Jerod Pierce turned a $1.75M Seattle HVAC buy into a high-8-figure exit in 5 years

The Setup Jerod Pierce's path to owning an HVAC shop started in foster care and homelessness, ran through Harvard Business School, and routed through investment banking at DA Davidson and private equity at GenNx360. He wanted to own the thing, not advise it. He self-funded his search over 13 months, living rent-free with his sister to extend runway. He sold a house-hacked townhome for $595,000, which became his equity check. The target was a 24-year-old residential HVAC business 45 minutes from his house. Founded in 1993, 100% B2C, run by a 59-year-old owner ready to transition. 15-16 employees. It had steady cashflow and a clean book, which is what SBA underwriters want to see. The Deal Closed November 2017 at $1.75M purchase price. - 75% SBA financing - 15% equity ($260,000 from Pierce's townhome proceeds) - 10% seller note Financials at close: - Revenue: $3.5M - SDE/EBITDA: $500K - Price/SDE: 3.5x, a fair multiple for a residential HVAC shop in 2017 before the category went white-hot with PE First 100 Days Pierce did not parachute in with a McKinsey deck. He learned the job. - Rode along on sales calls for 30-60 days with the outgoing owner. Load calculations. Ductwork sizing. The nomenclature a homeowner expects you to know when you quote a $12K replacement. - Planted himself in the office 7 AM to 7 PM, every weekday, many Saturdays. When there was nothing to do on a Saturday, he found something to improve. - Killed agency spend. Brought Google, Microsoft, and Facebook campaigns in-house so 100% of ad dollars bought clicks, not agency retainers. - Started scaling the marketing budget aggressively. $38K/year at close, on track to $1.4M/year at the peak (a 37x expansion). Operating Moves Three levers, pulled hard: 1. Marketing mastery. He ran the ad accounts himself. This is unusual for a searcher and it compounded. Residential HVAC is won on lead volume and close rate, and Pierce controlled both variables directly. 2. Sales competency. He refused to delegate sales until he could do it himself. Sales is, in his framing, the lowest barrier to entry for an industry outsider. If you can close a replacement, you can hire for it. If you can't close, you cannot manage a sales team. 3. Redundancy. His growth question was not 'how do we double revenue.' It was 'if we have two install crews, how do we get to four as fast as possible?' Crew count is the constraint in residential HVAC. More crews means more jobs booked means more marketing justified. He also did bolt-on M&A: additional HVAC shops plus an electrical business, riding the PE rollup wave as a consolidator rather than a target. Where They Are Now October 2022 exit, five years after close. - Revenue: $35M (10x) - EBITDA: $6M+ (12x) - Turned down a $95M offer; closed in the upper 8 figures - Structure: 80% cash, 20% rollover equity with the buyer - Shared over $2M of proceeds with key employees Pierce now runs Olympic...