247: Navigating Leadership, Culture and a Multi-Sided Marketplace with Bryan Clayton

Welcome back to another Startup Junkies Podcast! Thanks for tuning in! In this episode, Jeff Amerine, Caleb Tally, and Matthew Ward talk with Bryan Clayton about business growth, culture setting, localized PR, and all things lawn care! Bryan began in the lawn industry, creating one of the largest landscaping companies in Tennessee, then transitioned to the online marketing world with GreenPal. He has a ton of experience and wisdom for us startup junkies, and you won’t want to miss a thing!    Shownotes (1:03) Introducing Bryan Clayton and GreenPal (3:28) Managing People and Setting Culture (7:45) Challenges of a Multi-Sided Marketplace (11:46) GreenPal and Venture Capital  (19:00) User Retention  (24:18) Residential or Commercial? (25:57) PR Strategy (28:01) GreenPal and Liability (30:29) The Why (34:57 ) Advice to Past Self  (35:50) Wrap Up   Links Bryan Clayton Caleb Talley Jeff Amerine Matthew Ward GreenPal   Quotes “It’s amazing how, in some ways, the accidental business, the one you never probably were at sleep at night dreaming about, becomes something that can be huge and really great.” (3:13)   “When you’re in a service-based business like that, it’s very people dependent that you know, that your, your culture is kind of one of your competitive advantages.” (4:44) “One thing that we applied to the second company in GreenPal is making it super dead easy for anybody that does business with you to talk to you and tell you how you’re doing, where you suck, where they wish you would improve. (6:13) “I think there's a correlation between the least you can make your business sexy [and] the greater, your chances of success.” (11:17) “PR is a big part of our strategy to move people to the platform on a local level...We want to move a local audience to a local network.” (26:45) “[On mentorship] I know that I’ve got to be able to add value when I meet with this person to help them be successful...when I get home tonight, I’m not turning on Netflix. I’m turning on YouTube and I’m watching some kind of podcasts like this one.” (33:02)   https://www.startupjunkie.org/ http://wlj.com/