A bike ride to the local dump gave Kirk McKinney more than a weird teenage memory. It gave him a side hustle. After finding a pair of working speakers and selling abandoned items online, McKinney started seeing junk not as trash, but as inventory.
That idea became Junk Teens, the Massachusetts junk removal and reselling business he launched with his younger brother Jacob in February 2021. In 2025, the company brought in $3.04 million in revenue and more than $686,000 in net profit, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
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From Dump Finds To A Real Side Hustle
At first, this was not some polished founder story with a pitch deck and growth plan. It was two teenagers in the middle of the pandemic trying to make extra cash. Kirk sold discarded items on Facebook Marketplace, met locals who would pay teens to haul away junk, then pulled in Jacob and bought a used 2006 Ford F-150 with $4,000 of their own money.
The brothers did what a lot of successful side hustlers do. They started small, learned on the fly and used the internet like a free business school. Kirk said they literally searched “how to start a junk removal business” on YouTube to figure out taxes, legal structure and operations.
Their parents, who run a tree service business, also gave them early advice on bookkeeping and administration. Babson College later spotlighted Junk Teens as a business the brothers started in high school, noting its fast-growing social following and Kirk’s focus on repurposing junk instead of just hauling it away.
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The Side Hustle That Outgrew School Hours
What’s encouraging for soon-to-be entrepreneurs or those who’ve just begun a small business is that the Junk Teens’ story kept compounding as a side hustle. The brothers worked after school, on weekends and whenever they could. At one point, Jacob arranged midday free time because local dumps operated during school hours. Kirk said they sometimes parked the dump truck in the school lot and hoped teachers would forgive them for showing up late.
Today, Junk Teens has two Massachusetts locations, five dump trucks and a workforce made up largely of students. The brothers now study entrepreneurship at Babson while paying themselves low-to-mid six-figure salaries.
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This article Two Massachusetts Teens Took Advice From YouTube, Junk And An Old Ford F-150 And Turned Them Into A $3 Million Side Hustle originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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