Key Points From the Interview
hen Manny Saxena boarded a plane to the US from his native India to attend business school, he didn't imagine that street sweeping would be his fate.
But boy has that fate been sweet.
Manny only owned his businesses (he acquired 3) for 16 months, which meant his search was actually longer than his tenure as operator.
But he used those 16 months well, making both tactical and big strategic decisions aggressively to become the largest municipal street-sweeping company in northern California.
As you may already have guessed, one of the appealing aspects of the street-sweeping business is contracted revenue with customers that aren't going anywhere, municipalities.
Indeed. Manny says he could tell you today his revenue for, let's say, October 2025 — his contracts were that sticky and predictable.
But I hear you saying, Yeah but those big street-sweeping machines. Lots of capex... I don't like that.
Well listen for Manny's response.
Spoiler: he thinks searchers are capex-phobic.
Lastly, we spend a lot of time on what it's like to buy a blue collar business.
Manny was an MBA parachuting into a completely different environment.
I find this topic endlessly interesting because it seems to be so challenging for some, while perfectly fine for others.
It's important to tease out when & why it works.
OK, here is Manny Saxena, buyer of 3 street-sweeping businesses.
