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
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Oct 2, 2025 Brett Carlson, Founder and CEO of ServiceUp, shares his wild journey from a failed auto shop to creating a $50 million ARR marketplace for fleet maintenance. He recounts a harrowing story of receiving death threats while managing a drug dealer's car. Discover how pivoting from B2C to B2B skyrocketed their average order value and why work-life balance is a myth for ambitious founders. Brett also discusses raising $12 million during a market downturn and lessons learned from a challenging partnership with DoorDash.
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Borrow DoorDash's Launch Playbook
- ServiceUp copied DoorDash's city-launch playbook for a three-sided marketplace.
- Stealing proven operational playbooks can accelerate growth if adapted to domain specifics.
Focus On Mid-Quality Shops For Supply
- Target the middle-quartile shops for reliable adoption and capacity.
- Launch with a city team to sign shops and match supply to early demand deliberately.
Threatened Over A Drug Dealer's Car
- Brett Carlson received death threats after repairing a car that turned out to belong to an active drug dealer.
- The team returned the car near the owner's house and stopped trying to collect payment for safety reasons.