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Ali Paris-Hasan at his business

Road to success

The road to success means busy days, nights and weekends for Ali Paris-Hasan ’15, who is establishing his own business while working a full-time job. Paris-Hasan is co-owner of Rock Cut Auto, a Dallas-based car detailing and painting company that also provides mechanical work.
By: Goldie Van Horn
Alumnus co-founds Dallas car detailing company

The road to success means busy days, nights and weekends for Ali Paris-Hasan ’15, who is establishing his own business while working a full-time job.

Paris-Hasan is co-owner of Rock Cut Auto, a Dallas-based car detailing and painting company that also provides mechanical work.

After earning his degree in business from Penn State Wilkes-Barre, Paris-Hasan joined the corporate world to gain experience he believes has been invaluable on his path toward entrepreneurship.

“I always wanted to own my own business, but it’s not what I did right after college,” he said. “I’m in the process of working corporate to working for myself.”

He worked in the sales industry out of town for several years before moving back to northeastern Pennsylvania for a lower cost of living and to be closer to family. He now works for a local meat producer as an operations supervisor, balancing working full time with getting Rock Cut Auto up and running.

“In my opinion, my current position has been excellent experience for learning to operate my own business. I’ve learned how to manage people and how to hold people accountable while working in a team environment,” Paris-Hasan said.

After his father-in-law purchased a warehouse in Dallas in 2019, the wheels started to turn in Paris-Hasan’s head.

“There are stalls and a garage based in the back of the warehouse,” Paris-Hasan recalled. “I’ve always had a passion for cars and always been around them through clubs, car cruises and car racing. I interned in a few car-related industries.”

He realized the location and his love for cars were a perfect match and connected with his friend Charlie Koulik.

“Charlie is also very car-oriented. He was a professional race car driver and had worked in the oil business, but never thought of having his own business,” Paris-Hasan explained. “I shared with him about the garage opportunity and asked if he’d like to pair up and see what we could do with this.”

The pair opened Rock Cut Auto in November 2019 with a focus on high-end car detailing, specializing in paint correction, sealants and vehicle coatings. As car detailing is primarily a summer business, they are also working to open a used car dealership. The team is in the process of acquiring a dealer license that they hope to obtain by the end of the year.

“We aren’t fully established, but we’re in the process of getting there,” Paris-Hasan said. “Charlie is very mechanically inclined, so it makes perfect sense for us to be in the used car business. We can fix and detail the car, restoring it to almost near perfection. We can tag team to handle everything in-house to get a car prepared for sale.”

Even though they are new to owning a business, Paris-Hasan and Koulik are concentrating on achieving success the right way.

“We focus on cars that are affordable and more on quality instead of quantity,” Paris-Hasan said. “I have a close friend in New Jersey with a successful car dealership who I’ve been learning from. I also know it’s important to try to understand our customers’ needs.”

“We want people to recognize Rock Cut Auto as clean. We want to sell good quality cars and be as ethical as possible,” he continued. “I want to sell my customers a car I would sell to my own family. Every car we sell will be thoroughly checked.”

He learned his first lessons in being a business owner at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, where he took a class on entrepreneurship along with classes that focused on leadership and motivation.

“I didn’t have a lot of business classes in high school, so learning basic business fundamentals, including economics, statistics and financial leadership, was key,” Paris-Hasan said. “Penn State Wilkes-Barre definitely gave me a well-rounded education and a huge foot forward.”

At the campus, he was a member of the honor society and the business club, where he served as treasurer and then vice president. He said he appreciates the education he received and is glad his parents saw the value in a college education.

“Penn State Wilkes-Barre was extremely valuable to me and made me more financially prepared to start my own business,” he said.