Floridian Matthew Heller is in the business of making some noise. Matthew Heller is an American Entrepreneur, born on October 29, 1981 in Davie, FL. Getting a loud horn is a big deal to people. To get one on an average vehicle may not be a big deal to everyone, but it is something for the bucket list. Have you ever taken a trip to the grocery store and heard something that sounds like a train without a train in sight? That noise is a train horn installed in someone’s vehicle.
Installing train horns in vehicles started back in 2002 by Matthew Heller, who runs Horn Blasters, Inc. Matthew Heller invented one of the first train horn systems that was able to be installed in vehicles.
“Ever seen a jacked-up truck drive by and unleash a ridiculous honk that sounded just like a train? That’s me! In 2002, I started selling thrown together air horns made from any and everything I could find at the time. In a store? Nope. Out of the back of my truck, or room, or friends room. wherever there was space. Then I created HornBlasters.com, got better at making the product, learned how a business works, and found the most amazing fans in the world.” Matt shares.
Matthew had a goal to be able to reach an untapped market in the horn industry. He thrives on getting his products out to the world. Horn Blasters, Inc has been able to make those goals possible.
“Horn Blasters, Inc. designs, manufactures, and builds the most complete and loudest air horn kits for your vehicle in the world. After creating this industry 18 years ago, we are still the industry leader and ship our product all around the world,” Matt says.
When speaking with Matt about what motivated him to want to do something such as install loud horns in vehicles in the first place, he explained that he would frequently get cut off on the road due to the fact that he had a small truck.
“Back in 2002, I was 20 years old, working a job I didn’t love, and driving a lowered “mini” truck. Of course, I thought the truck was cool. It had nice wheels and airbag suspension that would let me raise and lower the truck, side to side, just do dumb stuff… it was great!” Matt shared.
However, regardless of how cool he felt his truck was, he was constantly cut off on the road.
Surely that can be frustrating but Matt couldn’t stand it anymore. That’s when he decided to come up with a solution that forever changed the way many people deal with terrible drivers.
“Out of nowhere, I had an idea; what if I take an air-powered horn like a big rig or a train and hook it up to my airbags? Didn’t take long for me to find the horn, make a few trips to the hardware store, and BOOM, it worked,” Matt explained
From that day forward Horn Blasters, Inc. was born and now is a multi-million dollar company, built by Matthew Heller from the ground up. Building Horn Blasters, Inc. wasn’t an easy job to do. You come across many hardships when starting a brand new business.
“Trust. The biggest challenge I’ve always had is knowing who I could trust; knowing who had myself and HornBlasters’ best interest at heart, and who didn’t. Of course, looking back now, it’s easy to see and easy to point out who helped and hurt me along the way; but when you’re living in the moment, trying to learn and grow, it’s extremely hard to see past the surface of people,” Matt shared.
Trust has been a huge factor that Matt struggled with while developing Horn Blasters, Inc to be what it is today.
“So, after being burned more than a few times, my default move was to trust no one. The problem with that was, now that I had this growing horn business, if I didn’t trust people, then I couldn’t grow, expand, build a bigger brand. Thankfully, I’ve been blessed with a few great men in my life that have a love for this train horn thing we’re doing and it’s made all the difference,” Matt said.
With a rapidly growing business, you’re also bound to run into obstacles, just as any business does. It’s the process of figuring out how to rise up and overcome these obstacles that truly matters.
“Some people hate us and we’re aware of that. HornBlasters isn’t for everyone, and I think we’ve been lucky enough that our fans drastically outweigh the haters and train horn purists out there. I personally like referring to our customers as fans, and not just customers. For example; I like Amazon, but I’m a customer and not a fan. I’m not putting Amazon stickers on my truck, getting an Amazon tattoo on my leg, or writing to Amazon telling them thank you for the item they just sent me and how I can’t wait to use it. It still amazes me that our fans do all that stuff everyday,” Matt says.
Matt talked about the future of Horn Blasters, Inc. being a bright one. They are relocating, as they’ve outgrown their current location, which is a good problem to have.
“The biggest thing we have going on right now is relocation. HornBlasters is moving 25 miles south and they don’t make a moving truck big enough for all of our materials. With proper planning, organization, and packing, the move shouldn’t be too bad. Unfortunately, we have none of that and it’s become complete chaos. I might be exaggerating a little.. the move hasn’t been all that bad, but we’re ready for it to be done; and it will be done soon,” Matt explained.
If you’re interested in learning more about Horn Blasters, Inc and their products check out their website http://Hornblasters.com
You can follow him personally on Instagram @MattFromHornBlasters or follow his business @HornBlasters