31-year-old's porta-potty company brings in $4.3 million a year: We've built 'a low-tech, AI-proof business'

Success doesn’t always smell sweet.

For Daniel Tom, the 31-year-old owner and operator of Bay Area Sanitation, success means nearly 2,000 portable toilets deployed at events and work sites across the San Francisco Bay Area. Tom’s company is responsible for renting out and maintaining those toilets, including weekly cleanings, restocking supplies and emptying up to 60 gallons of waste from each unit with one of Bay Area Sanitation’s 12 vacuum pumper trucks.

“When I tell people that I own a porta-potty business, I get a lot of disgusted looks,” Tom says. “But once I explain to them the business model and the revenue, most of the time they get interested.”

Tom launched Bay Area Sanitation in 2023 with one truck and just 100 toilets to rent. The company became profitable after its first year of business, and revenue has climbed alongside its fleet of rentable toilets. Bay Area Sanitation brought in $3.1 million in 2024 total income and $4.3 million in 2025, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

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