UPS Was Founded By Two Teenagers With One Bicycle and $100 Borrowed from a Friend
UPS Was Founded By Two Teenagers With One Bicycle and $100 Borrowed from a Friend… Huh! This is an interesting read, we currently us UPS for our expedited and ground shipping (in addition to USPS) – while there are always improvements ahead our customers overwhelmingly get their packages on time more often, less lost/stolen goods and the pricing is better than our previous carrier(s).
…UPS was started by two teenagers with one bicycle and $100 borrowed from a friend. The date was August 28, 1907 and the two kids were 18 year old Claude Ryan and 19 year old Jim Casey. The two had one bike between them and $100 borrowed from a friend to found the “American Messenger Company” in Seattle, Washington. The company was initially run in a hotel basement at Second Avenue and Main Street in Seattle.
At that time, most people didn’t own phones, so sending telegrams was a frequent thing. These had to be hand delivered. In the beginning, they primarily delivered these telegrams, but eventually expanded into transporting pretty much anything that could be transported on a bicycle or on foot. Casey and Ryan manned the phone while Casey’s brother George and a handful of other teenagers went out making deliveries.
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18 and 19 makes them adults and $100 was a very large sum of money in 1907, unless that amount takes account of inflation. Otherwise they could have bought several bikes with it.
@mojo – $100 is not a lot of money to start a company like what UPS became – what cost $100 in 1907 would cost about $2,500 in 2010. still well within what friends and family could scrape together…
18 and 19 makes them adults and $100 was a very large sum of money in 1907, unless that amount takes account of inflation. Otherwise they could have bought several bikes with it.
@mojo – $100 is not a lot of money to start a company like what UPS became – what cost $100 in 1907 would cost about $2,500 in 2010. still well within what friends and family could scrape together…