Have you ever scrolled past something on Facebook Marketplace and felt that little voice in your head whisper, “That could be huge”? Most of us keep scrolling. Avery Amstutz didn’t.
One random day in November 2023 she saw her neighbor selling a 1973 Airstream trailer for six grand. It was rough, fifty years old, probably smelled like old carpet and regret, but she bought it anyway. Not because she had a master plan. She just knew it felt like opportunity knocking.
Fast-forward one year and that same trailer, now reborn as Byway Coffee, is pulling in more than half a million dollars annually while rolling around Memphis serving Pistachio Cookie Matcha and Bananas Foster Chai to lines that sometimes stretch seventy people deep.
Yeah. Let that sink in for a second.
From Wedding Photographer to Coffee Queen
Avery was already a serial entrepreneur at 28. Destination wedding photographer, photography studio she rented out by the hour, even a mobile cocktail trailer for private events. She was good at spotting gaps and jumping in.
But coffee? She admits she knew “absolutely nothing.” Zero. Hadn’t pulled a single shot in her life. What she did know was that the two other mobile coffee businesses in Memphis had both recently exited—one sold to a bigger company, the other went brick-and-mortar. To her that screamed: this model works, and there’s still room.
“I looked at what was happening around me and thought, okay, people clearly want this, and I think I can do it better.”
The Money Breakdown (Because You Want to Know)
Here’s the raw financial picture most articles gloss over:
- 1973 Airstream purchase: $6,000 (paid cash from previous businesses)
- Full renovation + commercial equipment: ~$65,000
- Her personal contribution: $20,000 (savings + maxed credit cards)
- Uncle’s investment/loan: $45,000 (he owns 30% of the business)
- Second trailer (bought March 2025): $2,500 (expansion already underway)
Total first-year revenue: > $500,000
Net sales after COGS: > $400,000
Profitable from month one.
She only started paying herself a salary in December 2024, everything else got poured back in or used to pay down debt. That’s the kind of discipline most people talk about but never actually do.
Learning Coffee on the Fly (Literally)
Picture this: the espresso machine is installed, the trailer looks gorgeous, opening day is in two weeks… and Avery still has never touched the thing.
Her solution? Hire people who actually knew what they were doing and learn from them every shift. Nine part-timers and one full-time ops manager later, she jokes that her staff taught her the business from the ground up.
Sometimes the best move as a founder is admitting you’re the dumbest person in the (trailer) room and getting out of the way.
The Power of Going Where the Customers Are
Brick-and-mortar cafes pay rent whether ten people or two hundred show up. Byway pays zero rent. Instead they post the next day’s location on Instagram (38,000+ followers and climbing fast) and roll up where the crowd already is—parks, breweries, office parks, events.
No foot traffic problem when you become the foot traffic.
Downsides exist, of course. Storage is tight. Weather can tank a day. And yes, she’s been mildly electrocuted when a power cord dragged on the highway and fried itself. (She laughs about it now. Mostly.)
“We’ve made almost every mistake at least once. All of this is a learning experience.”
Building a Cult Following One Drink at a Time
Byway doesn’t just sell coffee. They sell experiences. Limited-run drinks you can’t get anywhere else. Pastries sourced from the best local bakeries. A shiny silver trailer that looks like it drove straight out of a Wes Anderson film.
Opening day drew 300 people. The one-year anniversary had customers waiting over an hour in the Tennessee heat. That kind of loyalty doesn’t come from average lattes.
What’s Next – Scaling the Unscalable
Most mobile businesses stay solo. Avery just bought trailer number two for $2,500. Another ~$70,000 renovation and Memphis gets a second Byway roaming the streets in 2026.
She’s already sold the cocktail trailer and stepped away from wedding photography. All chips are now on coffee.
When I asked if she ever expected this kind of explosive growth, she laughed.
“Honestly? I expected much, much less. This has completely exceeded every quiet hope I had.”
Lessons Anyone Can Steal (Even If You Never Buy a Trailer)
- Buy assets cheap, add vision and sweat equity.
- Don’t wait until you’re an “expert” – hire expertise instead.
- Low overhead is rocket fuel.
- Social media + scarcity (limited locations, rotating menu) = built-in marketing machine.
- Reinvest aggressively in the beginning; pay yourself later.
- Some of the best businesses are hiding in plain sight on Marketplace.
Seriously. Next time you’re doom-scrolling, maybe pause on that weird listing. You never know which beat-up trailer (or laundromat, or vending machine route, or storage facility) is quietly waiting to change your entire life.
Avery Amstutz didn’t just buy a trailer. She bought freedom, cash flow, and a story most people only dream about.
And she’s only 28.
What’s your Airstream?
