Brett had a drug dealer's car for 13 days. By day 11, the death threats started coming. This is the reality of building ServiceUp, the "DoorDash for auto repair."

Brett literally stole DoorDash's entire playbook—city launches, three-sided marketplace, everything—but discovered even if he got 90% right, 10% of B2C customers can end you.

He raised from Tiger just as the firm exploded. The DoorDash partnership that seemed like salvation turned into their worst nightmare. But then they pivoted to B2B and saw their average order value grow 5x overnight.

"Work-life balance is BS. If you can work seven days a week, you'll fail faster, fix faster, and find product-market fit faster."

Why You Should Listen:

Why just 10% of your customers can destroy your business
How to close funding in the middle of a macro crisis
Why work-life balance is BS if you want to build something big
How stealing another startup's playbook can lead to 5000% growth
Why your worst customers might actually show you your best pivot

Keywords:

startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, ServiceUp, Brett Carlson, marketplace startup, B2B pivot, Tiger Global, auto repair tech, fleet management, startup growth

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:40 Failed auto shop becomes ServiceUp idea

00:03:27 Pulling co-founder out of retirement

00:09:30 Raising $2M seed from angels

00:13:23 Building the MVP in Puerto Rico

00:15:01 Early Bay Area operations and getting shops

00:17:50 The drug dealer death threat incident

00:21:17 Tiger Global loses $8B during Series A

00:26:57 DoorDash partnership disaster

00:28:36 Pivoting from B2C to B2B fleets

00:30:00 Finding product-market fit

Send me a message to let me know what you think!

A drug dealer threatened to kill him—then he grew 50x in 3 Years to $50M ARR. | Brett Carlson, Found of ServiceUp

A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders

A drug dealer threatened to kill him—then he grew 50x in 3 Years to $50M ARR. | Brett Carlson, Found of ServiceUp