Building a Business on Striping Parking LotsThree landscapers go from lawns to lanes, forging new ground in the $1 billion business of parking lot striping.

Striped: from left, Daniel Rella, Chris Couri and Tom Darrow.
Photo © Natalie Brasington

There are roughly 50 million parking spaces in the United States, and by law many of them have to get a fresh coat of reflective paint every year or two. You would think re-striping would be easy, but back in 2008, Chris Couri, Daniel Rella and Tom Darrow, who all owned landscaping businesses around Richfield, Conn., found themselves in a bind.

"Danny called around to 13 guys to stripe our parking lot, and only two called back," says Couri, CEO ofWe Do Lines. "We realized the parking lot striping industry was underdeveloped, and didn't have any real standards."