oday's guest thought that he would take over his family's HVAC business.

Corey Mullins was himself an HVAC technician, and had worked his way up since graduating high school.

But alas that original plan didn't pan out, and Corey had to figure out: what next?

‍Answer: Start his own HVAC business — which he did, with $10k and a single truck.

But right at the same time, he connected with another local HVAC owner looking to sell.

That business was tiny. Less than $200k in revenue, and falling.

But it was a decades-old business. And as you may know, HVAC companies put labels with their phone numbers on the units they install.

So this business's phone number was clearly displayed on the side of probably thousands of units throughout south Florida, waiting to be called when those units inevitably had issues. That phone number had real value, and Corey bought the business for $150k.

According to SBA loan rules, he only had to bring 10%, or $15k. And if you add the aforementioned $10k that he was using to bootstrap, Corey invested $25,000, all in.

He spent the next 3 years building, before selling to private equity for $3.2m (mostly in cash).

$25k to $3.2m in under 4 years. How about that MOIC.

‍A key theme of today's story is how Corey was a tradesman by background, so he knew the business of HVAC cold. An obvious advantage that many searchers don't have.

He's shocked that so many people in our community buy these businesses without any experience in the trade.

But of course what searchers lack in trade knowledge, they make up for in business-building ability (hopefully).

Having both is the killer combination. Private equity knows this; they often install "operating partners" from the target industry into their acquisitions.

But searchers generally don't do that; they become the operators themselves.

‍Well, hearing Corey's story should make you wonder about the possibilities of partnering with someone like him. What might that model look like?

See what you think, and enjoy this story of tradesman, now business buyer, Corey Mullins.

(And if you're interested in a story with a similar pattern, check out Patrick Norris from April 2024, who started on the back of a garbage truck, and eventually bought, grew, and exited his own trash business for $4.4m.)