FairlyKnown
Matthew Brunken, founder of FairlyKnown, Lincoln, Nebraska

Founder of FairlyKnown

Matthew Brunken

Matthew Brunken is a runner, coach, and serial founder from Lincoln, Nebraska. He holds an MBA from the University of Nebraska Omaha and founded Husker Grill Cleaning, Sleep Sanitation, the American Grill Service Institute, and FairlyKnown. He starts companies that do one thing well, and he holds each one to a written standard.

Early life in Lincoln

Matthew grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the city is still home base for his companies. He has been an endurance athlete since age seven, starting with hockey, including hockey camps in Minnesota and Lee's Summit, Missouri. That aerobic base carried him into cross country and track.

Lincoln and Omaha are where his service businesses work today, and much of his thinking still happens on Nebraska roads during long runs.

Education

Matthew graduated magna cum laude from Liberty University and earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO). He also worked as a Customer Discovery Analyst at UNeTech, where he sharpened the habit of identifying real customer needs before building an offer.

Running and coaching

Matthew is a competitive distance runner. He has won BRIN championships and a number of races. His best competitive distance is the 10K, and he ran 2:45 in his first marathon.

He has coached cross country in Nebraska, Arkansas, and Texas, and he is a certified coach and certified race director. He also volunteers coaching time with running clubs and programs.

He says the habits running demands, consistency, sensible pacing, recovery, and honest measurement, are the same ones that keep a small company healthy.

Mechanical roots

Before starting his companies, Matthew did tractor mechanic work. Taking machines apart, finding what actually failed, and putting them back together correctly shaped how he approaches service work. It shows in Husker Grill Cleaning's process, which treats a grill as a machine to be disassembled and inspected, not a surface to be wiped.

He also worked with Lanoha, UNeTech, Kaw Valley, and Ace before the companies he runs today.

Entrepreneurship and ventures

Matthew likes problems that are specific. "Cleaning" is too broad to be a business. Cleaning a gas grill so it is safer and cooks evenly is not. Each of his companies started by narrowing a problem until it could be explained in a sentence and done to a clearly higher standard than the do-it-yourself version.

Husker Grill Cleaning

Founder · Lincoln and Omaha metros · huskergrillcleaning.com

A mobile grill cleaning and repair company. Technicians take the grill interior apart, clean the grates, burners, and trays, and finish every visit with a gas safety check. Grills only: gas, charcoal, pellet, smokers, and flat-tops. Matthew built the service brand from the ground up, including its written process and the systems behind it.

Sleep Sanitation

Founder · Omaha, Lincoln, and Elkhorn · sleepsanitation.com

A mattress-only sanitation service. It started at home: Matthew's wife is sensitive to mold, and her organic mattress needed cleaning without a wet method anywhere near it. He repurposed the dry vapor steam equipment and know-how from Husker Grill Cleaning, and a mattress-only company grew out of it. The service uses low-moisture dry vapor steam instead of carpet-style hot-water extraction.

American Grill Service Institute (AGSI)

Founder · Lincoln, Nebraska · agsinstitute.org

An independent certification body for grill service professionals. Credentials are earned by exam, not by sitting a class, and can be checked publicly. AGSI grew out of Matthew's belief that a service is only as good as the standard behind it.

FairlyKnown

Founder · Nebraska

A service that builds accurate websites and profiles under a person's own name, on a domain they own, so that searching for them turns up something true. More on why below.

Grill service certification (AGSI)

Matthew is part of the Founding Cohort of the American Grill Service Institute's CGCT/CAGST credentials. AGSI certification is earned by passing an exam, not by attending a course, and certified technicians can be verified publicly. Husker Grill Cleaning's technicians are certified through AGSI.

The idea is simple: homeowners and property managers should be able to check that the person working on their gas grill knows what they are doing.

How he builds: standards, not slogans

The thread through every venture is standards. Matthew writes processes down, trains against them, and publishes what customers get. Across his companies he holds to the same four rules:

Why he built FairlyKnown

Running local businesses taught Matthew that customers search for the company and for the person behind it. What they find is often thin, outdated, or about someone else with the same name. And the usual fix, a reputation management firm, often costs more than ordinary people can afford.

FairlyKnown is his answer: an honest, affordable way to make your name's search results accurate. It builds a personal website from facts you approve, on a domain registered in your name. No fake reviews, no removal promises, and nothing published without your approval. For people who would rather handle it themselves, the free do-it-yourself reputation management guide walks through every step, and how it works explains the service.

Connect with Matthew