Alumni profile: Alan Nawoj, S.M. '04

With the right combination of quality product, market research and continuous innovation, any industry can be disrupted for the better. Alan Nawoj, a former master’s student in computer science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), employed that strategy as he developed and deployed Beacon Mobile, a subscription-based software platform that connects car washes and customers. Founded in 2009, Beacon Mobile has spread across North America, Europe and Australasia, and is used by everything from national car wash chains to local mom-and-pop operations. In 2022, Beacon Mobile was acquired by Vontier (NYSE: VNT), a global manufacturing and supply company.

“In many ways, a car wash is like a giant robot, and Beacon Mobile became the smartphone-based interface between the consumer and all of this sophisticated machinery,” said Nawoj, S.M. ‘04.

Now in his 15th year as CEO of Beacon Mobile, Nawoj has learned quite a lot about how to break into a new industry. Here are some of his biggest pieces of advice:

TEST YOUR IDEA IN A RANGE OF INDUSTRIES

“I had initially targeted a wider net of different types of small businesses – restaurants, medical professionals, and car washes as well. Looking at the results of the impacts on those different types of businesses after a period of time, there was an outlier. The car wash operators were coming back saying the app-based customer engagement solution was awesome, and why didn’t it exist earlier. Gravity just sort of pulled me in that direction after hearing the feedback from actual customers. In my early analysis of the car wash space and where vehicle technology was going, I could envision a number of avenues where I could apply both my software and hardware knowledge to benefit both consumers and business owners in this industry.”

DON’T GO TRY TO DO TOO MUCH, TOO QUICKLY

“Some of the early lessons that I applied while building Beacon Mobile were to not go too broad, and zero in on something very, very niche as early as possible. The biggest mistake a lot of businesses make is that they try to go too broad, too early. Amazon started with just books, and now they sell everything. We started out with very, very niche, smaller businesses in the car wash space, which are called ‘in-bay automatic car washes.’ Once we became very successful in that niche, we expanded out to other types of car washes, and even gas stations and convenience stores. Don’t overinvest in the technology build early on, either. Get something that solves one painful problem. For us, it was customer loyalty, how we help car washes better retain customers.”

KEEP IN TOUCH

“Aside from the obvious challenge of building a world-class product that solves a true customer pain point, figuring out the core set of features that really resonates with your market was one of the early challenges with Beacon Mobile. This can only really be solved by ‘pounding the pavement’ and trying to have as many meaningful conversations as possible with prospective customers in your industry.  The next big challenge is finding those first few customers who are willing to place their trust (and their business success) in your product and actually pay you for it.  Meeting with prospects face to face really helped here as well as demonstrating to them that you truly understand their industry and its unique challenges and opportunities.”

CONTINUE TO INNOVATE

“We’re still scratching the surface in terms of where we can go in data analysis and mining. We’re collecting tons of data points on our customers, and detecting patterns is very powerful not only for personalizing the experience, but making it more efficient. The analysis was a lot more manual in the early days, but it’s changing with the advent of artificial intelligence. The data analytics I think in the long run will be one of the most valuable elements for the industry. There are very few tools out there that actually know much about car wash customers.”

USE THE SKILLS HARVARD GAVE YOU

“Beacon Mobile’s growth is about always going another layer deeper than what you’re used to, and that was something that was always driven into us at Harvard. Never be satisfied with a surface-level solution. Continuing to dive deep has been part of the success of Beacon Mobile. If I didn’t go really, really deep into the car wash space, we wouldn’t be nearly as successful as we are. Being persistent is part of the educational process at SEAS, and that carries with me.”