Friday Q&A: Austin Lavin, formerly of myfirstpaycheck.com

Austin Lavin is excited.
During his phone conversation with Technically Philly we can nearly hear the 25-year-old smile through the phone. His excitement is well-founded.
Austin, along with his 19-year-old sister Celeste, just sold their first company: myfirstpaycheck.com.
The siblings founded the Ardmore-based Web site in 2007 when then-15-year-old Celeste Lavin began looking for her first job. The family noticed that, in an age where teenagers spend increasing amounts of time online, there were no career resources for teens.
The duo built a job board that also featured career resources for young people, a niche popular enough to attract the attention Phoenix-based Simple Employment Solutions.
We sat down with the Penn grad to ask him what it felt like to sell, his advice for others and when he will be buying his yacht.

As always edited for length and clarity.
Can you break down what the selling process was like and who purchased it?
We were approached by Simple Employment Solutions, this company based in Pheonix, which owns a variety of job board properties. They were looking to expand their share in the part time and hourly market. They saw we had a good property that people recognized across the country and that we attracted a lot of teenagers. So they bought the site and incorporated it into their portfolio.
It was a great run, Philly was a great city to start a company and we had access to great technical resources. And thanks to Philly Startup Leaders we had a support network built in. That really made the whole process so much easier.
Any details on the purchase? Are you still working on the site?
We did an asset sale, so they purchased all assets of the company and I’m not working for them any more. I’m happy to give advice or answer questions but I’m no longer involved. It’s their baby now.
How does that feel to have something you have worked on for three years be out of your hands?
It’s a great feeling to know we created something of value. For years there was nothing in this space. We built something that someone was willing to pay money for and that’s very exciting.
At the same time it is sentimental. I spent the last three years talking about teenage jobs, and as any entrepreneur knows, you have to throw yourself into it. So when you sell it, you’re just trying to figure out what’s next. But it’s a great feeling.
How much did they pay for the company?
Nobody is retiring off of the sale. We were able to pay off debts and payback our investors.
So no yacht?
No yacht.
Your sister Celeste just turned 19 and her company has sold. That has to be an interesting dynamic for her.
She’s in college now so she’s excited that it’s one less thing to worry about. We started it when she was at Lower Merion High School. Now she’s at Smith College.

Was this the first company you started?
I spend my childhood creating landscaping companies and doing yard work for folks, but this was my first “real” company.
Do you have any advice for people looking to sell their own small business?
The first big piece of advice is just to start. We thought there was a niche for someone to exploit. While we didn’t have the financing or tech skills that we should have had at the start, we just went for it.
How did the resources of the Philly community help you in starting and selling a business?
It’s a great community to start a company. There’s a lot of really innovative people doing a lot of really innovative things.
It’s small enough that you can figure out who those people are and make an impact. But it’s big enough to have the power to something great. Obviously its centrally located, and we had so much support through Philly Startup Leaders and PANMA.
We were really supported in a way that I don’t think we would have been in San Francisco or Boston. The changes in the Philadelphia entrepreneurial community from 2007 to 2010 are pretty dramatic.