Oil and Blood

The reasons people give for starting a business aren’t all that
surprising. Financial independence, pursuing personal passions,
requiring a flexible schedule, or making a positive impact on the
community often top the list. What’s surprising is how many
businesses start in garages.


Many of America’s most successful companies, including tech
giants Amazon, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft, started in humble
garages.  Perhaps the most famous of which is Apple, founded
by college dropout Steve Jobs in 1976. Today, Apple is a
multinational corporation with annual revenue in 2024 of $391
billion. And the infamous garage on Crist Drive? It’s now listed
on the city’s historic properties.  


Blood


Closer to home, David Slaughter stepped away from commercial real
estate in 2017 to open Orion Laboratories with his wife Rachel in
a 800-square-foot garage office at the back of their home. Today,
Orion Laboratories is the largest independent laboratory in
Louisiana, processing labs seven days a week for area health
systems, independent clinics, urgent care clinics, nursing homes,
physician groups and surgery centers, stretching all the way from
Baton Rouge to Monroe, and in 2023, David was named Business
Report’s Young Businessperson of the Year. 


Oil


Some businesses never get out of the garage. Like Vinnie
Carollo’s for example. In Vinnie’s case, though, it’s not because
the business failed. In fact, it’s a big success. And it’s still
in a garage.


Vinnie Carollo’s fascination with obscure, odd cars began with a
Porsche 944 in need of a repair. As he tried to fix the vehicle,
his dad joked that he should go to Porsche school to become a
technician. Six months later, Vinnie left home to attend 23 weeks
of instructor-led, hands-on training. Then, in 2015, after nine
years of working at dealerships and servicing Porsches over the
weekends in a friend’s car detailing and cleaning shop, Vinnie
Carollo started Vex European and Exotic Auto Repair in a 900
square foot garage with one car lift. 


Vinnie quickly outgrew that space and, over the next two years,
moved three times, ultimately to his current location on Benefit
Drive. This garage is around 20,000 square feet, has 13 car lifts
and employs up to 25 people.


The good news about most modern European cars is, when
something's wrong you can hook them up to a diagnostic computer
and find out pretty quickly what's probably going on. It's not
that simple diagnosing human problems. Yet. There's all kinds of
talk about futuristic body scanners, but as far as we know that's
way off in the future, and till that day arrives diagnostic
medical testing as we know it will probably continue.

Vinnie and David are both following a well-worn path taken by
generations of entrepreneurs who show ingenuity and perseverance
building successful businesses in specialized and essential
markets.


Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the
Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by  Ian Ledo
and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.


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