In February 2021, 17‑year‑old Kirk McKinney and his freshman brother Jacob broke into Norwood’s junk trade by buying a $4,000 Ford F‑150 and turning abandoned dump finds into cash.
The pair’s first haul was a pair of speakers from a local dump, sparking a side hustle that quickly morphed into a full‑time venture. Kirk says the thrill of flipping discarded goods kept him coming back, while Jacob’s school‑day schedule forced them to work around classes.
Junk Teens grew from a single pickup to five dump trucks and two locations by the end of 2025, completing more than 5,500 jobs in that year alone. The business now employs 10 full‑time workers and 10–15 part‑time teens, college students, or gap‑year workers, and its Instagram and TikTok followers total over 400,000.
“We wanted to build futures for our friends and not be stuck in a job we hate,” Kirk said. The brothers’ parents run a tree‑service company, giving the duo an early grasp of bookkeeping and administration. They even taught themselves legal structure and tax planning by hunting YouTube tutorials.
Looking ahead, the McKinney brothers plan to add two more dump trucks in 2026, expanding service to Boston and the Cape Cod area. They are also pursuing entrepreneurship studies at Babson College while the company continues to scale.