The Points Guy, Brian Kelly, Talks Success, Scalability and Money-Saving Travel Tips (Podcast) This week's 'How Success Happens' guest built a rewards points blog into an empire. Here's how.
By Hayden Field
Brian Kelly, founder and CEO of The Points Guy, built his empire on travel rewards. His brand, launched in 2010 as a personal blog, now encompasses a media company covering everything from how to maximize your credit card points to city travel guides.
Growing up, Kelly's father gave him a mission that sparked his love of rewards points: If he helped his father make sense of the rewards he'd amassed via frequent business trips, the family could go on a trip together. Kelly took the goal in stride and put together a family trip to Grand Cayman. His love of points never left him, and after Kelly landed a job after college at Morgan Stanley, he started turning it into a small profit. The first incarnation of his business plan skewed toward a "travel agency" -- colleagues paid him $50 to help them make the most of their points. But it wasn't scalable, so he rethought the business and launched ThePointsGuy.com.
Kelly wasn't the first or the last to start a website focused on travel rewards, but his venture went viral early on -- and it remains successful today, with the help of additional revenue streams via parterships with companies such as Capital One. On Entrepreneur's How Success Happens podcast, Kelly talks success strategies, his top growth tips for entrepreneurs and, of course, his best advice for saving money on upcoming travel.
