It starts with noticing a gap
Every business I've built started the same way — I noticed something was missing, not from market research, but from actually living it. I live in the Oxford/Villages area of Central Florida, and golf carts are part of daily life here the way a second car would be anywhere else. When I kept running into the same friction points as a golf cart owner myself, that became Villages Golf Cart Trader and, later, Cartzilla.
Villages Golf Cart Trader: solving a local problem
Before Villages Golf Cart Trader existed, buying or selling a cart locally meant crowded Facebook groups where listings disappear in hours, or generic classifieds sites with no local focus. I built a free, simple marketplace specifically for The Villages community — because a place this specific to golf cart culture deserved a marketplace built just as specifically for it.
Cartzilla: built from hands-on experience
Cartzilla grew out of the same instinct, applied to parts and accessories. I've spent plenty of time working on my own cart — electrical systems, battery issues, the usual maintenance every owner eventually deals with — and that hands-on experience shapes which products end up in the store. It's a business built by an owner, not a distributor guessing at what golf cart owners need.
Florida Buzz: a different kind of outlet
Florida Buzz is a different project — a Florida travel and lifestyle publication rather than a marketplace — but it comes from the same place: an interest in Florida as a place worth writing about and building for, beyond just my day-to-day sales career.
What ties it all together
None of these businesses came from chasing a trend. Each started because I saw something real and specific that was missing, and I was in a position to just go build it. That's the same instinct that's carried through my career in healthcare and animal health sales — find the actual problem, then solve it properly, and let the relationships and reputation follow from doing that well.
You can read more about my career journey in healthcare and animal health sales, see my full resume, or head back to my main profile.