Guild felt like he needed to help. Although he was just 17 years old, he was in a unique position to do so: For the past five years, he’d run a popular Minecraft server that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit, and he eventually dropped out of high school at 16. “I loved that Minecraft server,” he says, “and it was an optimal environment to learn software engineering and growth marketing.”
Guild put his skills to work to create the first version of Owner.com, a no-code website builder that helped businesses reach the top of search rankings. Soon enough, his mother’s business started showing up at the top of the page anytime someone searched “dog grooming in West Hollywood.”