Ryan Farley
Three years after passing out flyers to test his new business in Short Pump, Ryan Farley and his lawn care startup are back in the Richmond market.
Farley, a Virginia Tech graduate and Maryland native, first lived in Richmond after his sophomore year for an internship with Capital One. He and a fellow Tech student, Steve Corcoran, founded lawn care network LawnStarter in Blacksburg and beta-tested the concept in Richmond after Farley became a business analyst for the credit card company.
“We were just passing out flyers to anyone we could find,” Farley said of LawnStarter’s beginnings.
The company, which allows customers to schedule mowing and other lawn care services online and on its app, launched in 22 other cities before coming back to Richmond. Farley said LawnStarter had to scale back its original Richmond operation in order to focus on other markets, but is happy it has returned.
“A few of our original customers were disappointed when we shut down, so letting them know we’re back is pretty cool,” Farley said. “There’s definitely an advantage of knowing the area and knowing where the lawns are.”
Neither Farley nor Corcoran had prior programming background before coming up with the LawnStarter concept. Farley said they taught themselves to code and built the first iteration of the LawnStarter platform. Farley quit his job at Capital One and Corcoran dropped out of school to work on the project, setting up shop in Blacksburg while officially launching in Richmond, Northern Virginia and York County.
As it grew, LawnStarter moved its base to Arlington and later to Austin, Texas, to take part in the Techstars accelerator program in the summer of 2014. The three-month program exposed the LawnStarter founders to fellow entrepreneurs and a venture capitalist network, as well as provided $18,000 in seed funding in exchange for a 6 percent stake in the company and an additional $100,000 convertible note.
Farley said they used the money for platform testing, marketing and living expenses. The company remains headquartered in Austin.
“We lived extremely cheaply during that time, with four of us in a two-bedroom apartment,” he said.
Lawnstarter’s website.
Back in LawnStarter’s early days, Farley and Corcoran used to pitch lawn care providers over the phone to join their service. Now, Farley says about half of LawnStarter’s providers reach out to the company, which requires proof of insurance to join its network.
“The idea is to make it very easy for homeowners or other people who need to maintain a lawn to schedule, manage and pay for service,” said John Egan, a spokesperson for LawnStarter.
LawnStarter officially re-launched in Richmond June 1. The company’s sales team had been recruiting lawn care providers throughout the year and currently have 15 registered in the area. Egan said they hope to get to 20 providers.
“We look at lawn care providers as our partners, not competition,” Egan said.
LawnStarter charges providers 20 percent of mowing revenues and 15 percent of all other lawn services to its Richmond providers. LawnStarter’s weekly mowing service is priced at $34, with mowing every other week at $38.
Virginia is the company’s second biggest market for locations outside of its home state of Texas. It’s also operating in Virginia Beach, Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria.
To determine when to enter a market, LawnStarter uses search analytics to see how many people in a particular area are searching for lawn service online. Web activity in the area, coupled with the city’s population growth, prompted LawnStarter to reenter Richmond.
LawnStarter follows Lawn4.me, a similar lawn care provider and consumer matching website started by Chris Fauerbach and Kent Brake in Richmond. Fauerbach confirmed that he and Brake shut down Lawn4.me this year.
“I think you have to have scale to do any sort of network effect-type business,” Farley said. “There’s so much knowledge and iterations to learn along the way to make it a success.”
Ryan Farley
Three years after passing out flyers to test his new business in Short Pump, Ryan Farley and his lawn care startup are back in the Richmond market.
Farley, a Virginia Tech graduate and Maryland native, first lived in Richmond after his sophomore year for an internship with Capital One. He and a fellow Tech student, Steve Corcoran, founded lawn care network LawnStarter in Blacksburg and beta-tested the concept in Richmond after Farley became a business analyst for the credit card company.
“We were just passing out flyers to anyone we could find,” Farley said of LawnStarter’s beginnings.
The company, which allows customers to schedule mowing and other lawn care services online and on its app, launched in 22 other cities before coming back to Richmond. Farley said LawnStarter had to scale back its original Richmond operation in order to focus on other markets, but is happy it has returned.
“A few of our original customers were disappointed when we shut down, so letting them know we’re back is pretty cool,” Farley said. “There’s definitely an advantage of knowing the area and knowing where the lawns are.”
Neither Farley nor Corcoran had prior programming background before coming up with the LawnStarter concept. Farley said they taught themselves to code and built the first iteration of the LawnStarter platform. Farley quit his job at Capital One and Corcoran dropped out of school to work on the project, setting up shop in Blacksburg while officially launching in Richmond, Northern Virginia and York County.
As it grew, LawnStarter moved its base to Arlington and later to Austin, Texas, to take part in the Techstars accelerator program in the summer of 2014. The three-month program exposed the LawnStarter founders to fellow entrepreneurs and a venture capitalist network, as well as provided $18,000 in seed funding in exchange for a 6 percent stake in the company and an additional $100,000 convertible note.
Farley said they used the money for platform testing, marketing and living expenses. The company remains headquartered in Austin.
“We lived extremely cheaply during that time, with four of us in a two-bedroom apartment,” he said.
Lawnstarter’s website.
Back in LawnStarter’s early days, Farley and Corcoran used to pitch lawn care providers over the phone to join their service. Now, Farley says about half of LawnStarter’s providers reach out to the company, which requires proof of insurance to join its network.
“The idea is to make it very easy for homeowners or other people who need to maintain a lawn to schedule, manage and pay for service,” said John Egan, a spokesperson for LawnStarter.
LawnStarter officially re-launched in Richmond June 1. The company’s sales team had been recruiting lawn care providers throughout the year and currently have 15 registered in the area. Egan said they hope to get to 20 providers.
“We look at lawn care providers as our partners, not competition,” Egan said.
LawnStarter charges providers 20 percent of mowing revenues and 15 percent of all other lawn services to its Richmond providers. LawnStarter’s weekly mowing service is priced at $34, with mowing every other week at $38.
Virginia is the company’s second biggest market for locations outside of its home state of Texas. It’s also operating in Virginia Beach, Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria.
To determine when to enter a market, LawnStarter uses search analytics to see how many people in a particular area are searching for lawn service online. Web activity in the area, coupled with the city’s population growth, prompted LawnStarter to reenter Richmond.
LawnStarter follows Lawn4.me, a similar lawn care provider and consumer matching website started by Chris Fauerbach and Kent Brake in Richmond. Fauerbach confirmed that he and Brake shut down Lawn4.me this year.
“I think you have to have scale to do any sort of network effect-type business,” Farley said. “There’s so much knowledge and iterations to learn along the way to make it a success.”
Thanks for the writeup! Super excited to be back in Richmond. Feel free to check out our offerings on our Richmond page.