Luke Menear is modest about what he’s achieved, but it’s impressive by any measure. At the age of nineteen, Menear bought some used parking lot striping equipment and started his own company from scratch. Now he and his wife, Heather, own 1-800-STRIPER, a company with thirty-five employees at the corporate headquarters in Rochester and seventy franchises in forty states. They hope to have a hundred franchises by the end of this year. When asked if his is the biggest striping company in the country, he says “I think it is.” And it may be the largest in the world.
Menear grew up in Greece and graduated from high school in 1997. He was a WEMOCO trade school student, where, he says, he learned carpentry and to work with his hands. When they were both just seventeen years old, Luke and Heather welcomed their first child, their daughter Allie. Menear’s parents very much wanted him to become an entrepreneur. “They convinced me that owning a business was the only way to go,” he explains. Unlike many teenagers, he took their advice seriously and was determined to do exactly that.
A year and a half out of high school, Menear found himself working for a large paving company. The company also did parking lot striping, but the owner didn’t feel that the striping really meshed with the core business. So Menear approached him and asked about buying the equipment. When he explained to the owner that he’d like to start his own company, “I asked him if he thought I could do it,” he says. “And he told me I’d get out of it what I put in. That was music to my ears.”
The early days of the business weren’t easy. “We didn’t always have the best equipment or trucks,” he recalls. Things would break down and need immediate repair, and often “there was more work to do in a day than we had time for,” he says. But the business took off right away, and Menear feels that he and Heather just learned as they went, gradually scaling out their business to include multiple crews that could complete several projects at once. They were quick learners, focusing on hard work, customer service, and basic business principles. Every job was important. “We just kept building out systems and procedures.” Menear attended trade shows and took every opportunity to he could to grow and promote the business.
Luke and Heather married in 2000 and then had two more children, Luke Jr., now twenty-two, and Julia, eighteen. All three of their kids are involved in the business. Allie does embroidery and customizes the company’s shirts, and Luke Jr. travels to the grand openings of franchises. Menear adds, “He just got back from back-to-back grand openings in Florida.”
Julia works in the front office of the local operation, doing invoicing and estimates and answering phones. Heather has always been instrumental in running the business, Menear says, calling her “a powerhouse.” When the kids were young, she homeschooled them, and as they’ve grown up, Heather has taken on a bigger role in managing the company, he says, including becoming a certified franchise executive and managing “the mechanics of franchising.”
A big step forward came when they changed the name of the business from United Striping to 1-800-STRIPER. This memorable name also allowed an obvious way for customers to get in touch and led to a huge expansion of the business. The Menears began working on the franchising concept in 2019 and launched it in 2022. After that, the business took another big leap forward: It moved from a 1,800-square-foot warehouse in Hilton to an 18,000-square-foot training facility in Gates. All new franchise owners come to this facility for a week of training before launching their franchises. The training is a big group effort, Menear explains, but he is very involved in it. Franchise owners go through a vetting process, not only to make sure they are financially ready and have the business acumen, but also to make sure they share the company’s core values of hard work and customer service. Menear loves showing people around Rochester, and people seem to appreciate the local culture. “It’s been very cool,” he says. The Menears love the area and feel that “it’s fun to share it. We introduce them to the food scene.” The corporate location in Gates continues to grow, and it is a model for all the franchises.
The company now offers not only parking lot restriping, but also redesign services. Depending on customer need, they can create parking lot lines to ensure safe traffic flow, ADA compliance, court and playground markings, and more. The company can customize designs to meet customers’ individual needs. Menear credits the talented people who work for him with much of the success of the business. “Our team is instrumental in what we’re doing,” he says. “They’re very hardworking and passionate.” The team members, he said, are what really drive the company.
When asked if he has advice for young people who would like to start their own businesses, he says “It starts with believing in yourself.” No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, he says, take it one day at a time. And then “shoot for the stars.”
These days, the Menears have two grandchildren and are looking forward to a future in which they keep growing the business. When asked if he has any plans for retirement, Menear flatly says no—that he loves what he’s doing. “It’s important to me to enjoy the ride. It’s truly a dream come true.”
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of (585).
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