What It Really Takes to Build A Remote Business | The Scaling Podcast Episode 12

In this episode of The Scaling Podcast, Aaron Harper sits down with Collin Rutherford—founder of two fully remote businesses: Greenbox Storage and Founder Brands. They dive deep into what it actually takes to scale a startup without an office, how to lead through chaos, and why your business only grows as much as you do.

00:00 – Intro Aaron introduces Collin and sets up the episode

01:15 – Launching Greenbox Storage in College How Collin started the business as a junior at Dartmouth

02:59 – Transitioning to Remote Operations From driving U-Hauls to running 23 campuses remotely

04:40 – Customer Acquisition with Email & Interns Email marketing + boots-on-the-ground interns = growth strategy

08:27 – Starting Founder Brands How building his own content system led to a new business

10:08 – The Monthly Content Framework One recording → a full month of written + video content

12:34 – Case Study: Local Hockey Coach → Newsletter & YouTube How content transformed a small business's growth

13:59 – Letting Go of Daily Ops Why Greenbox runs without Collin today—and how he got there

16:38 – Founder Brands: Still in the Trenches Finding product-market fit and building an A+ team

18:12 – Founder's Role in Early-Stage Growth Lead gen, sales, and how founders should spend their time

20:10 – Going All-In on Twitter (X) Why June 2023 was Collin's turning point for personal branding

21:43 – Stop Posting. Start Engaging. How to grow from 100 followers to 1,000+ by leveraging others' reach

27:50 – Lead Magnets & Email Growth The power of gated value and building a subscriber list

32:13 – Aaron's Content Flywheel at Rolling Suds Using content to replace a sales role and scale franchise leads

33:18 – Stories Always Win Why personal stories outperform tips in tough algorithm cycles

34:34 – Social as Leverage (Not Just for Leads) Use your brand to hire, raise money, and build your network

35:45 – Followers Are a Vanity Metric Real revenue from small audiences and niche accounts

37:56 – Tribe: Founder Peer Group Benefits How Collin finds support, connection, and perspective

42:00 – Bringing On a Co-Founder Why Collin sold 20% of his company and how he structured the deal

44:38 – First Acquisition: Buying a Competitor How a helpful email turned into an M&A deal

46:54 – Greenbox's Ceiling & Growth Strategy How big this niche business can get—and what it takes to get there

48:53 – What Collin Needs to Grow Next Founder evolution, systems, and recruiting the right people

54:47 – Quick Interruption (Cleaners) Aaron returns to continue the deep dive

55:38 – Partner's Role and Work-Life Balance Collin shares what his girlfriend does and how they live remotely

56:00 – Why Entrepreneurship Freedom, flexibility, and risk vs reward

57:26 – The Hard Part: No One Tells You What to Do Entrepreneurship means making decisions in the dark

58:14 – $20K Mistake: Auctioned Storage Units The hardest calls Collin ever had to make—and how he recovered

01:03:28 – Advice for First-Time Founders Solve a real problem. Don't reinvent the wheel.

01:09:25 – Why One Business is Usually Enough Walker Deibel's advice on focus vs fragmentation

01:13:08 – Final Thoughts on Growth & Discipline What to do when you already have something working