Building a tech startup from $0 to $20 million dollars in revenue per year

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Chan With A Plan, host Max Chan speaks with Bryan Clayton, CEO and co-founder of GreenPal, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. Bryan discusses key business lessons when it came to growing GreenPal to what it is today such as why you should be focused and deep when you start, why outsourcing initially is a bad idea and when to consider expanding and scaling your business. 

QUOTES

“When you're starting a tech company, the first inclination is two things, get a co-founder, and raise money and I think you don’t need to do either. I think you can bootstrap and I think you can do it by yourself.” - Bryan Clayton [11:44]
“[When it comes to expansion] it wasn’t until we knew that we could predictably deliver the service on a consistent basis and by that I mean, homeowner signs up, they get 3 or 4 quotes, they can read reviews, they hire somebody to mow it on Tuesday and the person they hire actually shows up on Tuesday and mows it and does a great job. As simple as that sounds, it took us 3 years to get that right.” - Bryan Clayton [26:05]
“The bootstrap self-funded way is harder, it’s slow and low, but your chances of success, I think, are better, so long as you aren’t willing to give up. The raising outside capital path is kind of like, those guys are selling you 1 thing and it’s rocket fuel, and if you try to put rocket fuel in a Ford Taurus, it’s going to blow up.” - Bryan Clayton [44:28]

TIMESTAMPS

[0:07] Meet Bryan
[2:12] Bryan’s 1st business and how he knew lawn mowing was a problem he could solve for homeowners
[4:27] Soft skills Bryan built at his first company that he was able to utilize at GreenPal
[7:01] Bryan selling his 1st business and when he knew it was time to sell
[9:48] How the idea of GreenPal came about
[11:20] How Bryan chose his co-founders
[14:07] Bryan’s evaluation of GreenPal and why he kept going even when GreenPal only made $10K of revenue in the 1st year
[17:36] Focusing on only 1 marketing channel to start when growing your business 
[22:15] Bryan’s reaction when he started getting consistent customers on the app 
[23:56] Getting buy-in from lawn care companies to join the app
[26:01] Factors in deciding to scale and expand into other cities and states
[27:49] Initial issues with customer retention and how it was resolved
[31:06] Learning lessons on the failure of outsourcing development of the 1st iteration of the app
[38:10] Keeping your personal expenses low to re-invest more into the business
[40:04] Balancing family and running a Startup  
[44:15] Discussing bootstrapping vs raising capital for your startup
[45:46] Bryan’s tips on creating your initial business plan
[48:10] What is a Fractional Expert and the benefits of hiring one 
[52:28] The importance of having multiple ways for customers to contact you when you are starting out
[55:28] 1 of Bryan’s biggest obstacles he has faced, and what he did to overcome it
[58:16] Contacting Bryan
[58:42] Outro 

RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS

GreenPal Company Website
Bryan Clayton on LinkedIn
Bryan Clayton on Twitter
Bryan Clayton on Instagram
Chan with A Plan
Max Chan on LinkedIn