$3 Million+ A Year Pulling Trash Bins To The Curb
Can Monkey is so niche that the trademark office had to create a new category when they registered. Enter the can to curb industry.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Category
Can Monkey moves garbage and recycling bins to the curb and then puts them back after they’ve been collected. For $49 a month. $5 more if you have more than two cans or have a long driveway.
Mark started the business in 2018 as a side hustle in Scottsdale Arizona. His friend, Alex Shapiro, quickly joined him and took over sales.
It didn’t grow quickly.
At the end of the first year they had 24 clients and a $1,200 annual run rate. The issue with a new service is that no one knows it exists. But Alex just kept reaching out to people.
“I just never quit. ”
By the end of year two, they had grown to 100 houses and were still doing all the routes themselves.
By 2020 they had grown to 300 houses and then the pandemic hit. Alex lost his job and went all in on Can Monkey.
“I wouldn’t do it again, it was the hardest thing.”
Growing was difficult. Alex would use LinkedIn to track down short term rental cleaners and property managers and set up calls. They would find a client, or a few, with 15-20 properties and then find a gig worker in the area to do the route. Then they would track down more clients in the area and expand.
40 houses in an area could break even, 50 within a 15-20 mile radius made a bit of money and 100 was a good business.
They used Gig Wage to pay their can runners and Checkr for background checks.
In 2022 they hit 987 houses and hired their first employee, their ops manager. It had been four years building the business and they had taken a grand total of $0 out of the business.
But then they turned into a tech business.
A family friend was in between jobs and they built an app for their can runners. No longer did they have to run four apps on their phone to take pictures, find the best route, etc. One app did it all.
It also made them look like a credible business. It worked. Today, they’re adding 600 properties a month!
The economics are good too. If a house has 12 trips a month on average (pick up and return with some trash and recycling on different days in some areas) then they’re paying approximately $1 trip in labor for $4 in revenue.
Today they have 7,000 homes on their platform across 23 states and their original Phoenix area (the most dense) has 85%+ margins. Homeowner churn is less than 1%.
It’s also great for the gig workers.
Instead of driving for Uber Eats where they may have to wait at a restaurant or waste time traversing an apartment complex can runners are just pulling out trash cans. They can also have set routes at certain times for a more predictable day.
So What Could You Do?
You could compete directly. No competitor has more than 500 houses and the technology Can Monkey built is a moat, but they don’t have venture funding so a competitor starting in a different country or states could create a business.
You could create the software and white label it to people who want to do their own can to curb business and retain all the profits. Instead of capturing $1 of the value chain per bin move they could capture the full $4. That would turn 25 houses from $300 month in income to $1,200. I think people would pay $49-99 per month for that.
You could mimic the business in a different industry. Dog poop pickup. Shoveling snow. Pool cleaning. Power washing. Hanging Christmas lights I think the key is an interface that doesn’t require a call and is simple to book.
And if you do something similar then you should know about Every Door Direct Mail (EMMD). It’s a service by the USPS that lets you send 200 to 5,000 pieces of mail per day targeting a zip code.
Sources:
Business Ideas of the Week
Internet Protocol v6 consulting agency (super niche!)
Costco of Saas, buying distressed VC assets and virtual influencers
Healthier gum (great ad too)
There’s a berry that turns sour tasting food into sweets, a company using it made it to Shark Tank
Productized service for cease-and-desist letters
Business Success Stories of the Week
Great podcast on Drunk Elephant (skincare brand) building an $840 million business in 6 years
Laundry detergent that smells like cologne sells $400k and can’t keep it in stock (amazing packaging too)
Micro Saas Study Buddy hits $600k in ARR
Chili crisp from Kickstarter to $50 million
Best in Business
Amazing thread on how to get into retail by someone selling hundreds of millions a year (Mike also co-hosts The Operators podcast which is worth a listen)