How to Beat Private Equity Without Selling | Zach Cooper-Vastola

Private equity is buying up home service companies and quietly gutting the good ones, and most owners think their only options are to sell or get outspent. There is a third one.

 

In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Zach Cooper-Vastola, co-founder of Hickory, who has bought and built home service companies across the tri-state to roughly 350 people and 80 million dollars in revenue, without ever running them from an ivory tower.

 

Zach breaks down how he keeps technicians from walking out the door after an acquisition, why he refuses to put AI on the phones with customers, how his team builds their own tools instead of renting SaaS, and the data unlock that lets two CSRs run at the scale of a 30 person team.

 

If you run a home service business and you are tired of hearing that AI just means replacing your people, this one flips the script.

 

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Upfrog, one of our show partners. Upfrog turns paid ad spend into booked, sold system replacements instead of wasted leads. Learn more at upfrog.com.

 

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

 

- How to keep your technicians from walking out the door after an acquisition

- Why changing pay structures on day one is the fastest way to lose your team

- How to read a company's real culture by walking the warehouse, before you ever see the financials

- What buy and build owners look for that a private equity roll up ignores

- How to underwrite an early stage AI vendor before you bet six figures on it

- Why building your own tools can beat renting SaaS once you hit scale

- How making the humans super with data beats putting AI on the phones

- The data unlock that lets two CSRs run at the scale of a 30 person team

 

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY

 

UPFROG

System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com

 

MARKETSTORM

An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/ 

 

CALLRAIL

CallRail assigns a unique tracking number to each marketing effort, so you know which channels bring your best leads. Try it free at https://callrail.com/sbmpod.

 

BREEZY

Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://getbreezyapp.com/schedule-demo 

 

PHONETAP

Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo

 

COMPANYCAM

Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/

 

CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST

 

Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/

Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/

Zach Cooper-Vastola, Hickory: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-c-8b881969/ 

 

ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY

 

Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ 

 

Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it.

 

#ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #PrivateEquity #HVACBusiness #AIforContractors