Introduction
The Penny Hoarder is one of St. Pete's best known startups, and Kyle Taylor is nothing short of a homegrown success story. Taylor began The Penny Hoarder way back in 2010, as a personal blog, utilizing the moniker as his pen name. Taylor served up anonymous bits of financial wisdom - from side hustles to apps to product reviews - each helping him dig himself out of nearly $50,000 worth of student loans and credit card debt. Thanks to Taylor's vision and bootstrapping leadership, that blog became a multi-million dollar company, named no. 25 in the 2016 Inc. 5000 list, and generating $37 million in revenue in 2017.
Years in St. Pete
Most recently 5, but I’ve lived here four or five other times so probably a combination of 10 years.
Organizations involved in
I’m involved in the Innocence Project and Working America, which is a group that helps make sure that working people earn a living wage.
What gets you out of bed every day?
This is going to sound cheesy, but it’s my team. There are a lot of days as CEO that you don’t want to come to work. But you force yourself and I’m always glad when I get there because the team makes me laugh in some way.
Why St. Pete?
It’s just a pretty place to live. It’s nice to be near the water and its nice to walk around downtown.
What is one habit that you keep?
Every Thursday I hang out with my niece and nephew. We play games, we play baseball in the back yard and they don’t ask me anything about work. It’s the perfect break.
Who are some people that influence you?
I’ve always been inspired by Jeff Bezos. I think it’s very rare that a founder goes on to lead a company of that size. I like to think about who he was 25 years ago and that he was probably trying to figure out some of the same things I’m trying to figure out right now.
What is one piece of insight - a book, methodology, practice - that you would share with our readers?
Since I’m the finance guy, I’m a big fan of the 50/30/20 budget. Elizabeth Warren coined the term and I think it’s such a fantastic way to think about budgeting. Fifty percent goes to toward your fixed expenses, thirty percent is for your discretionary and twenty percent goes into saving for the future.
What is one thing you wish you knew about your work 3 years ago?
I wish I knew what was in Facebook and Google’s mind. As a publisher, it feels like sometimes we’re just living in their world.
What’s next?
One of the things we do well is we serve a lot of information to people, but we keep hearing from our readers that they want to talk back. So I’m thinking about products and services we might be able to offer to people – more assistance than just an article.
