees.
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To those who always said @tailopez was the fake business person of the #entrepreneur twitter - how do you reconcile this?
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It’s 2020, there are literally live streams of people celebrating in the streets of Iran, Syria and Iraq the death of #Soleimani and we have #DearIran trending with people who a month ago were tweeting about blood on Trumps hands for pulling troops out of Syria.
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Just signed the purchase agreement for this quick lube that has been owned by the same family since 1984. This is in Chambersburg PA our core footprint. This marks 20 corporate locations, putting us up to 28 locations total. AMA!
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@realEstateTrent If this were in fact true, wouldn't the easy solution be to w2 yourself 50k and 1099 $450k?.
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After being featured by @garyvee in Crushing It! We crushed it even more. We took first in class marketing and brought it to an industry that needed it. Join us. Franchising now! Interested? Let us know! Inquire here:.
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@FranchiseMnA Scammed. Did the trip last year with my wife and two kids in the Polynesian (Used all AmEx points for flights). Other than that we spent $4k.
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The downside to sponsoring @ryanellisracing is knowing my logo is never going to be chucked at another car or driver because he is too nice.
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I don’t normally post personal stuff on here but today is my 10 year anniversary with my wife. We met at college, she was on the lacrosse team. Everyday I am thankful to have her, especially after I open this app. When it comes to business - spousal privilege isn’t talked about
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I’ve DMd with @sweatystartup and he is a good guy. More importantly he is building in public. There isn’t much an anon account could say that would change the people’s whose opinions matter to him I would guess.
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They should have an option to mute specific commentators. I don't want t hear Jessica Mendoza and her uninformed basball IQ #WildCard.
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Okay I don’t want to make everyone on twitter jealous but…. guess what arrived
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The Race today was great. I will tweet more about it later/tomorrow. I’m exhausted. @ryanellisracing is a great human being and awesome driver. @roly02boiler was a great host to the @CostaOils team. @TeamAlphaPrime employs some real professionals that bust their butts.
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We are experimenting with a new concept store that may slash the cost of entry to the quick lube space - for comparison the average Take 5 new construction was over $1M in 2023. This building thusfar we are in for $48,000 including site development
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I do a lot of work with overseas manufacturers which has opened doors for fun stuff like this. This jacket in the U.S. would be a few hundred bucks to produce, I was able to have this done for $42.
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I don’t think people realize how lonely entrepreneurship is.
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@mrtdoublen @KemonomichiNL @catehall This is true but it’s also true more people are throwing 100 than ever before.
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@roblabonne If you get the pdf version of the plans you can pay someone on Fiverr $50 to reverse engineer them into cad files. Worked for us on many of our builds . Risk litigation with this though.
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Honestly my favorite picture from the race and it has nothing to do with the car
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So earlier this week the news dropped that I was named operator of the year for the National Oil & Lube magazine which is essentially the quick lube industry version of Restaurant Week for food service biz or Ad Week for advertising. From a franchising perspective it should be
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This year was also a lot of firsts. Including my sons first #NASCAR race. @MonsterMile is a special track for me!
Last year’s race at the @MonsterMile was our first race with @CostaOils! . Very appreciative of @CostaKapo and his support of @TeamAlphaPrime. Grew from a one-race sponsorship in 2022 to four this year. Excited for another home race for both of us today at Dover!
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Happy Friday folks. Here is a picture of a beautiful NASCAR
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At the advice of @RohunJauhar it's time for a SMB thread on how I built a multi location multi state retail quick lube chain that began franchising in March. Costa Oil began as a side business meant to scratch my #entrepreneurial itch.
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