Quinn Childress, owner of Willow Street Lawns and founder of the digital lawn care marketplace Lawnly, joins the Startup Junkies Podcast to talk about the first-ever Lawn Care Olympics coming to Fayetteville, Arkansas on September 20th. Quinn shares how he went from experiencing homelessness as a teenager to building a lawn care business, and now a platform designed to funnel local dollars toward nonprofits and people experiencing homelessness in Northwest Arkansas.
In This Episode
- Why Quinn started Willow Street Lawns after experiencing homelessness at 15
- What the Lawn Care Olympics is and why it's coming to Fayetteville
- How Lawnly connects homeowners, lawn care pros, and nonprofits
- Why local dollars, not charity, are the key to breaking poverty cycles
- How Startup Junkie's ecosystem helped Quinn scale two ventures
- What advice Quinn would give his younger self today
⏱️ Chapters
1:01 – Welcome to the Startup Junkies Podcast
1:42 – Meet Quinn Childress: Willow Street Lawns & Lawnly
2:09 – Announcing the First-Ever Lawn Care Olympics
2:29 – The Vision: Turning Lawn Care into a Community Sport
3:23 – Partnering with Nonprofits to Fight Homelessness
4:45 – Quinn's Story: From Homelessness to Business Owner
6:30 – Lawn Care Olympics Event Details (Sept 20 at New Beginnings)
7:26 – Judges, Challenges, and Who Can Compete
11:41 – Inside Lawnly: A Two-Sided Marketplace for Lawn Care
14:06 – RISE Arkansas Sponsor Message
14:34 – Quinn's Roots in the NWA Ecosystem & Building Lawnly
19:18 – The Real Motivation: Helping the Local Economy Thrive
22:22 – Time Machine Question: Advice to His Younger Self
29:20 – How to Connect with Quinn & Support the Olympics
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Connect with Quinn
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The Startup Junkies Podcast is brought to you in part by RISE, helping Arkansas tech and tech-enabled startups grow with no-cost coaching, capital navigation, and expert connections.
What is The Startup Junkies Podcast?
Candid conversations with the founders, operators, and investors building companies in Northwest Arkansas and beyond.
The Startup Junkies Podcast is hosted by Jeff Amerine, founder of Startup Junkie, a Northwest Arkansas organization that has provided no-cost consulting, programs, and events to entrepreneurs for more than 15 years. Each week Jeff and the Startup Junkie team sit down with people who have actually done it: first-time and serial founders, small business owners, investors, accelerator alumni, and the ecosystem builders working alongside them.
Expect real stories, not lectures. How they got started, how they found their first customers, how they raised money or chose not to, what nearly broke them, and what they would do differently. Topics range from validating an idea and finding capital to hiring, marketing, leadership, scaling, and selling the business.
With more than 450 episodes since 2015, the back catalog covers nearly every stage of building a company in Arkansas and the Mid-South. If you are starting something, growing something, or helping founders do either, this show is for you.
This feed also carries Querido Emprendedor, our Spanish-language founder series, and the Fuel Podcast, featuring companies from Startup Junkie's Fuel Accelerator.
New episodes weekly. Show notes, transcripts, and the full archive at startupjunkie.org/podcast.
Startup Junkie's mission: improving lives through innovation and entrepreneurship, from Northwest Arkansas around the globe.