ZOHR relocates HQ to Dallas; KC lauded as its test site, but too limiting to grow brand nationally
February 18, 2020 | Tommy Felts
Everything’s bigger in Texas for ZOHR — including the startup’s potential to drive onto the national automotive scene, said Komal Choong.
Photo courtesy of Zohr
“Kansas City has been our test market to prove out key elements of our growth and market expansion strategies,” said Choong, co-founder of ZOHR, confirming Tuesday that the on-demand tire service startup has relocated its headquarters to Dallas. “On the contrary, however, Kansas City has also limited our opportunity to grow into a national brand.”
“We’re getting much more traction with larger partnerships in Dallas compared to Kansas City,” he added.
ZOHR — one of Startland News’ Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2019 — offers its mobile tire service to customers in the Kansas City and Dallas markets. Its headquarters relocation from the West Bottoms is not expected to impact access to ZOHR’s service across the KC metro, Choong said.
Zohr’s elevator pitch: Zohr – Tires Delivered & Installed is basically a tire shop that comes to you. We sell, deliver, and install new tires at your home or your office. We’re changing the way you change your tires and just making that process as easy as possible for the end consumer.
Other market destinations on the horizon for ZOHR in 2020: Houston, Austin and Denver.
Founded in 2015 by brothers Komal and Anoop Choong, ZOHR previously completed the Y Combinator Fellowship and Techstars Mobility in Detroit. The startup also is a portfolio company of Techstars, the KCRise Fund, Firebrand Ventures and Chicago-based M25.
“Kansas City is our hometown and our early customers gave us the support we needed to grow the business organically,” Choong said.
Click here to learn more about ZOHR’s tire delivery service.
This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.
For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn
Featured Business
2020 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
They just wanted someone to notice: 10 years (and an exit) later, the first founders featured in Startland News have come 360
Editor’s note: Startland News — officially launched May 4, 2015 — is marking its 10-year anniversary this spring. As part of this observance, the nonprofit newsroom is taking a look back at pivotal moments in its decade-long run, as well as impact along the way. Longtime editor-in-chief Tommy Felts caught up with Stuart Ludlow and David…
Entrepreneur flexes her creative strengths into visibility for Kansas City’s lupus warriors
Keisha Jordan refuses to be a wallflower in the fight against lupus, she said. The founder of Kansas City-based creative home design brand Complex Flavors, Jordan is working to raise awareness this month with her own story as an entrepreneur-turned-lupus warrior. “We just want everybody to know that Kansas City has not forgotten about the…
KC’s 10-year playbook: Celebrate the wins, but go faster, farther (and leave no talent behind)
A decade of focusing on inclusive prosperity helped Kansas City rise among its peers, said David Warm, but the next 10 years require the region work quickly, with even more intention, and leaning into Kansas City’s willingness to forge its own path, together. “We are not going to get direction from the federal government. It…
Boulevard launches BBQ beer to help new museum tell Kansas City’s smoky story
It’s a beer that could only happen in Kansas City, said Greg Garrity, teasing Boulevard Brewing Co.’s just-announced bourbon barrel-aged Belgian-style quad — a brew infused with smoked malt and a blend of bold, barbecue-inspired ingredients. Crafted in collaboration with the recently opened Museum of BBQ at Crown Center, the MO’ BBQ release is the…