Popup Drive-in
31 startups launched over 31 days, 90 days to cashflow positive
Manifesting the drive-in experience in strange and unusual places
31 startups | 90 days to cashflow positive | do good | podcast | community | revenue guess
So we’re at day 27 of 31 startups. What happens in September, October, and November? Easy, build various MVP and prototypes (actually some on motion now) then…sales and marketing, sales and marketing. That’s how it gets to cashflow positive, yeah?
Here’s a thinker.
Reliving drive-in fun.
In the summer of 1968, I saw Planet of the Apes at the Albany, Oregon drive-in. I was with my parents and grandparents, who had a farm on the outskirts of town. Being a young child, and that movie blew me away and really enhanced my love of sci-fi and “monster” movies. Though who the monsters were in Planet of the Apes is a whole different story.
A handful of drive-in movies stand out in my mind over the years, The Poseidon Adventure (1972), again in Albany, Oregon. In 1983 Pam and I saw E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at a Eugene drive-in. Summer 1985 Pam & I saw Back to the Future at the Beaverton drive-in. I could go on, but all-in-all we saw some pretty decent flicks at the drive-in. Back in the day, Beaverton had two drive-ins. One was off of Canyon Road in an area now festooned with massive strip malls (and adjacent to JMI Limousine). The other location, by the Beaverton Costco, had four screens, projected each movie from above the snack shack in the center.
Pam & I took our three boys to see Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Cars (2006) when Inca was just a year old at the 99W drive-in, in Newberg, Oregon. That’s the great thing about drive-ins. Pack in the kids, bring the dogs. Go to the edge and toss a frisbee or a football — smell of fresh air outdoors and popcorn and treats. Or pack a picnic. In many ways, the drive-in is the antithesis of a walk-in movie theatre. The things you can’t do there are just fine at a drive-in. (And that doesn’t count 16-year-olds on dates in backseats and well, you know).
Pam & I have been going to drive-ins together for 37 years (and before then in our childhoods). We still have a fondness for the 99W drive-in, which was built in Newberg in 1953. A throwback. The golden oldies. Right around the time of Wolman Jack and American Graffiti (set in 1962) and celebrating America’s love of care culture.
During Camp Darfur near LAX, the main organizers had a blowup screen event, and around that time, I thought, man, you could bring back drive-ins. You could do outdoor walk-in movie nights by accessing space that was going unused in the evenings.
Well, fast forward to 2020, and people want to be entertained, but not indoors packed together. Perhaps drive-ins will make a resurgence. I’d be good with that.
Honk. Honk. Honk. Honk. Headlights flash. Honk. Headlights. The universal sign the natives are restless, and it’s time to fire up the projector and get the show on the road.
Honk.
Popup Drive-in Next Steps: research equipment pricing and locations
So if you’d like to follow the Popup Drive-in journey, please go to 31startups.com and sign up to follow along.
31 startups | 90 days to cashflow positive | do good | podcast | community | revenue guess
