About this episode
Mohib Hamidi and his partner Omar built a 120 vehicle Amazon last mile fleet in Southern California starting in 2019, then entered NEMT in 2023 after Hamidi's aunt, in stage four cancer, had two of her four chemotherapy rides show up late and two never show at all. They began with a couple of vehicles and now, backed by an outside investor, want 50 to 100 NEMT vehicles within a couple of years and eventually a million rides annually, bought rather than built. Hamidi screens targets on culture and direct facility contracts and says he will leave founders running their companies.
Key takeaways
- The acquisition filter starts with contracts. A company whose volume is mostly broker work is "probably not the right fit," and Hamidi weighs culture and leadership before he looks at the numbers.
- To break in, they took the weekend and evening trips other providers turned down, using availability nobody else would offer as the proof point with hospital systems and healthcare providers.
- Hamidi wants one system accountable from A to Z instead of farming trips to owner operators, taking on the liability so a passenger is never stranded when someone else's vehicle goes down.
- Sellers routinely do not know their company is worth anything. One owner facing health problems assumed his only exit was shutting down and selling off his vehicles.
- Diligence stalls on commingled books. Hamidi says some owners run personal expenses through the business, and that has to be cleaned up before anyone can put a value on it.
Chapters
- 0:29 Mohib Hamidi on going national with NEMT acquisitions
- 1:32 Building an Amazon last mile fleet from 2019 through COVID
- 3:04 The culture rule: the driver is the client
- 4:52 A stage four cancer diagnosis and four failed chemo rides
- 6:56 Five vehicles to 120, then a couple of NEMT vans in 2023
- 7:48 The target: 50 to 100 vehicles, acquired rather than built
- 8:33 What he looks for in a company worth buying
- 12:33 The one million rides a year goal
- 13:13 One system, A to Z, versus the broker and owner operator model
- 15:17 Strategic partnerships: the Midwest operator and the West Coast contract
- 20:53 Due diligence, commingled books, and owners who think they have nothing to sell
- 22:56 Why he keeps going back to the industry conference
