Our Story

For Starters

Our story begins in 2007 during our sophomore year of high school at Lincoln Christian School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We all played on our high school football team together and got to know and trust each other over the course of 3 years and luckily capped it off with a State Championship in 2009. Many changes happened over the course of the following 4 years but one thing remained constant - our friendship.

After college we all went our separate ways. Cole was hired on at one of Tulsa's leading manufacturing plants. Seth moved to California and accepted a position in financial services, and Jordo was hired on to the sales and marketing team at a local healthcare services company. Even though our parents told us that our high school friendships would only be just that - high school friendships, somehow, our bond survived college and our first few years in the "real world".

The Foundation

Seth and Jordo stayed in touch after Seth moved out to California in 2015. Two years into the "real world", Seth and Jordo got a good taste of what the employee life was like and neither one of them particularly liked it. They were obsessed with being entrepreneurs. Over the course of a 3 month period, they spent 2 hours each morning before work filling a google sheet full of about 40 different business ideas that could be operated while Seth lived in California and Jordo lived in Oklahoma. It was bound to happen at some point. At least, they hoped.

The Shoe Drops

In January 2017, Cole was laid off from his health and safety job and left with a mortgage, a car payment, and his family to support. They say that our greatest setbacks sometimes become our greatest opportunities. Cole spent months hustling to find work and earn a living with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Get a college degree and find a safe job they said. So much for safety.

Getting on the Same Page

Time started to pull us three apart until one night at Lifetime Fitness, Jordo bumped into Cole and discovered that Cole had been laid off in January - it was May. Jordo called Seth the next day and told him about his conversation with Cole the night before. Seth and Jordo, feeling like one of their own was knocked down, wondered if they could help Cole by starting a business together in Tulsa.

Seth asked Jordo if he thought Cole would be interested in operating a business in Tulsa. The very next day, the three were on a phone call to discuss the possibility.

The Idea

Of all the entrepreneurial ideas that Jordo and Seth dreamed up, the idea that they decided to use was one that had already been attempted in years past. Garbage 2 Garage was the name of a side hustle garage cleaning company operated by Jordo during the summer of 2013. In that time, they realized how much people loved having their garages cleaned. After all, it can be an overwhelming task. Thinking back on this, Jordo and Seth decided to move forward with garage cleaning once more as it seemed the most logical and quick to cash flow, given the circumstances.

The Pitch

In the last week of May, Jordo and Seth got on a conference call with Cole to present the idea. About 60 seconds into the call, Cole interrupted Jordo and said, "Man I am gonna stop you right there, whatever it is that you guys are pitching, count me in". And so was the birth of the business that would become Periwinkle.

This was the moment that Seth and Jordo's dreams of entrepreneurship met Cole's need for work and became something much bigger than any of them could imagine.

The Reality

Now garage cleaning is by far the least sexy idea that Jordo and Seth had come up with during those mornings of brewing up business ideas. However, they believed that it was not the idea in itself that made a business great, but rather in the execution of the idea. And with a business like garage cleaning, they knew they could execute with the best of them.

The Present

If you have made it this far, chances are you are one of our mothers - kidding, hopefully. Hey Mom!

The reality is, while the story is fun and hopefully inspiring, we are fighting against the fact that 50% of businesses fail in their first year of operations. This has resulted in a lot of late nights, early mornings, and occasional run-in's with the law, but at the end of the day, we are reassured by the fact that we are working for ourselves and making the lives of our customers just a little bit better. And that's something worth working for.

So there it is. Now you know about us. We would be honored to meet you sometime and have the opportunity of serving you at some point in the future. Thank you for your interest in our story and if you see us on 169, give us a wave!

Also, if you'd like to learn more about us or feature us in your publication, please direct all inquiries to press@goperiwinkle.com.

Thanks so much for reading.

And, obviously,

#GoPeriwinkle !