Greg Marsh may seem like your typical tech entrepreneur – young, educated and opportunistic. He saw an opening in a relatively uncrowded and outdated industry, and took advantage of it. While his background and qualifications have equipped Marsh to make sound business decisions, they are not what differentiate him as a leader. Rather its his intuition and staying true to his core values of teamwork, collaboration and wellness that have fostered a strong team culture that has allowed KeyMe to experience experiential growth.
Like others before him, Marsh had an unpleasant experience with a locksmith. Shortly after moving to New York City, Marsh’s wife found herself locked out of their shared apartment. What should have been a routine experience with a neighborhood locksmith turned into a harrowing situation where she was met by an unscrupulous man who showed up in an unmarked van and charged $300 to simply drill the lock.
Despite unsettling both Marsh and his wife, the situation flipped a switch in him. He took this experience and saw an opportunity to correct what was clearly a broken industry, not only for his wife, but also for the countless other individuals across the country who have likely experienced similar situations. After countless hours of research into the space, Marsh discovered a huge opportunity. He quickly learned that the locksmith industry was even larger than he had imagined and was only continuing to grow. In the U.S. alone, the industry generates $10 billion per year. Despite being around as long as locks, Marsh quickly realized that the locksmith industry had seen virtually no innovation.
“I believed technology could deliver unmatched value and customer experience for home-access services,” he said. “Think key duplication, lockouts and vehicle keys.” From there, Marsh followed his intuition. He dropped out of business school, met with top engineers, conducted more research and started to build out what would later become KeyMe.