oday's guest had a great job at a publicly-traded tech company, but was ready for a change.

She had lots of experience in home services startups, so when she came across the concept of "buying a boring business", and specifically a home services business... well, you know what happened next.

Today's interview with Kristiana Laugen is another story of buying small.

The pool cleaning business she acquired in southern California was just 5 people. $300k in SDE.

There are a few angles to listen for today as we unpack Kristiana's comfort in buying a business well below the SDE threshold that the conventional wisdom would advise:

  • Age of the business
  • Growing the business, and how it should be faster to grow a low-SDE business than an already-high SDE business
  • And finally, vision

We might see a tiny, 5-person pool business. Kristiana sees the raw ingredients for a much larger enterprise.

As it happens, she has a track record of diving into a challenging, unglamorous project that others wouldn't touch — and making it a head-turning success.

So now, when people scratch their heads about her decision to leave her career and buy this blue-collar business, she refers to the same pattern:

"Yeah, it might come off a bit odd," she says, "but I just have a lot of confidence in myself and in the business and where I think I can take it, so I think it'll hit a lot different in a few years."

Please enjoy this interview with Kristiana Laugen, owner of RD Pools, Spas & Fountains.