Sam introduces Quinn Miller, a 27-year-old former software salesman who quit his job and built a vending machine business to $15,000/month in revenue with 27 machines in 10 months. The conversation covers his startup costs, profit margins, cold-calling strategy, route optimization, and the surprising scale of the vending industry, including Canteen’s $15 billion in sales. Sam also shares a childhood memory of his grandfather’s vending machine business.
Speakers: Sam Parr (host), Shaan Puri (host)
Setting Up the Blue Collar Side Hustle [00:00:00]
Sam: I see vending machines on our list and I think a vending machine business is probably the most predictable, simple, understandable, guaranteed type of business you could do. Is that what you’re going to pitch?
Shaan: Yes. So these two folks came to me and pitched this idea — they’re raising money for it. It’s a vending machine business, mostly female products: tampons and things like that in bathrooms. Oddly enough, I had another guy email me a deck about a vending machine business, which I’m not going to do. But the first one was intriguing — they’ve got some traction, they’re making money.
I started doing some research and tweeted out asking who knows everything about the vending machine business. It got a ton of traction. A lot of people are interested in this. A guy named Quinn Miller reached out, and I did a call with him this morning. Fascinating. He’s the exact opposite of what we were just talking about, but just as compelling.
Quinn Miller’s Numbers [00:03:00]
Shaan: Quinn is 27. He worked in software sales, quit about a year ago to start this. He’s got a vending machine business and he gave me all his numbers — said I could share them.
He’s about 10 months into it. Currently doing $15,000 in monthly revenue across 27 machines. Startup costs: $500 to $400 to buy a machine, $200 to move and set it up. He installs a credit card reader on each machine for about $250. Total invested so far: $50,000 — so roughly $2,000 per machine.
On that $15,000 in revenue, 65% is profit. So he’s doing around $9,800 a month in profit. Time involvement: high — about 20 hours a week because he’s doing all the restocking himself.
Sam: By the way, this is our blue collar side hustle of the week. The perfect one.
How He Operates [00:07:00]
Shaan: So when I first reached out to Quinn, I was asking him about tampon vending machines. He goes, “Look, I don’t know that much about that particular angle, but here’s what I know: America runs on Coke and Monster Energy.” I asked what he meant. He said, “Let me explain.”
He buys basic snack vending machines — nothing innovative, except for one thing. He installs a credit card reader for $250. “Nobody carries quarters anymore, so I take cards.” Then he puts them in places like: low-income hotels and motels, assisted living facilities, and low-income apartment complexes.
For those locations, most vending operators give 10-20% of revenue to the property owner. Quinn uses what he calls a value sale. Because he came from software sales, he goes in and says: “Look, your tenants are your customers. If I just slightly improve their experience, maybe they’ll want to stay or want to rent here — and that could make you more money.” Result: he gives them nothing. He keeps 100% of the revenue. He’s got machines across about 10 different locations.
He cold-calls these properties. His sourcing is completely unsophisticated: he buys his inventory at Costco. Buys a can of Coke for 33 cents, charges a dollar for it. Very simple.
Sam: My grandfather used to have a vending machine. This was probably the first business I ever encountered. I was maybe five years old. My dad worked in an office building and needed me babysat, but grandparents also need watching, so he pulled off a two-for-one: he basically bought or rented a little corner store inside the office building, and my grandfather ran it. We’d go work the register at age seven. And my grandfather had one vending machine — we’d go to Costco, buy the Cokes, restock it, collect a bag of change, and go to the bank to exchange it. I remember thinking, what is this? He had one vending machine as his whole business. Sounds awesome.
How Big Can It Get? [00:13:00]
Shaan: I asked Quinn: how big can this get? He said — and he emphasized he’s not trying to be offensive — the operators in this industry are typically pretty unsophisticated. Not dumb, just not tech-savvy. They want a low-key, easy life. But he met a guy in Palm Springs who had about 1,600 machines and was making $5 to $10 million in revenue, about half in profit.
There’s also a company called Canteen — the largest vending machine company in America. They do about $15 billion in sales. They’re ultimately a logistics company and a supply chain company. That’s what Quinn does at a small scale — he finds a route, makes sure one truck can cover everything in a straight line efficiently. He’s very specific about where he puts machines, because that’s where you make money: route efficiency.
Quinn told me he rented a small warehouse because he’s getting so much Coke. And circling back to tampons — he goes, “You have to look at what the repeat purchase rate is. In a low-income area, one guy might drink five Cokes a day. I’m getting $5 from that person. You have to ask yourself: can you get that kind of repeat behavior with tampons or other products?”
Sam: It’s like whales for vending machines. It’s not that everybody buys something every three days. It’s that one guy drinks nine Cokes a day, and that’s where you make your money — the 10% of residents who buy 90% of the goods.
Where the Industry Is Going [00:18:00]
Shaan: Quinn also mentioned that a lot of the vending guys, once they move beyond Coke and Monster, are getting into what’s called honesty markets. You’ve seen those at WeWork — you swipe your card and take one sandwich for $8. He says that’s where a lot of the money is right now.
Quinn is 27, lives in San Diego, and has a background in tech sales. He goes: “I’m pretty good at selling software — not the best, but pretty good. And this industry is just not great at that many things. I could out-sell them relatively easily, I could outwork them relatively easily.” Fascinating story.