UPS Was Founded By Two Teenagers With One Bicycle and $100 Borrowed from a Friend

Today I found out UPS was started by two teenagers with one bicycle and $100 borrowed from a friend.

The date was August 28, 1907 and the two kids were 18 year old Claude Ryan and 19 year old Jim Casey.  The two had one bike between them and $100 borrowed from a friend to found the “American Messenger Company” in Seattle, Washington.  The company was initially run in a hotel basement at Second Avenue and Main Street in Seattle.

At that time, most people didn’t own phones, so sending telegrams was a frequent thing.  These had to be hand delivered.  In the beginning, they primarily delivered these telegrams, but eventually expanded into transporting pretty much anything that could be transported on a bicycle or on foot.  Casey and Ryan manned the phone while Casey’s brother George and a handful of other teenagers went out making deliveries.

Awesome Story.