Archives.com: 8 rookie moves that turned 2 small-town college dropouts into digital multi-millionaires

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Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️

Think you need to be an expert before you can build a business in any field? Nope!

Complete outsiders actually have massive advantages that "experts" don't.

Meet Brian and Matt Monahan who knew absolutely nothing about genealogy when they started Archives.com.

They sold their company for $100 million to Ancestry.com by embracing their outsider status instead of hiding it.

So how exactly do you build a business when you're not experienced?

🍹 The humble beginnings...

Brian and Matt Monahan grew up in tiny Murphysboro, Illinois - population practically zero.

Everyone knew everyone, so these brothers had to work hard just to stand out academically.

They were self-described math geeks who read business books instead of comic books.

Even as teens, they dreamed of starting a tech company together that would impact millions.

Matt went to USC for entrepreneurship, Brian headed to Harvard for economics.

But here's the twist - after two years, both brothers dropped out of their fancy schools.

They were burned out on academics and ready to build something real.

In 2007, Matt moved to Silicon Valley and opened an office on University Avenue.

Brian, still just 19, left Harvard to join his brother in California.

He was so young he couldn't even legally drink at their company happy hours.

They called their new venture Inflection and planned to launch multiple specialized websites.

Their motto was simple: "Just fail fast" because they knew 80% of ideas would flop.

Then tragedy struck and changed everything about their business direction.

😢 Dad's death sparks everything

When their father suddenly died from a heart attack in 2008, everything changed.

Brian got that dreaded voicemail: "call me immediately."

Their 57-year-old dad had passed away while exercising - completely unexpected.

The brothers watched their mother dive into genealogy research for the first time ever.

She started asking endless questions about their father's childhood and family history.

That personal pain became the seed for their biggest business idea.

But how do you turn grief into a million-dollar idea?

🔍 Following the search data

Here's the crazy part - Matt had noticed something interesting in search engine data before his father died.

Up to 30% of all web searches were about people looking for family information.

People were desperately searching for obituaries, vital records, and old family photos.

But all this information was scattered across government agencies on paper.

They connected their personal experience with tons of people searching for the same stuff.

The idea was simple: collect all this scattered family data and put it online in one place.

But they had zero experience in genealogy - how could they compete?

🎯 Surveys reveal everything

Before building anything, they created detailed surveys with 25-30 questions.

They ran ads offering free access to the product in exchange for filling out surveys.

They got hundreds of responses from people genuinely interested in genealogy.

The surveys asked open-ended questions about their goals, frustrations, and current tools.

One question changed everything: "What's your primary goal with genealogy research?"

Most people said they wanted to trace their family tree back as far as possible.

This shaped their entire way of collecting info - going back centuries, not just recent generations.

But how do you actually get the data they wanted?

💰 Government data goldmine

Get this - they discovered something amazing about genealogy data.

Most of the historical records people wanted were owned by government agencies.

And government data was incredibly cheap - sometimes just a few thousand dollars for massive datasets.

They partnered with the National Archives and bought federal census data from 1790 to 1930.

They also partnered with the Church of Latter-Day Saints for their massive genealogy archives.

While competitors charged premium prices, they decided to charge a fraction of the cost.

But getting data is one thing - getting users is another challenge entirely.

🚀 21-day prototype magic

They had perfected a system for testing ideas quickly at their company Inflection.

When they decided to test the genealogy idea, they gave themselves just 21 days.

Three people - Matt, Brian, and one developer - locked themselves away and built the prototype.

The initial version was super simple: search for family names and see basic results.

If users wanted more detailed information, they paid a small fee.

Within 21 days, they had a working prototype that was already making money.

But was this just beginner's luck or a real business?

📊 Analytics don't lie

They had learned from previous failures to be obsessive about data.

Every user action was tracked and studied to see what was working.

While other ideas at Inflection failed quickly, Archives.com showed different patterns.

Users were coming to the site, finding value, and paying for more information.

The data showed clear signs this could become a real business.

They knew they had something special when the numbers kept growing consistently.

But then the 2008 financial crisis hit and nearly killed everything.

💸 Burning a million in 90 days

The financial crisis destroyed their main revenue streams almost overnight.

They lost their biggest affiliate partner and other income sources dried up.

In 90 days, they burned through a million dollars with nothing to show for it.

Matt was terrified because now they had employees with families and healthcare costs.

They had to decide: change everything or hold faith and push through.

They chose to hold faith, launched Archives.com, and it became profitable immediately.

This success created the momentum that carried them for years.

But success brought a new problem - too many opportunities.

🎯 Saying no to distractions

As Archives.com grew, Matt's mind was spinning with new ideas every day.

He'd spend hours reading blogs and news, getting excited about every new opportunity.

His mentor Rick kept asking him the same question: "What do you want to be the best in the world at?"

Matt realized he was falling into the classic entrepreneur trap - trying to do everything at once.

Technology was moving so fast, and there were so many shiny new things to chase.

But Rick's question forced them to get brutally honest about their focus.

They decided to go all-in on genealogy and said no to every other distraction.

How did this laser focus pay off?

🥇 Beating the big players

Archives.com kept growing as they added more historical records and features.

They won a major partnership with the National Archives to be the official government partner.

This beat out much larger competitors and gave them instant credibility in genealogy circles.

They built the largest US public records database in the world with over 5 billion records.

Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com, had been meeting with Matt casually for drinks every few months.

During one of those casual conversations, the buyout talk began.

In April 2012, Ancestry.com acquired Archives.com for $100 million.

So what was their secret to beating established players?

💰 The epic win

The Monahan brothers had gone from college dropouts to $100 million entrepreneurs.

Archives.com had grown to over 440,000 paying subscribers when Ancestry acquired it.

They had built the world's largest public records database and revolutionized family history research.

What started as personal grief over their father's death became a business that helped millions of people discover their family stories.

🥂 Your turn to shine bright!

That's it, my fellow rebels!

Brian and Matt proved that not having experience in genealogy was actually their secret weapon for building a $100 million company.

Your lack of experience isn't holding you back - it's your unfair advantage over the "experts" who can't see what's broken.

I'm betting you're about to show your doubters what they've been missing.

Keep rocking 🚀 🍩

Yours 'making success painless and fun' vijay peduru 🦸‍♂️