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

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Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️

You doubt your ability to understand customers in niches you're not familiar with.

This fear keeps solopreneurs stuck in their comfort zones, avoiding profitable markets because they think you need to be an "insider" to succeed.

But here's what actually happened when two college dropouts, Brian and Matt Monahan, knew absolutely nothing about genealogy yet built a $100 million business in that exact space.

They cracked the code by obsessively listening to their customers instead of pretending to be experts.

No industry insider knowledge required - just genuine curiosity about what people desperately needed.

Let's investigate their secret formula!

🍹 The humble beginnings...

Brian and Matt Monahan grew up as self-described math geeks in tiny Murphysboro, Illinois.

Even as teens, they dreamed of starting a technology company together that could impact millions of lives.

They read business books instead of comic books and talked about entrepreneurship instead of sports.

Despite their academic success in their small town, both brothers burned out on traditional education.

Matt enrolled in USC's entrepreneurship program while Brian headed to Harvard for economics.

After two years, they both dropped out to chase their business dreams together.

In 2006, they launched their first company called Inflection, determined to build something big.

Their plan was ambitious - create multiple specialized websites and expect 80% of their ideas to fail.

They started with PeopleSmart.com, a people search engine targeting professionals who needed background information.

The early traction looked promising, but they knew they needed to keep testing new concepts.

Then tragedy struck in 2008, setting the stage for their breakthrough discovery...

1. 🎯 Turn personal pain into business insight

Brian got a devastating voicemail from his mother saying "call me immediately."

Their father had suffered a massive heart attack while exercising and passed away unexpectedly at just 57.

The brothers were completely unprepared for losing a close family member so young.

But here's what happened next - they watched their mother become fascinated with genealogy for the first time ever.

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

Meanwhile, Matt had noticed something wild - up to 30% of web searches were people looking for information about other people.

Most public records were still trapped on paper in government offices, completely inaccessible online.

Can you imagine?

They connected their mother's emotional need with the massive search demand they'd discovered.

But recognizing opportunity was just the beginning - they had to prove people would actually pay...

2. 💡 Test ideas fast and cheap before going all-in

Instead of building a massive platform immediately, they created quick prototypes to validate demand.

Their motto became "just fail fast" since they knew most ideas wouldn't work.

Smart, right?

They developed internal tools to launch and test concepts in weeks, not months.

When an idea failed, they analyzed the data rigorously to understand exactly why.

This approach kept their validation periods short so they knew when to quit and move on.

But here's the crazy part - in January 2010, they launched the initial Archives.com prototype in just 21 days.

The prototype was built by only three people working long hours in their garage.

The website was incredibly simple - just basic family tree searches with paid detailed reports.

The prototype worked, but they needed to understand their customers' deeper motivations...

3. 🎯 Survey your target customers before building anything major

Before developing the full Archives.com platform, they created detailed surveys with 25-30 questions.

They ran ads specifically targeting people interested in genealogy research.

In exchange for completing the survey, they promised a free version of the product when finished.

They knew some responses might be fake since it was free, but running ads ensured genuine interest.

The surveys weren't multiple choice - they asked open-ended questions about research goals and frustrations.

Questions included: "What's the purpose of your genealogy research?" and "What other sites do you use?"

Here's the thing - these answers completely changed how they understood their audience and what features to prioritize.

Get this - patterns emerged when multiple users repeated the same phrases and desires across hundreds of responses.

The surveys revealed something surprising about what customers really wanted...

4. 💰 Focus on emotional outcomes, not just functional features

Through customer surveys, they discovered people didn't just want family information.

Users repeatedly said their primary goal was "to trace their family tree back as far as possible."

Before this insight, the team focused on finding 50 recent family members from the last two generations.

But wait - customers wanted to go back centuries - to the 1600s, 1500s, or even further back in time.

Wild, right?

This feedback completely shifted their data acquisition strategy toward historical records.

They realized genealogy wasn't about convenience - it was about connecting with ancestral identity.

Matt learned to focus on the emotions behind customer behavior, not just the surface-level requests.

Understanding fears, desires, and hopes became more important than demographic data.

But understanding customers was only half the battle - they needed massive amounts of data...

5. 🤝 Partner with institutions that already have what you need

Instead of creating genealogy data from scratch, they formed partnerships with existing data holders.

They partnered with the National Archives to access federal government records for just a few thousand dollars.

The Church of Latter-Day Saints had huge genealogy archives that they helped digitize.

But here's the crazy part - in 2011, they won the biggest partnership of all.

They became the official US Government website for the 1940 census.

They beat out major competitors to display all National Archives & Records Administration information.

Can you imagine?

This partnership gave them instant credibility and name recognition in genealogical circles.

FamilySearch International provided hundreds of millions of vetted family tree records.

These partnerships increased their database fifty-fold practically overnight.

With massive data partnerships secured, they faced a different kind of crisis...

6. 💪 Push through financial setbacks without panicking

When the 2008 financial crisis hit, they lost a major affiliate and their profits turned to losses quickly.

Get this - they burned through a million dollars in just 90 days with employees and families depending on them.

Matt felt the weight of responsibility differently than when he was a solo college entrepreneur.

Now people had health care, mortgages, and families - the stakes felt terrifyingly real.

They faced a critical decision: change everything or hold faith and push through.

"Holding the faith" meant being analytically rigorous about their finances while staying the course.

They slowed hiring but kept plowing through all their existing initiatives.

Here's what's wild - that's exactly when Archives.com launched and became profitable, creating momentum for future growth.

Their disciplined approach to risk management became their secret weapon...

7. 🛡️ Take baby steps to avoid fear-based decision making

Matt developed a philosophy of taking very little risk with every step forward.

Instead of making big bets that could wipe them out, he chose progressive smaller moves.

This approach helped him avoid the fear that clouds entrepreneurial judgment.

He learned from Charlie Munger that Buffett's success came from never taking steps backwards.

Rather than having massive wins with equally massive downsides, they focused on consistent forward progress.

This meant sometimes missing bigger opportunities but never losing significant traction.

Here's the thing - when entrepreneurs take huge risks and fail, they often have to start over from major setbacks.

Matt's incremental approach let them compound value over time without devastating losses.

This steady approach paid off when acquisition discussions began...

8. 🎭 Build relationships before you need them

Matt regularly met with Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com, every three to six months for casual drinks.

These weren't business meetings - just informal conversations to get to know each other personally.

Their advisors had told them "great businesses are bought, not sold" from the very beginning.

Instead of pitching potential acquirers, they focused on building genuine relationships years in advance.

When acquisition talks finally happened, the foundation of trust was already established.

Here's the thing - Matt learned that even simple touchpoints where people get to know you personally matter enormously.

The relationship-first approach made the eventual $100 million acquisition feel natural, not forced.

This long-term relationship building became more valuable than any formal pitch process.

The brothers' patient, methodical approach finally paid off in a massive way...

💰 The epic win

Archives.com grew to over 440,000 paying subscribers using their $39.95 annual subscription model.

They amassed more than 5 billion records, becoming the largest US public records database in the world.

Their data included everything from census records and court documents to newspapers, yearbooks, and vital records.

In April 2012, Ancestry.com acquired Archives.com for $100 million after those casual relationship-building conversations.

🥂 Your turn to build something epic!

That's it, my fellow rebels!

You don't need to be an industry insider to build a successful business in unfamiliar niches.

Brian and Matt went from knowing zero about genealogy to becoming the experts their customers trusted and eventually selling for $100 million.

"I think my advice for people, especially if they're building a product where they're fundamentally not the customer set, is to spend a lot of time trying to understand the emotions behind it. What are their fears, what are their desires, what are their hopes?" says Matt.

"The most important thing is to listen, just go in with the curiosity and learn," adds Matt.

Instead of avoiding niches because you're not an expert, dive deep into understanding what drives your potential customers emotionally.

I'm pretty sure you're gonna prove all those doubters wrong about what's possible.

Keep zoooming! 🚀🍹

Yours 'anti-hustle' vijay peduru 🦸‍♂️