Buying Then Losing a $2.1m HVAC Business

I could do that. Turns out they are a heck of a lot smarter. But at the time I was like, okay, well, they're essentially buying something that's already cash flowing and then they receive the future cash flows. And in the small business space, the multiples are much smaller than what you would buy a stock for, especially now. And so it's just made a lot of sense as an investment.

And you were based in Silicon Valley when you were working in Silicon Valley Bank?

One of those two people meet and assume I have all sorts of preconceived notions if you're from one of those two places. So.

Well, that, that is a little taste of what's to come in terms of the cultural misalignment. Okay, Dan, so now tell us about Parker, where it is, et cetera. Give us the bullet points on the business. And why did you like it.

So Parker Mechanical is in rural Colorado. And when I say rural Colorado, people are picturing, like, beautiful rolling mountains, but it's actually on the other end of the state. Think of, like, western Kansas.

That's. I was 30 miles from the Kansas state line, middle of nowhere, flat plains. I was right next to a feedlot, and there are feedlots around me. So it Smelled wonderful.

And, and then there was also some, some like ag business. So that, that was mostly what went on out there. Parka Mechanical was an H VAC contractor.

And the, what I was presented in, in the information was they were mostly residential. I was looking for a residential H VAC business. Living in Phoenix. My thesis was like, world's only getting hotter.

People are gonna, this is gonna be a growing demand area. I should like, I should do this. And also because I had an insight into what private equity was doing.

They were buying in large cities and rolling up entire markets. And I was like, I don't wanna compete with those guys. They, I will burn out.

So I want to go away from where all of that action is and start in rural communities. I'd never lived in a rural community, but I did some research and thought I knew kind of what that would be about. Spent a lot of time looking.