CHANGING THE GAME
Entrepreneurs 35 and Younger Share Their Outlook on the Industry
By Jill Odom
SOME COMMON THREADS YOU’LL OFTEN FIND IN ENTREPRENEURS’ stories are a desire to be their own boss and a background of starting side hustles from a young age.
For instance, Quinn Kampf, 26, owner
of White Pine Landscaping, based in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, started his first business when he was six. He dabbled in other side gigs over the years until he started landscaping and knew he wanted to start his own company. While in college, he bought another student’s lawn maintenance accounts.
dabbled in until he sta he wanted While stud a
Quinn Kampf
“I basically told him, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but you can’t sell this to any- body else. I got to buy it from you,’” Kampf says. “So I ended up bor- rowing a little bit of money from some family members for the tangible assets. He financed the intangibles and that was June of 2015. And then that was the start.”
Likewise, Antonio Zeppa, 33, CEO
of Zeppa’s Landscaping Service, based in Louisville, Kentucky, grew up selling everything from lemonade to cornhole boards and refurbished golf balls before starting his landscape company in 2005. Leigh McGonagle, 35, owner of Poplar
Point Studio, based in Moravia, New York, grew up with parents who were both entrepreneurs, so conversations about business topics were regular. After work- ing for a couple of big box stores, she knew that how they measured success was different from how she wanted to measure success “I knew I wanted to have my hands in the dirt,” McGonagle says. “I knew I wanted to be a business owner.” Daniel Thompson, 31, owner of Landscaping Ninjas, based in College Station, Texas, says he was tired of the rat race, working as a mechanic doing oil changes. He started his business in 2017 after being inspired by some landscapers on YouTube. He quickly got involved in groups like NALP and was exposed to a world of entrepreneurs.
“The reality is you’re either born to be
an entrepreneur or you’re meant to work for somebody,” Zeppa says.
CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED Despite starting their businesses at a young age, these entrepreneurs haven’t constantly faced people doubting their abilities. Thompson says a client might occasionally hesitate to entrust him with a $100,00 job, but it hasn’t been a huge issue. Kampf believes this wasn’t an issue simply because he doesn’t look his age. Zeppa says in his case it was thanks to him faking it till he could make it. One instance of this was deciding to number his trucks starting at 11 and skipping every other number to give the appear- ance his fleet was larger than it was at the time. Zeppa says the key to overcoming
skepticism has been building a reputa- tion of doing things the right way no matter what. “That’s something that we’ve always
prided ourselves on,” Zeppa says. “We’re human. We make mistakes, but we make it right every time as long as we know about it and we have the opportunity.” McGonagle says she has faced people
who are apprehensive based on her age and gender, but once she gets past the
20 The Edge //May/June 2023
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