He had a gig mowing lawns at 11. By 25, he had turned it into a multimillion-dollar landscaping business.

The chips powering AI can take years to design. This startup says AI did it in 2 weeks.

I'm a VC who finds $120 worth of AI subscriptions more productive than an intern. This is my tech stack.

How this 18-year-old’s love of origami helped him win a $100,000 at a science fair

Every business owner can learn from these teen entrepreneurs using social media to grow their companies

Some kids mow lawns for pocket money and move on. Cody Kuebler kept at it, turning the childhood gig into a multimillion-dollar business.

Now 25, Kuebler said he spent his summers growing up cutting his neighbors' grass for around $25 a job, first with an aging push mower, and later with one his father gave him for his 11th birthday. The gift involved "a little bit of horse-trading," he said: He'd have to cut his dad's lawn.

Along the way, he hired friends so he could take on more customers and expand into snow removal during the winter months. Eventually, he earned enough to invest in riding lawn mowers with wagons attached.

"I got a little taste of earning money and being my own boss," Kuebler told Business Insider. "That kind of stuck in my head."

Business Insider's Young Geniuses series spotlights the next generation of founders, innovators, and thinkers trying to reshape industries and solve global challenges. See more stories from the series here, or reach out to editor Peter Gelling to share your story.

Getting to where he is today, though, took grit and determination. Kuebler's parents divorced when he was 10, and a few years later, he moved from his childhood home in a small Iowa town to Des Moines after his father got a new job there. That meant having to start his fledgling business all over again.

"It was frustrating because I had built a decent amount of customers that I lost over a decision I didn't make and couldn't change," Kuebler said.

He pressed ahead, though as high school graduation approached, Kuebler wasn't sure his business could lead to a career. Since he is a car enthusiast and had already earned enough credits to graduate, he said he spent part of his senior year studying diesel mechanics at a local community college. He dropped out during the first semester, concluding he'd spent enough time in the classroom.