How Two Entrepreneurs Built a Global Automotive Brand

is there's times I'm like, oh no, this isn't gonna work.

“And then he backs me up, and then there's times”

that he's like, oh my gosh, what are we gonna do? And then I'm the voice of reason. - 'Cause we decided when we were gonna do this, we were gonna do it by ourselves. If we were gonna make this happen,

we weren't gonna rely on anyone, so it's like. - Shane and Melissa Underwood are entrepreneurs, business owners, and the founders of Gulf Coast Drive Chef. Through their dedication to innovation, service, and continuous growth, they have built

a thriving company that serves automotive enthusiasts around the world, while inspiring others to pursue bold dreams and create lasting legacies. - I just wanna take the core of that market, because people said it was something we couldn't do.

So there's only two other companies who do it, and everybody said what you can't do it, they're already doing it, well, why can't we?

And why can't we not only do it,

but why can't we make it better? - I wanna become that, the one of the top names. When someone says, I need a driveshaft. - Who do you want to come up? - I want 10 people, you know.

- Oh, you called Coca-Cola Chef, I'm 10, before. - What does legacy mean to you,

“and what do you, what do you, legacy, want to become?”

- Legacy, to me is... (dramatic music) - It spans the globe, like a super high school, internet Elvis, (crowd cheering)

- Today, Apple is going to reinvent the fall. - It's not over, I'm telling how we're... - The living your legacy podcast, for those who live, to leave a legacy. (crowd cheering)

- Hello, welcome back to another episode of Legacy Maker. If you're a car enthusiast for today, I have a treat. We're gonna dive into the world of luxury,

automotive parts, and how this powerful couple is built.

They're brought to the world. - Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Legacy Maker. If you're a car enthusiast for today, I have a treat, we're gonna dive into the world of luxury, automotive parts,

and how this powerful couple is built. They're brand from the ground up, they're Tampa Bay's Florida Bay's local tours, but shipping worldwide, some excited for their story in today's show, guys, welcome.

- Thank you. - Thank you for having us, of course. So let's start with you too, right? You know, let tell us a bit about you before we get into the brand,

and how you came about this, and who you are. - Well, we started back in Iowa. I was working in a parts department at a local Ford dealership, and he was working in a drivine shop

that rebuilt reruns and driveshafts for us, and that's how we got our start. We met in, yeah, 25 years later, who we were. - Yeah, a lot, lot made you go, and I wanna go and build this brand.

- Well, that comes down to me. So, of course, she was working full-time job, I was working for a friend of mine, and I'm out doing outside sales, and just after a couple of years of working for him,

I had done pretty much everything I could for him. You know, locally, in the Florida area, and I just, I came to her and I said, I think I would like to open my own shop, and she's like, well, that's nice, yeah.

So I said, she was doing what? I said, building dry shafts, and she says, and that's gonna pay the bills how, and I said, it will, yeah. - Well, they aren't cheap, car for house rent,

especially the more expensive the car, the more expensive the bill. I mean, they're expensive, and there's decent profit in it. But it was a market, I saw in our area, and Tampa that was needed.

And then after we got going, I told her, we got into this high performance in racing, and I told her, I said, you know, there's even bigger market in this. And I said, you know, we should dive into it,

and we did, and once we did,

“and I told her, I said, you should start a website,”

I say, 'cause this isn't just locally. This is something I think that we could sell all over Florida. (laughing) - Yeah, that's just a bit of a lie. - And so she started the website.

We have a really good friend of ours that built the website up in Indianapolis, and did fantastic job, and yeah. - Well, I just love the transition, right? Like it says, the great entrepreneur has been in the business you were just selling and making someone else money.

- Right. - Right. - And then you go one day, well, actually, I'm learning a lot about this business and the opportunities, and then I want to take the risk,

and then there's that drop, right? Like, jump off the deep and you drop, and you're income property drops too, 'cause you go from a salary job to start from scratch, and then you kind of come all the way back up to the top.

So how was that journey? - Terrifying. (laughing) I mean, I talk about fear in how fear generally

Yeah, and so I like to tell my horn,

oh, I don't fear anything. What are you talking about? (laughing) When you cash everything in, 'cause we decided when we were gonna do this, we were gonna do it by ourselves.

If we were gonna make this happen, we weren't gonna rely on anyone. So we cashed everything, I mean, we got rid of vehicles, we were driving used, I mean, very old use cars, very old use cars, and we put everything into it.

So it was like, you know, it has to work, right? You put yourself in a situation. - I'm with the times when you fought it wouldn't. - A lot of times. - Oh yeah.

- There have been a few times that I,

“like, I think that's what makes this a great team though,”

is 'cause it happens at different times.

There's times that I'm like, oh no, this isn't gonna work. And then he backs me up, and then there's times that he's like, oh my gosh, what are we gonna do? And then I'm the voice of reason. So we kind of bounce off of each other in that aspect.

- Yeah, it's a great dynamic to have together, and how did you transition to this kind of sub-nation, maybe just to explain for people, like, what did it, what this does in a car for those, but don't know.

- So, and yes, 'cause a lot of people, of course, are gonna go, wow, that's a fantastic story, and I still don't know what they do, right? So the driveshaft world is anything that has to transfer power from an engine or source to the wheels

or whatever it may be. So, like I said, I've been in it since about 20 years old, about 30 years now. And everything, and I was selling during the episode, there's roller coasters that have driveshafts.

There's boats, there's ships, there's semi-is there. - And it's the connects, right, connects the south to the movement. - An crazy thing is, it's almost like a puzzle, and we're the final piece of the puzzle. You can put together a fire truck, and without that piece.

- Yeah, you have a paper weight. - And what does this, you know, in a nice car for obviously you do more high end now, what is a driveshaft cost? - It can be anywhere, like an aluminum,

an aluminum drive shaft with just the transmission yolk is around $8 or $900, but we have like our demon 170. We just came out with that. We designed an adapter and made our own drive shaft for the demon 170, and that's 3,000.

It's carbon fiber, it's a carbon fiber, so. - And you mostly sell it.

“How have you built the custom base and the business?”

Oh, you want to talk a little about that side now? - We've really done all of that by word of mouth in just beating our own path. We spend almost every week in that drive strips, and we're out there talking to the drivers,

and walking through the pits and talking to the drivers, and you know, they may sometimes if they have a broken drive shaft, even better, 'cause that is a really good intro. But you know, even if they're running great,

we're like, hey, here's our card, you know, there may be a day when you do this, so. - We do a lot of travel, and so we got set up, we run, pick up truck, we've got a small trailer, well now we have trailers, but so we'll load the trailer up,

and we'll go to an event, and we'll set up, tents at the event, we have product on display, a lot of visibility, go to an event in there's 10, 20, some of the larger events have been what, 750 to 70,000 people.

- Yeah, it's like tentas. - So it's huge. - I'm most of them, I'm a car enthusiast. - Yeah. - And looking to customize up great change. - Right. - Yep, it's a car.

- Yep, basically going to the car enthusiast events,

and like I said, a lot of people don't even understand what a drive shaft is, but those of course, in the car enthusiast, they know exactly what it is, 'cause chances are they've broken one, or you know, and they say, so what do you offer?

And well, we have designed some stuff ourselves, some have been designed by some of the vendors, they make the ports, and then supply companies like us to actually build the product. - And what, yeah, maybe let's talk about that.

So what, what does make, you know, have you really expanded beyond a typical product

“and what makes it unique, some of the product you sell?”

- This one specifically is our design. We do buy the carbon fiber tubing from a composite company, but this piece is our design that we've designed ourselves from the C5, C6 and C7 Corvette. And our design is different than other people's,

because they use couplers and stuff, adapters.

and we've studs instead of bolts like they do, so our neck is shorter for more carbon, for more strength. So this is our own specific design. - Took me a little time to work all the bugs out of it. - A couple of failures.

- And just for a third grade level,

“why would someone get this first as a regular version?”

- Because they upgraded their horsepower. So let's say they may have gone up to like six or seven, hundred horsepower, had an aluminum one, and then all of a sudden they're at 124, and a hundred horsepower.

So the more horsepower, like everything has a fatigue, so aluminum's only get a hold so much, and so then they have to go to a stronger drive shaft. - Yeah, so it's like we were saying,

it's that kind of connector, right? They get more output, basically. - Right, yep, yep. - And they break, I imagine if people have a cheaper one, and they're really passionate, and it can't take the energy load.

- Yep. - And what is next for the brand? So it's like you kind of transition, started selling, now you're into national, creating your own products.

How do you see it 10 years from now? - I said earlier, I just wanted to take the core vet market

“because people said it was something we couldn't do, right?”

There's only two companies in America that build, because there's not aftermarket parts available. So you have to make your own parts. So there's only two other companies who do it, and everybody said what you can't do it,

they're already doing it, well, why can't we? And why can't we not only do it, but why can't we make it better? So that's my short long term goal is to put these in way more core vet

than we already have a man. I don't know about you, but that's... - I wanna put one in everything. (laughing) My goal is, you know, even at 10 years,

we're still a new company in this. There's some companies that've been around a long time, and I mean, very good companies. So we're still a little bit new, but I wanna eventually, I wanna be one of those up at the top.

When someone says, you know, I need a dry shaft. - Who do I call? - Who do I call? I want 10 people to go, oh, you call, Kofko's dry shaft.

- I'm a tamper Florida, you know? I wanna become that one of the top names. - Well, I think, you know, go into all these events, get in the name out there. It's the grass roots, it's actually grows,

Ryan, because they're a grown pig out. - Yeah. - 'Cause we have, the one that really got us going in the high performance market is Steve Morris, he's an engine builder,

and he builds it very engines for people all over the world. So we ran into him, Texas 2K,

which is a basically a street car,

you've heard of it. - It's a different ball street car racing. So all these guys bring these street cars, outies, Lamborghini's all the way down to, you know, what are they called, Volkswagen Gemma?

- Oh, the GTI. - GTI is, I mean, everybody in the country goes to this event, and Steve is there. And he was just standing there by himself, and I walked up and said, "We'll all there."

- See, he says, "How are you?" I say, "Good," and he had met him in that prior. And I said, "Are you running anything?" He said, "Nope, I've got some cars, run engines, I'm here, support it."

I said, "Oh, fantastic." And I said, "Remember, I told you I was working on a new carbon fiber system, and the ability to test it, and he says, "Yeah." And it's all in place.

And he just looked at me and said, "I'm doing a whole new set up on my car. Would you be interested in building me a drive shaft for it?" And I was like, "Yeah." - We're absolutely wood, so we ended up, he got with us.

We got the information, we built the drive shaft and set it up to him, and he's very big on YouTube. So he did a video about our drive shaft, the opening of the package and describing it, and it went crazy.

And that's when we started getting phone calls. - It shows the power of the network in text, right? And sometimes taking the risk, like some people say, "I don't want to disturb it." - Right.

- And so here, you know, and I always say in entrepreneurship,

you got to take every swing, 'cause you open up, and honestly, when we met, I was very shy, bashful, you know, I worked behind a counter, you know. And when I left Iowa, I got into outside sales. Outside sales helps with that tremendously,

“because you have to be able to walk into someone”

you've never met before and make a feel comfortable and know they can trust you, so that started it.

Now, she'll be like, "Where's my husband?"

- He's over there. He's like, "Okay, she goes, "Who is that?" I just started talking to him. - Yeah, good, good. Well, last couple of questions, just, you know what,

well, we'll save a lot more for the episode, but I do want to ask you the legacy side, right? Well, what does legacy mean to you,

“and what do you, what do your legacy's want to become?”

- Legacy, to me, is building a brand,

building something, you know, we have children,

building something, hopefully, for our children. They can carry on, you know, so many people talk about how they just exist in life, you know what I mean? And we were kind of at that point, and I was like, "I don't want to just exist, you know,

"to me, that's legacy." - Changing things. - Changing things. - And taking the risks, right? - Jump off the cliff and, you know, get hurt on the way down

and go back up and do it again. - That's business. So last question, if people, you know, maybe they're our current fuse, the S washing, or they just want to check you guys out.

Where can they go ahead and find you,

“and what also can they get from your episode when it ends?”

- Well, they can find us at golfcoastriveshaf.com on all social media as golfcoastriveshaf. And they're going to learn a little bit of our history in our episode. A lot of people just know us as the drive shaft people,

but they don't know how we got there. - What we did. - That was the big thing is, like I said, people know us, they know us as the drive shaft people. Though our brand, that was getting nowhere.

We're building a pretty good reputation. But I was glad to be able to tell the story, 'cause there is a lot more to it.

“You know, a lot of people, if I think people still think”

that we're this huge business, they go on our website, right? And we're this huge business, and it's a note. - Just a comment. - And it's just six of us, one building in Tampa, Florida, but producing what a lot of these big companies do.

- I love that. - Yeah. - I love that. Well, I think in the episode, you know, the great part of it is they get to see the origin story, right?

- Right. - A hair, and you also get to reflect on that at the same time. - Mm-hmm. - Well, you've got two, and then also the last part, what's next, wherever you go, mass market, or more niche.

You know, YouTube can argue over that. - Figure out your next steps, but we'll be watching. So, guys, thank you so much for joining. Obviously go check out the full episode. If you need, you know, the specialized car parts,

and you want to go faster than, you know, who to hit up now.

And as always, keep working hard,

have impact, and build a legacy. I'll see you guys soon, take care. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)