34-year-old Amari Ruff who used to be homeless has defied all odds to become successful as he now owns a $20 million truck company in the United States.
Amari Ruff, the founder and CEO of the renowned truck company, SUDU said he had a very rough path growing up As a teenager, he had to balance his studies and menial jobs to help his mother make ends meet while moving between homeless shelters.
Ruff said his military father had abandoned his mother to raise him and his other siblings at a very young age. He and his family had to move between relatives and homeless shelters during the unsettling period.
He added that he had to commute over four hours a day for public education in order to maintain continuity at a high school, Despite struggling to go to high school, Ruff could not complete high school because of his inability to pay his tuition fees.
Ruff was forced to take a job as a cable company technician. But as times passed, he moved up the ranks and began negotiating significant enterprise contracts for the company. He assisted in the company’s expansion to $4.5 million in annual revenue but was demoted from the better position he had been promised.
His demotion led him into a depressing state but instead of giving up, the situation served as an inspiration for him to succeed. In 2010, he decided to start a telecommunications company with just $300 and a 11 years old, 1999 Ford Ranger.
However, he soon succeeded in expanding it to five U.S. locations and approximately 200 trucks. With time, Ruff also realized that there were bigger opportunities waiting for him to create a tech company to connect entrepreneurs with large corporations in order to fill the void which led him to build his own business.
in 2015,he launched Sudu, an online marketplace that leverages technology to connect small and the medium-sized trucking companies to major corporations that ships goods.
Ruff said he, chose the name ‘Sudu’ which is a Chinese word that means speed and tempo, because he believes it speaks well to the speed and efficiency they provide the industry through their technology which is considered as the “Uber” for truckers.
In a matter of no time, his company got the recognition it deserved and Ruff came in demand to speak at various tech and entrepreneurial conferences. In 2016, he won the award of the NMTA Minority Business of the Year, the Georgia Trend Magazine Trendsetter in 2017, and was even included in the Top ten Startups to Watch list.
Ruff’s Company now cuts deals with Procter and Gamble, Delta Airlines, Georgia Pacific, and United Parcel Service which is generating millions in revenues.
