Early Struggles and Homelessness
When Greg Daily was 19 years old in 2001, he experienced homelessness in Minneapolis for six months. Unable to afford rent due to financial hardship and difficulty securing stable employment, he relied on friends and acquaintances for a place to sleep, often spending nights on sofas or even on kitchen floors.
"My grandfather sold brooms out of the back of a van,"Daily recalls, remembering the times he accompanied his grandfather as a child selling cleaning equipment.
"It taught Daily a lesson from a young age: 'Businesses feed families.'"
Today, at 43, Daily’s circumstances have dramatically changed from those early days when he sometimes went to sleep hungry on a friend’s sofa.
Building a Digital Marketing Firm
Greg Daily is now the founder and chief executive of Science in Advertising, a Denver-based digital marketing company established in 2019. The firm provides services to a diverse clientele ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small family-owned businesses, assisting them in managing online advertising campaigns across platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Instagram.
Family Background and Early Life
Despite the entrepreneurial lessons from his grandfather, Daily’s family life was challenging. Raised in Denver by a single mother after his parents divorced during his childhood, he faced further hardship when his grandfather passed away when he was 10. This loss left his mother responsible for feeding four children, and she supplemented the family income by selling clothes and jewelry, which Daily credits as a significant factor in their survival.
As he transitioned into adulthood, Daily moved frequently within the United States, spending six months with his grandmother in Texas and six months with his father before experiencing periods of couch surfing.
Turning Point and Education
Daily’s life took a pivotal turn when he traveled to Colorado for a construction job and met his future wife at a church. They have now been married for 23 years. Observing that his wife was earning more while working fewer hours, Daily decided to return to college in 2008. He humorously notes that this decision was less romantic and more pragmatic, driven by the need for qualifications to increase his earning potential.
He completed a journalism course at Metropolitan State University of Denver and secured a position at a local newspaper. However, as print journalism declined due to the rise of smartphones and the internet, Daily pursued a two-year creative writing diploma at Oxford University in England.
"Here in the United States, print journalism was dying. I started thinking about how to write for businesses."
Launching Science in Advertising
Upon returning to the United States, Daily began his career in digital marketing. When preparing to launch Science in Advertising, he and his wife calculated they had approximately six to eight months of savings before running out of funds. The uncertainty was overwhelming.
"It was terrifying,"he admits.
"I was in tears."
While confident in his ability to perform the work, Daily was apprehensive about the unknowns.
"There were so many questions I didn't have answers to,"he says.
"What if it doesn't work? What if I fail? What if I can't provide?"
Instead of ignoring his fears, Daily incorporated them into his business philosophy, adopting the mantra
"failure is always an option."He shares this perspective with his team, especially when they face high-risk decisions.
"If you operate as though failure isn't possible, the ship is going to blow up,"he explains.
Daily emphasizes the importance of acknowledging potential failure and managing risk.
"Assume failure is real,"he advises.
"Now go look for it. Now try to find it. Now reduce the risk."He also notes that as long as basic needs like feeding one’s children are met, short-term financial losses are manageable.
Business Success and Personal Pride
Science in Advertising has grown successfully, expanding its client base. Daily expresses particular pride in supporting small, family-owned businesses similar to those of his mother and grandfather.
"I love seeing them be successful because that's what I am. That's my family. That's the background I come from,"he says.
Industry Perspective and Legacy
US digital marketing expert Shama Hyder remarks on the challenges within the sector, noting that success is difficult due to saturation, intense competition, and evolving technologies such as AI and shifting consumer behaviors.
"When someone like Greg builds a thriving agency in this space, that deserves real recognition,"she states.
Family remains a significant motivator for Daily. Regarding whether his entrepreneurial spirit has been passed on to his eight-year-old son, he observes that his son has an engineering mindset. They recently invested in a 3D printer together and are exploring online resources about generating income through 3D printed products.
