Photo: James MacPherson
During the California Gold Rush in the mid 1800s, businesses like boardinghouses, saloons, clothing companies and laundry sprang up to serve the gold-seekers.
Today, there's another gold rush of sorts. This time it's in North Dakota and instead of gold, it's oil. And with that, come a new breed of smart entrepreneurs:
It took little more than a day for 18-year-old Evan Jensen to smell opportunity in North Dakota's booming oil patch. The recent high school graduate got a whiff of himself and his 21-year-old brother, Justin. The two had been sleeping in a pickup while looking for work in the oil fields of western North Dakota. "We smelled," he said. "Bad."
Thousands of workers have descended on the region to seek their fortune in the oil fields, and housing construction and growth of brick-and-mortar businesses haven't kept up. The closest shower to Jensen was at a truck stop some 60 miles away. It was expensive, filthy and the wait was several hours long.
That's when the idea for a mobile shower hit him harder than the reek of his own B.O.
"There are a lot of necessities that aren't available out here," Jensen said. "Like a place to take a shower and brush your teeth."
Check out Jensen's Mobile Shower business over at SF Gate: Link