From $15/hr at the Airport to the Top 1%

What we talked about.

Scott Hardy joined AOL in 1995 during its early growth from 100,000 to over 30 million subscribers, rising to IT operations manager. When the dot-com bubble burst, he found himself loading cargo at Delta for 15 dollars an hour before rebuilding his career through Sprint, Nextel, eTelecare, and Limelight Networks. In 2008, amid the financial crisis, he founded Top Class Actions after discovering how few people knew about easy to claim class action settlements, building the site into one of the most visited class action resources online. Hardy discusses his father's quiet entrepreneurial struggles and the advice that kept him from quitting too early, his years inside AOL's hypergrowth culture, and the personal low points, including divorce and being fired from Level Three, that eventually forced him into entrepreneurship full time. He also talks about pivoting into mass torts to stabilize revenue, founding the law firm Legalify after Arizona changed its ownership rules, his sobriety, and the mindset needed to keep going through repeated setbacks as a founder.

From hacking BBS systems and AOL's early growth to Delta cargo duty, Scott Hardy built Top Class Actions into a top class action resource.

The questions, and the answers.

What is Top Class Actions and why did you build it?

I started Top Class Actions 18 years ago after seeing an Airborne Health settlement ad where you could claim 63 dollars with no proof of purchase. I asked friends if they knew about it and nobody had. I realized there was no website tracking easy to claim settlements, so I built one myself.

What did watching your dad quietly struggle teach you about what a founder signs up for?

I didn't realize we struggled financially growing up. My dad turned down a CEO job and later left his day job to become a financial planner. Before I quit my job at Limelight after landing a big client, he told me to get the second check in the mail first. That advice was right, the second payment fell through and I kept my day job four more years.

What was it like being inside AOL's hypergrowth from 100,000 to 30 million subscribers?

I was surrounded by hardcore nerds who loved technology, and I watched AOL go from mailing floppy discs to CD ROMs as it exploded in growth. Steve Case would show up at events and talk to everyone personally, and his member newsletter inspired the weekly newsletter I still write for Top Class Actions, which now drives hundreds of thousands of visitors a month.

You went from managing huge facilities to loading cargo at Delta for 15 dollars an hour. What kept you going?

After AOL I'd stagnated technically and couldn't compete with sharper IT people, then my marriage fell apart and I burned through savings. A buddy got me into Delta for free flights, and I handled everything from dead bodies to fighting chickens, but it wasn't intellectually challenging. I walked into Vegas afterward with 15 grand to my name and started over.

Why did it take until your mid 30s to go full time on your own company?

I loved my corporate jobs and the money, but after getting fired from Level Three for being a prima donna sales guy, my wife asked what my options were and told me not to worry about her going back to work. I decided to see if I could make Top Class Actions work instead of job hunting, and that forced pivot into mass torts is what finally made the business scale.

What was young Scott doing online before the web existed, and did it foreshadow what came later?

A family friend who taught computer science hooked his modem to mine and showed me the early internet connecting universities. I later created an internet account through a coworker's college credentials and used to war dial thousands of numbers at night hunting for dial ins. All that hacking around is what got me so excited to join AOL.

Where does the drive to keep getting up after setbacks come from?

Someone told me being an entrepreneur means getting punched in the gut all day, going to bed, and choosing to get up and do it again anyway. You have to be prepared to hear no constantly and stay passionate enough about your own idea to keep taking those hits, because nobody else will care about it as much as you do.

What was the exact moment you saw the gap that became Top Class Actions?

It was 2008, everyone was broke and searching for ways to make money, and I knew that writing high quality SEO content meant Google would send traffic. I started as a highly optimized site right when people were desperately searching for settlement money, and traffic grew from hundreds to now two to five million visitors a month.