To measure the impact of a social enterprise, sometimes all it takes is a suitcase. The item in question was a piece of missing luggage, which caused momentary panic for Tom D’Eri ’11 and his parents on a recent trip to New York. After looking around, they were dumbstruck to realize what had happened: D’Eri’s 23-year-old brother, who has autism, had already claimed the bag.
“Grabbing someone else’s bag and helping with the luggage is something Andrew never would have done before,” says D’Eri, explaining that empathy and a capacity to think of others’ needs are often lacking in people with autism.
What changed for Andrew?
D’Eri credits months spent working at Rising Tide Car Wash, a two-year-old business that he co-founded with his father, John. They created Rising Tide with the express mission of hiring workers with autism.
“My dad and I had been thinking a lot about what Andrew was going to be able to do when he gets older,” says D’Eri, who is company COO. “There’s high unemployment among people with autism — about 80 to 90 percent. That’s because we as a society look at autism as a disability that requires sympathy, rather than a diversity that can be really valuable in the workplace.”
Testing the Waters
The D’Eri team borrows from the sustainability movement in its approach to social entrepreneurship. That is, Rising Tide makes the business case for “doing the right thing.”
“We chose this model to show the business community that by hiring people with autism, you’re getting a much more engaged employee and an employee that’s going to follow your processes and procedures to the letter — and like doing that,” observes D’Eri, who holds a BS in Economics–Finance with a focus on Sustainability. “It’s an important story to tell when one in 68 children are diagnosed with autism, and one in five Americans have a disability.”
Before launching Rising Tide, D’Eri spent about eight months researching jobs and tasks that people with autism excel at. He also examined commonalities among the few existing ventures that had leveraged their skill set.
“People with autism are really good with structured tasks and businesses that incorporate structure into their operating model,” says D’Eri, pictured third from left, with brother Andrew and their parents, John and Donna. Other factors they considered were the desire to build a business that is consumer facing, scalable, and focused on a widespread industry.
“A car wash hit a lot of our check boxes,” he says. “It can employ a lot of people per location, and it can provide an entry-level job as well as a career trajectory. And it’s really tangible.”
Their focus chosen, the D’Eris partnered with consultants James Emmett and Chris Simler, who had worked on disability employment programs for companies such as Walgreens. They also teamed up with a Florida-based car wash equipment manufacturer to test their concept. In fall 2012, they set up shop in Parkland, Florida.
“We renovated an existing car wash that was struggling, implemented our system, and haven’t really looked back,” says D’Eri.
Paychecks and Then Some
The co-founders initially hired 35 people with autism. The Rising Tide work force has quadrupled since then and the company began turning a profit in October 2013, within seven months of opening. That success has the D’Eris planning to establish a couple more car wash locations in south Florida within the next year or so.
Social mission notwithstanding, the business is as bottom-line focused as any other.
“If we can really expand and knock the cover off the ball, we can change the lives of thousands upon thousands of people.”
The alumnus sees the changes every day. He has watched employees earn their first paycheck, build their first friendships, get their first driver’s license and, perhaps most important, build the self-confidence needed to move forward with their lives.
“Some guys who started with us barely spoke or didn’t seem to have a whole lot of ability to do anything with their lives,” recounts D’Eri. “Now they’re almost at the point of being able to be supervisors for the business.”
Some of the changes hit even closer to home.
“Andrew has really become a more independent person, someone who could potentially function on his own in society,” D’Eri says. “It has completely changed my family dynamic. I probably wouldn’t have a relationship with my brother at all … or close to nothing. It has brought us so much closer.”