For Patrick Dye, the Covid-19 pandemic has been somewhat of a blessing in disguise.
His company, Gest Carts, which operates multi-passenger golf cart-type vehicles throughout the heart of downtown and Over-the-Rhine, was growing at a rapid rate pre-March 2020. The months that followed were filled with furloughs and confusion, but it gave the company more time to focus on the backend of things, he said.
Now, Gest Carts is eying nationwide expansion with at least a dozen new markets planned for 2021. The company has already added two cities in the Midwest this spring and will head west and south later this year.
“As bad as Covid was, it really let us get our head wrapped around everything. We put the right team in place,” Dye told me. “We got all our paperwork done, all the legal work done, we finished our app, we redid our website. We really used that (time) to our advantage.”
Gest, which stands for Green Easy Safe Transportation, launched in 2018 to much fanfare. Dye and his wife Lauren, co-founders of the business, borrowed its name from Gest Street downtown, where the company maintains its headquarters. The initial idea was to offer downtown residents and visitors an easier — and free — way to navigate the urban core. Customers can book rides just like with Uber using the Gest Carts app.
The five-seater electric carts, which can accelerate up to 25 mph, navigate from Over-the-Rhine across the river to Covington, Newport and Bellevue. Gest recently updated its entire fleet, purchasing five vehicles from competitor Oggo after it ceased operations locally, and its service currently runs nights and weekends, or during sports-related day games.
It's all free to customers thanks to sponsorships (tips for drivers are encouraged). The company’s biggest local advertisers include the Cincinnati Reds, Anheuser Busch and Norwood-based ProLink Staffing. Its sponsors' names are prominently displayed via vehicle wraps, signage and ad placement within the Gest app, Dye said.
“They love it because it's a sometimes 15-minute drive with your brand name front and center, versus a billboard, which gives you 6-8 seconds of exposure,” Dye said. “It’s much more in-your-face advertising.”
Beyond its Cincinnati footprint, Gest is now operating, via licensing agreements with its partners, in Chicago and Detroit. Deals are pending in Denver, with a soft launch planned for mid-July, as well as Seattle, Charlotte, Atlanta and Las Vegas, Dye said.
Dye is actively looking for more licensing deals. The goal is to add a total of 12-15 cities this year. That projection doubles to 30-plus cities in 2022. In 2023, he expects the company to be in 50 different markets.
“Given our current growth rate, I think we’re going to go past that. We’re growing exponentially,” he said. “At the time time, we’re trying not to grow too fast.
"This is something very unique, and it’s a niche market. I don’t know what the right word is, but people just love the idea and it works,” he said.
Now that the world is starting to open back up — Ohio, for instance, is lifting its mask mandate and all Covid-19 health orders effective June 2 — Dye is hoping there’s plenty of pent-up demand. Gest Carts, too, will expand its hours of operation, adding lunch service likely in July. It could be a way to bring people back into the city, he said.
“We want people to know it’s OK to come back downtown,” Dye said.
