How Gen Z Brothers Turned High School Jobs Into A $3 Million/Year Business
Brothers Kirk (22) and Jacob (20) turned their high school side hustle into Junk Teens, a junk removal business that generated $3 million in 2025. Starting with a $4,000 pickup truck in 2021, they now operate 5 trucks with 25 employees, completing over 5,500 jobs while focusing on donations and reselling to keep items out of landfills.
Summary
Kirk and Jacob started Junk Teens in 2021 when Kirk was a high school junior and Jacob was a freshman. The business began after Kirk realized people would pay them to take junk to the dump, leading them to purchase their first pickup truck for $4,000. Initially operating as K and J removal, they offered various services including landscaping and moving before niching down to junk removal, which they found most scalable and profitable despite being highly competitive. The brothers experienced consistent slow growth, reinvesting all profits back into the business and maintaining a debt-free approach by paying cash for all equipment. By 2026, they operate five trucks with a sixth on the way and employ about 25 people, completing over 5,500 jobs in 2025. Their business model focuses on properly disposing of items through reselling and donating rather than just profiting from removal. The brothers balanced running the business with attending school, often sacrificing sleep and working weekends, eventually transitioning from field work to oversight roles. They outgrew their parents' driveway and rented a warehouse to better handle resellable items and donations. Both brothers chose to continue college despite the business demands, believing education provides value beyond business skills. Looking ahead, they aim for $5 million in sales and plan to scale through additional locations, franchising, or licensing while maintaining their focus on community giving and environmental responsibility.
Key Insights
- Kirk realized that junk removal was the most competitive industry but saw it as the most scalable opportunity and the most profitable and fun option
- The brothers never financed their trucks and never invested over what they could pay in cash, choosing to run things lean and grow slowly while owning everything
- Jacob got detention because he was frequently late to school due to having to dump the truck in the morning, showing the sacrifices they made
- The brothers haven't worked in the field for probably two full years and are no longer involved in day-to-day operations besides overseeing
- Jacob believes college has taught him things that business never will and that life isn't all about making money, as there are other aspects that make someone well-rounded
Topics
Transcript
[0:03] Our focus isn't making money and profiting off the stuff we remove. It's distributing it out to people that need it so that our customers want to hire us more because they know that their stuff isn't being just thrown in the dump. But then we're also giving back to people in need. We want to build futures for our friends, and we want to do what we love and not have to work at a job that we hate ever again. I'm Kirk and I'm 22 years old. And I'm his brother Jacob, and I'm 20 years old. Here's how we turned our high school side hustle into [0:35] a junk collecting business that brought in $3 million…
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