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The Story of a $9M Lifestyle Business: Kean Graham, CEO of MonetizeMore (Part 1)

Posted on Monday, Jun 20th 2016

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Kean wanted to be able to build a digital business that he could work on from anywhere in the world, a lifestyle business that fulfils a very specific desire. Read his fascinating story, as the business has now started to scale.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Kean Graham: I was born in Alberta, Canada. My family moved to a small town called Golden, BC when I was eight years old. It’s in the Rocky Mountains of Canada and they started a bed and breakfast in the mountains. We actually lived for five years on solar power. I grew up appreciating having electricity and being conservative and sustainable. From there, I went to Victoria, BC which I now call home.

Sramana Mitra: What about college? What did you do for education?

Kean Graham: I went to University of Victoria and got my degree in Business. I was there for about four years. I enjoyed the university and the education I got. That propelled me to get my first job with an online classified firm. I was the first marketing hire. That was my introduction to the digital industry.

Sramana Mitra: What did you do when you came out of college?

Kean Graham: I got that first job with that online classified firm called UsedEverywhere. They have a collection of online classifieds across Canada, US, and UK. It was a startup owned by a large newspaper company. That was my introduction to the digital industry and I was able to learn an amazing amount. It was a crash course in terms of digital marketing and was a great stepping stone towards becoming an entrepreneur.

Sramana Mitra: In the history of digital, where are we?

Kean Graham: I accepted the job at the end of 2007. I worked with them for a little over a year.

Sramana Mitra: What happens in 2008?

Kean Graham: I worked with them for the full year. The beginning of 2009 was the early days of the recession. It was owned by a newspaper company and they went from investing long-term to making profits right away. They decided to lay off the whole marketing department. I was surprised at not having a job but I decided to turn a bad thing into a good thing.

I took off in a plane to South America five days later to go on a five-month backpacking trip. I had an amazing experience. I fell in love with traveling. In the fourth month, I went to Machu Picchu with a great group. Towards the end of the trip, I was on top of Huayna Picchu, which is the background of Machu Picchu. I climbed up and was looking at the view. It really struck me. I was reflecting on my trip. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have had. I want to be able to work and travel wherever I want. I started a location-independent business so I can choose my location and if I decide to continue traveling, all I need is an Internet connection and a laptop.

This segment is part 1 in the series : The Story of a $9M Lifestyle Business: Kean Graham, CEO of MonetizeMore
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