The archive · Small Business & Money · Strategic decision · 2021–2025
Junk Teens: two brothers turn dumpster finds into a $3 million junk-removal business
Kirk and Jacob McKinney started by pulling speakers from a dump, then built Junk Teens — repurposing-first junk removal that made $3.04M in 2025.
Junk Teens (Kirk and Jacob McKinney)
What it had to solve
In February 2021, then-teenager Kirk McKinney found a pair of working speakers at his local dump, started selling rescued items on Facebook Marketplace, and discovered that neighbours would pay teenagers to haul junk away. He quit his grocery-store job, enlisted his younger brother Jacob, and the two bought a used 2006 Ford F-150 with $4,000 of their own money.
How it works
In February 2021 Kirk McKinney, then a teenager, biked to his local dump in Norwood, Massachusetts, and found a pair of speakers that still worked. He started selling rescued items on Facebook Marketplace, and neighbours soon began paying the teenagers to haul unwanted junk from their homes.
Kirk quit his grocery-store job, enlisted his younger brother Jacob, and the pair bought a used 2006 Ford F-150 with $4,000 of their own money. Junk removal and reselling became the profitable core, priced at $300–600 a job, with the twist that items were cleaned, flipped or donated rather than buried.
The brothers hired school friends, learned the mechanics of running a business from YouTube, and grew through word of mouth and social media. Their videos and 400,000+ combined Instagram and TikTok followers turned every cleanout into a lesson in pricing, disposal and flipping.
Why it lands
- Repurposing-first changed the pitch: customers chose Junk Teens once they knew their junk would get a second life instead of a landfill.
- Hiring other students turned a two-brother gig into a youth workforce with low overheads and built-in word of mouth.
- Publishing how pricing and flipping work turned customers and followers into fans, creating free distribution.
- Reinvesting early profit — the first dump truck, then warehouse space — let the business double without outside money.
What it did
Junk Teens completed more than 5,500 jobs in 2025 and brought in $3.04 million in revenue, roughly doubling 2024's $1.2 million, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The brothers now run about 20–25 student employees across two eastern Massachusetts locations and project $5 million for 2026.
What you can take
Make the invisible work visible: when a junk service shows customers that their cast-offs get a second life — and teaches the process online — trust, referrals and followers do the selling.
Since then
Junk Teens topped $1.2 million in revenue in 2024 and $3.04 million in 2025, completing more than 5,500 jobs, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The brothers, now 22 and 20 and studying entrepreneurship at Babson College, employ roughly 20–25 students across locations covering Boston and the Cape Cod area, and project $5 million in 2026 revenue. Both paid themselves salaries in the low-to-mid six figures in 2025, and they say they are open to franchising, outside investors or a sale further down the road.
Sources
- Gen Z brothers bought a $4,000 pickup truck to start their business—now it brings in $3 million a year
- Teen Brothers Turn a $4,000 Truck Into a $3 Million-a-Year Business
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