FERNDALE, Mich. – He's a 25-year-old entrepreneur who already has three small businesses in operation.
Andy Didorosi's latest venture, the Detroit Bus Company, will hit the streets of Detroit at the end of April.
"We want to simply create extra, reliable, efficient transit that shows up right on time," he said.
Getting the wheels in motion for the Detroit Bus Company is expensive. Didorosi has four used school busses and has shelled out $50,000 for $5 million in liability insurance. The state of Michigan also requires him to have properly licensed drivers with experience.
His target is Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) bus routes which are facing more cuts and have been plagued with late and no-show busses.
Didorosi's busses will start where the money is: Evenings and weekends for sports and nightlife in downtown Detroit. Moreover, he will do special event rentals and guided tours.
"So it's definitely one-part experimental," he said. "We hope to at least break even on it."
He is giving himself two months to success or that's it. When passengers buy a ticket for one of DBC's busses, Didorosi will dish out another ticket to a Detroit resident. That ticket will be free through a sign-up program aiming to grow the DBC customer base.
Didorosi knows his competition, DDOT, is subsidized which means they don't need to turn a profit.
"We had a number of people from both SMART and DDOT privately step up to give us some advice because we desperately need their expertise," he said.
The Detroit City Council gave Didorosi a Spirit of Detroit Award this past month for opening one of his small businesses in the city and for starting the DBC.
He is looking to hire artists to paint the buses.
Anyone interested in applying for the job should go to www.TheDetroitBus.com.