In this episode of the M&A Launchpad Podcast, hosts Feras Moussa and Casey Minshew are joined by Dominick Blue, a former Marine turned software engineer and acquisition entrepreneur. Dominick shares his inspiring journey—launching Nostra Group, buying two businesses in under a year, and building an AI company to automate operations in home services. He opens up about transitioning from a military background to entrepreneurship, the importance of having a thesis during your search, how he structured his deals, the pitfalls of cash flow management post-close, and how leadership and grit are essential for success.
Whether you’re a first-time buyer or building a holding company, Dominick’s story offers actionable advice, strategy, and serious motivation.
In this podcast episode, we discuss:
- Dominick’s path from the Marine Corps to launching Nostra Group
- Lessons from acquiring two companies in 2024 (including HVAC and air duct cleaning businesses)
- How to develop an effective acquisition thesis
- The realities of SDE modeling and cash flow post-close
- Navigating licensing and staffing challenges
- How military leadership skills translate into business operations
- The power of grit and persistence in entrepreneurial success
- Using AI to build digital workforces and streamline operations
- Why automation should be prioritized in lower-middle-market businesses
- Personal reflections on balancing family, business, and growth
Guest Contact Info:
- Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/Dominick_blue
- Email: Dominick@nostragroup.com
- Company: https://www.nostragroup.com
Additional Resources:
· O’Connell Advisory Group – Financial diligence and Quality of Earnings experts for business buyers. Website: https://www.oconnelladvisorygroup.com
· Attend the M&A Launchpad Conference – May 3, 2025 in Houston Premier event for entrepreneurs and investors in the lower-middle market. Tickets and info: https://www.malaunchpad.com
Additional Resources:
Additional Resources:
Sponsored by O’Connell Advisory Group – Work with a trusted Quality of Earnings and Financial Diligence partner who focuses solely on business acquisitions.
Visit: https://www.oconnelladvisorygroup.com
Attend the M&A Launchpad Conference – May 3rd in Houston.
Premier event for entrepreneurs, investors, and dealmakers in the lower-middle market.
Get your ticket at https://www.malaunchpad.com and use code LAUNCH for $200 off.
M&A Launchpad Hosts Contact – info@equitylaunchpad.com
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Transcript
00:00 hey are you thinking about buying or
00:02 selling a business join us May 3rd for
00:05 the M&A Launchpad Conference this is the
00:07 premier conference for entrepreneurs
00:09 investors navigating mergers and
00:11 acquisitions in the lower middle market
00:13 you’re going to connect with top
00:14 dealmakers gain insight strategies to
00:17 take your business search and your
00:19 business acquisitions to the next level
00:20 so get your tickets now at
00:24 malaunchpad.com and use the code launch
00:26 for $200 off your ticket we’re looking
00:28 forward to seeing you all right on
00:30 today’s episode we interviewed Dominic
00:32 Blue where we talked about going into
00:33 the Marine Corps then going and getting
00:35 a software engineering job right and
00:36 then really going off and learning about
00:38 entrepreneurs and acquisitions and
00:40 buying your first businesses right you
00:42 bought an HVAC business and then three
00:44 four months later bought a second tuckin
00:46 into that business and then we kind of
00:48 dived into AI and a lot of the
00:49 challenges that small businesses face
00:52 and some different ways to solve them so
00:53 Casey what were some of your takeaways
00:54 there was a lot of stuff we touched on
00:56 uh but I’m always going to go back to
00:57 the mental attitude it takes to be an
00:59 acquisition entrepreneur it’s there’s
01:01 there I have not interviewed we’ve done
01:02 now probably over 60 of these i’ve never
01:04 heard anybody say it’s been easy or
01:06 anything else right it’s that mentality
01:08 of just make a decision go after it make
01:10 it happen and Dominic just is that right
01:13 being from the Marine Corps and then
01:15 being tenacious enough to go after and
01:17 acquire business within eight months and
01:19 then to acquire another tuck on in three
01:20 months and then just to be able to do
01:22 these things and now developing AI to
01:25 simplify and make things a little bit
01:26 easier in business i mean powerful
01:28 powerful meeting there’s great stuff in
01:30 our meeting notes um it’s great no
01:32 agreed i mean you know lots of great
01:34 energy too right he’s very strategic and
01:36 again some of that military history kind
01:38 of shows so I mean really enjoyable
01:40 podcast really enjoyed talking with
01:43 them welcome to the M&A Launchpad
01:46 podcast with your host Casey and Ferris
01:48 with Equity Launchpad on this podcast
01:49 you will gain insights on acquiring
01:51 investing in and selling profitable
01:52 businesses in the lower to middle market
01:54 whether you’re a business owner investor
01:56 or spying entrepreneur at Equity
01:57 Launchpad we will provide you with the
01:59 knowledge guidance and capital to
02:00 navigate the world of mergers and
02:03 acquisitions all right guys just take
02:05 one second here real quick when you’re
02:06 buying a business ensuring the financial
02:08 health of the company is critical and
02:09 that’s where a quality of earnings
02:11 partner comes in quality of earnings
02:13 gives you confidence in the financials
02:14 of the company that you’re purchasing it
02:16 aims to protect your investment and
02:17 ensure that you’re stepping into a
02:19 profitable business on day one patrick
02:21 of Okonnamel Advisory Group is your
02:22 dynamic quality of earnings partner he’s
02:24 here to help you buy the right business
02:26 on your timeline patrick’s entire
02:27 practice is focused on business
02:29 acquisitions your niche is his niche and
02:32 over the past decade Patrick’s helped
02:33 more than 200 buyers like yourself
02:35 successfully purchase and operate
02:37 enduring profitable businesses in fact
02:39 Patrick’s helped some listeners of this
02:41 show so if you’re buying looking for
02:43 help with the quality of earnings
02:44 financial due diligence network capital
02:46 and more head to
02:48 okconelladvisor.com or just click the
02:49 link in the show notes hey Dominic
02:51 welcome to the show
02:53 hey thanks for having me all right
02:55 excited to kind of listen in and hear a
02:57 little bit more about your journey so
02:58 maybe for the listeners right just give
03:00 people a brief overview on your
03:01 background kind of where you got started
03:03 where you came from and go from there
03:05 yeah absolutely absolutely um you know
03:07 from an entrepreneurial standpoint I
03:09 think like many folks uh it was kind of
03:12 in my blood as a as a young kid you know
03:14 having your own small business uh
03:16 newspaper routes uh wholesaling candy
03:19 those types of things uh fast Pokemon
03:22 cards yeah
03:24 exactly yeah um yeah and then fast
03:27 forward to my professional life I
03:28 started out in the United States Marine
03:30 Corps spent 11 years there and then
03:32 trans uh Thank you thank you yeah and
03:34 then transitioned to uh the tech
03:36 industry where I’m a software engineer
03:38 um and then that kind of as I was
03:40 looking to for like the next phase of
03:43 life uh I came across uh acquisition
03:46 entrepreneurship and then uh shortly
03:49 launched uh Nostra Group in 2023 and
03:51 began my search there all right so man
03:54 got lots of different pieces so maybe
03:56 you know let’s talk about going from
03:59 software engineering to entrepreneurship
04:02 right or acquisition entrepreneurship
04:04 you know what were you doing in software
04:05 engineering and what led you to maybe
04:07 want to make a transition there
04:10 yeah it’s a great question I think uh I
04:13 am from a philosophical standpoint I
04:16 really enjoy diversity
04:19 u and so you know typically the playbook
04:22 in software is you go work at a company
04:24 you get uh RSUs you let your stock vest
04:27 and then you kind of play that
04:29 conservative playbook um I wanted to
04:32 look at something that was more outside
04:34 the box and um something that would
04:37 allow me to focus on diverse problem
04:40 sets that’s kind of like uh intuitively
04:42 who I am as a person and so when I found
04:45 acquisition entrepreneurship it really
04:47 attracted me because it’s not like uh
04:51 you’re solving one problem for 20 years
04:53 you I mean as as we all know for anyone
04:55 that’s acquired a business it’s a
04:57 thousand problems that are different
04:58 every single day that and and then you
05:01 can kind of use those lessons learned to
05:03 expand uh to across your portfolio as
05:05 you do more acquisitions and how did you
05:08 come across entrepreneur acquisition
05:10 yeah it’s a great question I think uh my
05:13 introduction was I came across the
05:15 acquiring minds podcast um and of you
05:19 know I was that was like my forte into
05:21 uh into acquisition entrepor reneurship
05:23 and then you know I I went and read Buy
05:26 Then Build by Walter Dyel and then the
05:28 HBR guide to buying a small business and
05:30 then I was hooked right that those were
05:32 like the three um checked all the boxes
05:35 very vanilla approach getting into
05:39 exactly exactly yeah so one of the
05:42 things Dominic you know not only did you
05:43 get into acquisition entrepreneurship at
05:46 23 you’ve you’ve actually closed on a
05:48 couple acquisitions correct that’s right
05:50 that’s right so so we I started my
05:52 search in
05:53 2023 um about 8 to 9 months into the
05:57 search uh secured my first LOI um and
06:01 then it was actually during that process
06:03 as I was closing out that deal that
06:05 through the network um I had u what
06:08 ended up being a tuckin acquisition come
06:11 across my desk uh and then secured a LOI
06:14 on that so in very short order uh in
06:17 2024 I closed on one business in January
06:21 uh I had a baby in February and then I
06:23 closed on the second business in April
06:25 so that was 2024 was busy first off
06:28 congratulations for multiple reasons
06:30 right but now you’re like hey let me
06:32 tell you about all my problems
06:36 and you’re like the you thought the core
06:38 was hard
06:43 question you mentioned search did you do
06:45 a traditional search or were you just
06:47 self-funded looking to do your own thing
06:49 yeah self-funded yeah I didn’t take on
06:51 any investment capital so uh self-unded
06:53 and you still maintained your other your
06:54 day job right i did see people you could
06:57 do this at the same time so then you’re
06:58 out there so maybe before you we’ll come
07:00 talk about the first acquisition here in
07:02 a second but you know you made up your
07:04 mind you’re going to go find a business
07:06 where’d you start looking and what did
07:07 you think you were going to buy like was
07:08 there a specific vertical you were
07:10 looking at i know you all obviously
07:11 you’re in software did you say I’m going
07:12 to go buy a software business or you
07:14 know did you go to the other side and
07:14 say you know what I’m going to go to a
07:16 manufacturing business right what was
07:17 the initial thesis and then we can kind
07:19 of segue into what did you buy yeah
07:21 that’s a great question and and for the
07:23 listeners who are just getting started
07:25 in their acquisition journey um I
07:27 started out very broad very standard go
07:30 to BIS by sell um I think my approach uh
07:34 I found value in it at least which was
07:36 rather than just look through the
07:38 thousands and thousands of listings on
07:39 bis byell I really focused on uh finding
07:43 the brokers and building relationships
07:45 with the brokers so I just used bis by
07:47 sell as like a directory to get access
07:49 to the brokers started building
07:51 relationships with those folks and with
07:53 bankers uh you know early in the in the
07:56 um journey and I didn’t have a thesis
07:59 when I started out um I initially I
08:02 wanted to go into software but at the
08:04 time they were selling for you know
08:05 increased multiples so I I you know I
08:08 pivoted from that and over time what I
08:10 did was I built a thesis around home
08:13 service businesses um that were um that
08:17 were say 500 to 750 in STE uh that were
08:21 constrained to the market that I was in
08:23 uh which is Southern California um so
08:25 that was like the the very primitive you
08:28 know uh thesis that I had and what I’ll
08:30 tell people is when you’re starting out
08:33 spend a lot of time building the thesis
08:35 first because it reduces the noise uh
08:38 because for every one specific deal you
08:40 look at if it’s in a different vertical
08:42 I mean you could spend a lifetime
08:43 learning about that particular industry
08:45 so although people get FOMO and they
08:48 feel like they’re going to miss a deal
08:50 they’re actually optimizing their time
08:52 especially like me I had a full-time job
08:54 you’re having to optimize time um to to
08:57 really focus your search right and that
08:59 also makes the presentation to brokers
09:01 and bankers a lot clearer uh when when
09:04 you are focused like that yeah I
09:07 couldn’t agree more the thesis is one of
09:08 those things but I I think you kind of
09:10 said it like how I stumbled into my
09:12 thesis you didn’t really have a thesis
09:15 and then you went out and you found your
09:16 company and then you were like “Okay
09:18 this is now the beginning of my thesis
09:20 right?” And so the thesis is you’ll
09:22 build a thesis yeah because you know you
09:23 obviously you know it’s it’s how it is
09:26 but it would be it would have been
09:28 awesome you know to have had the thesis
09:31 before because I probably wouldn’t have
09:32 stumbled across some of the mistakes
09:34 earlier in the days and it was kind of
09:36 like my sister she knew what she was
09:37 going to be when like she knew like for
09:40 her whole life she knew she was going to
09:41 be an attorney right she had a clear
09:43 path to that i had no clue what I was
09:45 going to do i mean I like everything i’m
09:48 like I like this i like that and so you
09:51 build up this kind of like ability to be
09:52 a jack of all trades but then you’re
09:54 like so then when you go to do your
09:56 thesis you’re like I like it all and uh
09:59 it’s just I I suggest just like you
10:02 piggybacking have a clear thesis right
10:04 and uh it doesn’t have to be like it can
10:06 still be a little broad but golly man it
10:08 helps when you’re focused it does 100%
10:11 and to your point I you know I put in a
10:14 few LOIs before I secured the the the
10:16 deal that I ended up closing on um like
10:19 landscaping
10:20 uh and then I was looking at an
10:22 automotive shop and you know all these
10:24 other things but to your point as I as I
10:28 finalized the
10:29 thesis that was really the catalyst that
10:32 allowed me to get the second deal
10:35 because by that point the brokers and
10:37 the bankers really knew what I was
10:39 looking for and what I was doing um so
10:41 when that second deal came across their
10:43 desk they were like “Oh hey Dominic like
10:44 here this is probably a good fit for you
10:46 because it’s in your it’s right in your
10:48 uh market and in your thesis.” So Got it
10:51 absolutely all right well let’s get
10:52 right into that deal so I mean what did
10:53 you buy right and kind of how did you
10:55 structure it what it looked like and
10:57 whenever you first saw it did you think
10:58 you were going to buy that or you know
10:60 did you get a change of heart yeah great
11:03 question so uh deal one was a uh just
11:07 sub sub 2 million in annual revenue um
11:10 it was air duct cleaning business uh
11:12 based in Southern California um and the
11:15 the thought going into it uh if for
11:18 anyone who has a home service business
11:20 especially HVAC specifically uh you know
11:22 there’s a lot of regulation and
11:24 licensing around that obviously I’m not
11:26 an HVAC technician so I did not have
11:28 those licenses so I had to figure out
11:30 how to to get into the industry get into
11:33 the game if you will
11:35 um while also still getting a deal
11:38 across the line um and and so a lot of
11:41 times looking at specific HVAC
11:43 businesses was a non-starter because
11:45 there was no way for me to work that out
11:46 so anyway going back to the deal uh sub
11:49 2 million in revenue approximately uh
11:51 450 to 500 in STE so it’s like right
11:54 there in the range um and it had at the
11:58 time around 20 employees um and so um
12:03 yeah that was that was deal one uh and
12:06 then um well I’ll wait on deal two but
12:08 that was that was deal one so in that
12:10 SDE what I have found is that once you
12:13 close you’re in the business do you feel
12:15 like you had the SDE do you feel like
12:18 you might have you guys might have added
12:19 back too much for them i mean what did
12:22 SD really work out to be because it it’s
12:24 shocking right yeah it’s a great
12:27 question and you know in the modeling I
12:30 anticipated I think the number came down
12:32 to 11 or 12% deviation from the STE from
12:37 the projected SDE um we came in at 9%
12:43 deviation so it was like the modeling
12:44 was like pretty spot on nice um um but
12:48 but to your point and this is this is
12:52 like something that I think we really
12:54 should hammer on hammer on for future uh
12:58 you know acquisition
12:59 entrepreneurs really take stock in
13:03 postclose operation expenses
13:06 because in my case within the first 90
13:10 days I replaced half of my vehicle fleet
13:14 so so from you know working capital I
13:17 mean we walked into kind of a nightmare
13:20 situation right um and then that you
13:23 know there’s all these other things that
13:25 weren’t uncovered that you know that you
13:27 have to take stock in like uh employees
13:31 expecting pay rises and dealing with
13:33 that employees who were paid under the
13:35 table dealing with that you know there’s
13:37 like things that you start to uncover as
13:39 you as you get into the uh the
13:41 operations um that start to eat into
13:43 that STE um yeah you know I’m going to
13:46 piggyback another thing i honestly think
13:49 like when you add back depreciation
13:52 right what people don’t realize is that
13:55 shouldn’t be add back i know that EBIT
13:57 does this word that we all throw out or
13:59 SD and we’re all just putting it in but
14:02 you know you had a real fleet to replace
14:04 right depreciation is not a phantom
14:06 float through you’ve got real capital
14:09 expenditures and so on a couple of my
14:12 deals in the past I would have looked
14:13 more at like EBIT you know I would have
14:15 just I would have not added back
14:17 depreciation um and and just hold to it
14:20 until you find an owner that understands
14:21 that man that depreciation
14:24 I’m not adding it back i’ve got to
14:25 really spend that exactly you know yeah
14:28 because like you said you walked in and
14:29 you had three you had all the cars you
14:31 have to replace and you’re like damn
14:33 that’s not what I thought yeah no
14:36 absolutely and you know that the old
14:37 saying goes cash is king right oh yeah
14:40 and and you know I think what a lot of
14:43 us do when we go into acquisition
14:46 entrepreneurship at least I did i got
14:48 hung up on the modeling in the
14:49 spreadsheets and I was like “Oh it
14:51 pencils out right the numbers make
14:53 sense.” But what you really have to look
14:55 at is like no what is worst case
14:57 scenario for your cash what’s coming in
15:00 what’s going out on a daily basis like
15:02 can you project that um and you know
15:06 like I think going forward what I would
15:08 do is uh I would do a 13week cash flow
15:11 projection just as like a sim a scenario
15:14 like simulation during due diligence to
15:17 understand like the first 13 weeks what
15:20 is it going to look like for me on day
15:22 one speaking my language dude i I’m
15:24 telling you right now we’re we’re we’re
15:26 closing on a deal right now and and I’m
15:28 literally told the uh the account like
15:30 their their bookkeeper i was explaining
15:32 to her what her project’s going to be
15:34 next week i said “I’m going to email you
15:35 this and I want you to build this out
15:37 for me and then I can work through it
15:39 because this is going to be your job you
15:41 know is really making sure we manage
15:43 cash flow.” It’s it’s it’s like I love
15:46 that we’re talking about this because
15:49 the So we’re kind we operate as like as
15:52 an independent sponsor so we’re not
15:54 going we’re going to buy the company or
15:56 structure the deal put it together put
15:58 the capital together but we do have an
15:59 operating partner right and we give them
16:01 a fair slug of equity so we because we
16:04 we want to do we want to scale more um I
16:07 was actually with him at the company
16:09 Monday and Tuesday right doing the
16:11 employee walkth through and all this
16:12 stuff yeah and all I talked about was
16:14 cash and cash and cash and he looked at
16:16 me he was like “Man you’re like obsessed
16:17 with cash.” And I was like “Man this is
16:19 going to be my third acquisition.” And
16:22 every other one we ran short of cash and
16:25 I thought I modeled it great i thought I
16:27 did i thought it was perfect yeah the
16:29 numbers don’t lie until they lie it’s
16:31 like exactly where’d the money go you’re
16:33 like I don’t know we We added software
16:36 we We had to replace Rhonda you know
16:39 Steve he never had a raise and now guess
16:41 what i have to give him a raise you know
16:44 electricity costs double i mean I could
16:46 go through the list that everything’s
16:47 gonna happen uh right after you close
16:50 and so I’m glad we share that together
16:52 dominic absolutely
16:56 absolut i’m just thinking of the laundry
16:58 list of things i remember one one night
17:01 my wife and I were sitting at the dining
17:03 room table and we were we were just
17:04 looking at the bank account and like
17:06 going through invoice after invoice i
17:08 was I almost turned into a conspiracy
17:11 theory theorist where I was like
17:13 somebody’s taking the cash like what’s
17:14 happening where where’s all this cash
17:16 going you know so so yeah no I
17:19 completely share that sentiment I I
17:21 share yeah so so and so how did you
17:24 structure that deal yeah so pretty
17:26 standard right SBA 7A loan uh 10%
17:29 capital injection uh like capital stack
17:32 for me was I mean I’m not coming back
17:34 from a finance background so I I think I
17:36 chose what would be consider considered
17:38 the standard approach to to uh to a deal
17:42 or to a capital stack um so um yeah no
17:46 seller financing or anything like that
17:48 and sorry what was the multiple you said
17:50 the the SD was 550 yeah so so the
17:53 multiple worked out to be right around
17:55 three uh 3x good right around you know
17:58 1.6 million and then you put 10% down
17:60 and just very vanilla didn’t Yeah have
18:03 the seller carry anything you didn’t do
18:05 an earnout nothing else yeah that’s
18:07 pretty good uh for SBA I think with a
18:10 three right i think that’s really nice
18:11 three times because what your cost of
18:13 capital is around 10 and a half so it
18:15 really it really does cut in and did you
18:17 have to have that conversation with the
18:19 seller like hey like when you when you
18:21 or was he okay with the number or did
18:23 you have to explain your your your
18:25 thought process of why three times yeah
18:28 no actually the broker that we worked
18:30 with was phenomenal um and he did a
18:33 really good job of educating the the
18:35 seller on what to expect um and so we
18:39 didn’t have any of those you know
18:41 contentious conversations about like mis
18:44 misalignment on sell price or anything
18:46 like that so everybody was pretty
18:48 comfortable with the number that we
18:49 arrived at got it and did you come up
18:52 with or did the broker just say “Hey
18:53 here’s the ask.” And you know then you
18:54 just got comfortable with it no I mean
18:57 we were
18:58 within I think we were within $200,000
19:02 of each other when we came to the table
19:04 to talk about talk about like what what
19:07 is the offer price
19:09 and then maybe the next piece so you
19:11 know a seller that fully exits a
19:13 business right that’s a scary business
19:15 to buy and so what gave you the
19:17 confidence that you know outside of just
19:19 the DD that you did that hey this all of
19:21 this is accurate and it’s going to work
19:23 out right because for us we have to try
19:25 to keep more skin in the game of the
19:26 seller versus it sounds like you had no
19:28 skin in the game and so I’m just curious
19:30 you know like that’s gutsy yeah so it it
19:33 was it was a gutsy move um I think what
19:37 gave me confidence
19:38 was I had a strategic plan to turn it
19:42 into an HVAC business so I mean when you
19:46 look at if you looked at like a pie
19:48 chart of like the distribution of like
19:50 services offered um it would have been
19:53 you know once and I’m kind of fast
19:55 forwarding the story of like after we
19:57 did the second deal uh it would have
19:59 been like a 7030 split in terms of air
20:01 duct cleaning services to HVAC services
20:03 and the strategy that I was going in
20:05 with was we’re going to flip that
20:08 because that’s what a standard
20:09 residential HVAC company looks like
20:11 where majority is like installation
20:13 service and then you have this like
20:15 subcomponent of air duct cleaning as a
20:18 as an add-on feature right um so that
20:21 was the thesis that I was going into the
20:23 other part was there was one critical
20:25 piece that again kind of gave me uh
20:29 confidence into closing the deal the way
20:31 I did and it was the management layer so
20:35 we there was like a good management
20:37 structure that was in place that I could
20:39 then leverage to go do these tuckins um
20:43 because especially when you’re looking
20:45 at HVAC company or really any home
20:47 services companies what you often see is
20:49 the key man issue which is the owner it
20:53 holds nine out of the you know 10
20:56 positions in the company and so they
20:58 can’t really sell it um so they end up
20:60 closing it or selling their book of
21:01 business or whatever so that was
21:03 actually what the second deal was it was
21:05 a key it had a key man issue but because
21:07 I had the management team in place it
21:10 allowed me to go out and do some of the
21:11 smaller deals to do tuckins
21:14 yeah i love it do you think the uh the
21:15 leadership skills from the Marine Corps
21:17 uh help you with uh leading and running
21:19 a business do you feel like that’s a big
21:22 Yeah yeah every time somebody screws up
21:24 they drop and give them 20 i mean it’s
21:25 just you know it’s tough yeah we’re
21:27 doing morning We’re doing morning
21:28 workouts before we fire up the trucks no
21:32 that’s all you got to do baby that’s it
21:34 yeah yeah but but you know like I mean
21:36 but talk to me about that because you
21:38 know here’s the thing when I went out to
21:39 the Harvard ETA the first time I did so
21:42 I was learning about ETA myself and the
21:44 really the community kind of it’s led us
21:46 to where we are today on our podcast you
21:48 know there was a tremendous amount of
21:50 military took the GI Bill went back went
21:53 to Harvard got their MBA and were doing
21:56 acquisitions you know and I got a chance
21:58 to meet a bunch of these guys and talk
21:59 to them and they all said you know what
22:02 I learned in the military has given me
22:04 the confidence to be able to get into
22:06 the business in this acquisition side
22:08 absolutely absolutely and I’m a huge
22:10 proponent of that i’ll I’ll um I’ll give
22:13 a shout out to my alma mater uh I
22:16 actually went through the masters of
22:17 business for veterans program at
22:19 University of Southern California so
22:21 it’s like a consolidated one-year MBA
22:23 targeted for veterans um and I preach
22:27 this in fact I’m going back next month
22:29 to speak to them on ETA uh this I have a
22:35 strong conviction that the military
22:37 gives us a special set of skills that
22:40 allow us to handle the dynamic nature of
22:42 small business and to build long uh
22:46 long-term potential in cultivating
22:49 leaders within your organization really
22:52 because that’s especially in the Marine
22:53 Corps i can speak for the Marine Corps
22:54 that is like the number one thing that
22:56 the Marine Corps does it cultivates
22:58 leaders internally on the enlisted side
22:60 and the officer side uh I mean it’s I
23:02 mean if you look at we don’t hire
23:04 leaders to come in and lead our
23:05 organizations right um and so buying a
23:09 small business one of the first things I
23:11 did on day one was took stock in who who
23:14 had potential for leadership right have
23:17 a conversation sit down with the service
23:18 manager sit down with the lead
23:20 technicians like do they have the
23:22 capacity not just to manage the process
23:24 but to be a good example for what the
23:27 standard is that we’re going to set for
23:28 this organization right And that and how
23:32 that kind of turns into practicality um
23:36 a practical approach
23:38 is a standardized way of delivering a
23:41 service a standardized way of delivering
23:44 customer ex you know customer uh
23:46 excellence a standardized way of
23:48 following up with a customer um and then
23:51 subsequently on on the inside of the
23:53 business a standardized way of how the
23:56 lead technician coaches and mentors the
23:58 junior technician the standardized way
24:00 of how the manager you know coaches and
24:03 mentors the lead technician right it’s
24:05 you start to create this hierarchy
24:07 within the business so very no
24:10 absolutely phenomenal again like I said
24:11 thanks for your service my father was
24:13 military grandfather’s military i mean
24:14 military is all through my family
24:16 skipped me uh my father was like “You’re
24:19 my only son and you’re not joining the
24:21 military.” And now my son is he’s at&m
24:24 right now he’s in the core and then he’s
24:26 uh in the Air Force ROC so we got him
24:29 back into that yeah you know and it’s uh
24:32 but but there’s just something said
24:34 about the the leadership and and those
24:36 things that that come from the military
24:38 and uh when I meet the guys that are
24:40 looking at acquisition entrepreneurship
24:42 they really see it as like an
24:44 advantage you know like this is an
24:46 advantage that I have you know and and
24:49 and and again you know they they did
24:50 this whole search analysis i met with
24:52 this guy also at Harvard who who does he
24:54 he’s a search fund and they they did
24:57 this huge analysis and they said hey
24:60 we’re looking at every search we’ve ever
25:01 done and they’ve been around for 30
25:03 years and they looked at all the
25:04 different people to see what was the one
25:06 characteristic that made those companies
25:09 successful and it didn’t really have
25:11 anything to do with Harvard it had
25:12 nothing to do with the high level it had
25:14 actually nothing to do with the military
25:16 it had everything to do with grit right
25:19 that’s it and but that’s what it takes
25:22 to get boot camp and all of those things
25:24 which is grit right and grit is the
25:27 magic it’s the thing that makes this
25:29 work because it’s very hard right i mean
25:32 absolutely this is not easy absolutely
25:34 and so anyways I get all into into the
25:36 whole part of it but it’s philosophical
25:38 i mean what we do and how we do it and
25:40 so that part of the business is is it
25:42 takes that grit to succeed in what we’re
25:45 doing i wish you had gone to the
25:46 military Casey maybe you’d have a little
25:47 bit more grit anyways I know right
25:53 so what’s next like so I maybe tell us
25:56 about that second company right like
25:57 what exactly was the situation you kind
25:59 of alluded to it but I mean we know was
26:00 it you just bought the business the book
26:03 of business you got it heavily
26:04 discounted i mean what was kind of the
26:05 story there and then to add to that too
26:08 how did you solve getting around the uh
26:10 licensing requirements or have you not
26:12 solved that yet yeah it’s a great
26:14 question so the second business uh came
26:18 probably three and a half four months
26:20 into me closing out deal one uh it came
26:23 from that cadre of brokers and bankers
26:26 that that I told you I built a
26:27 relationship with um ironically the
26:29 broker was also a veteran which you know
26:32 is fun uh to to work with um and it was
26:35 a small threeman company um the the
26:40 owner was lead technician customer
26:42 support you know the whole typical
26:44 typical uh playbook um and so what we
26:47 did was we brought him in with the
26:50 agreement that he would stay on with us
26:52 for a period of time 6 to 12 months to
26:55 allow uh allow time for us to transition
26:57 specifically and to your second question
27:00 specifically to transition the license
27:02 aspect um because we’re licensed in the
27:05 state of California and so you know
27:07 there’s requirements around that but one
27:10 of the one of the
27:12 uh aspects of the license is it can be
27:15 the owner that has it or it can be an
27:17 employee that has it right so the way we
27:20 structured it was he came on um in this
27:24 like uh we call a responsible managing
27:26 officer capacity um and so that’s how we
27:30 kind of got around the license um and
27:32 and And because we were closing the
27:35 deals so close to each other he agreed
27:38 to come on as the RMO prior to closing
27:40 the second deal so we started the
27:42 process really early brought him in and
27:45 then as we began to transition him out
27:48 uh we had already brought in um brought
27:50 in who is now um a partner of mine to
27:54 run the business as the RMO who has the
27:57 HMAC license got it so now that that’s
27:58 how you’re going to keep the permanent
27:60 or permanent license moving forward once
28:02 that person leaves okay cool so again
28:04 I’m going to go back to just hard like I
28:06 let like So how did you like did you
28:07 just say I’m going to figure this out
28:09 was that like the like I will figure
28:11 this out is that just what you did i
28:13 mean or did you have like Yeah yeah you
28:15 just said I will figure this out you
28:17 know here’s the way
28:21 yeah yeah it’s really a lot of people
28:24 ask me like “Oh man you know what’s kind
28:26 of like the secret sauce?” But it’s
28:27 really that simple it’s like make a
28:29 decision that you’re going to solve the
28:31 problem and there’s going to be a
28:33 solution out there you know the way I
28:35 look at it is Dominic Blue is not the
28:37 first person that wasn’t an HVAC uh
28:40 technician that bought an HVAC company
28:42 so there has to be a solution out there
28:44 somewhere right it’s just a matter of
28:47 finding it um and and so just reminding
28:50 myself because I remember when I first
28:52 started uh my search the first business
28:54 I ever put an LOI on was a commercial
28:57 landscaping business which also requires
28:60 a license and I went through the whole
29:03 song and dance of I have no idea how I’m
29:06 going to get past this and it was kind
29:08 of going through that exercise with that
29:10 business that by the time I got to these
29:12 deals I had already worked out a
29:13 playbook of how to solve that problem
29:16 yeah it’s pretty amazing and I I’m sure
29:18 you know I I I get to office with Ferris
29:20 and and hear the stuff and all the
29:22 challenges we have you know you got
29:23 these years where you’re just banner
29:25 you’re like pounding your chest like we
29:27 are the best and then you get your ass
29:29 kicked the next year it’s this fortitude
29:31 but but but I sent him a text there’s
29:33 years where nothing happens and there’s
29:34 weeks where yours happen yeah but I sent
29:36 him a text today this morning I sent him
29:38 a text because I’m I’m reading a book
29:40 right now and I think I think honestly
29:42 everybody should listen to this book
29:44 it’s it’s a little bit uh it’s a Jim
29:46 Collins book and it’s called B2.0 beyond
29:50 beyond
29:51 entrepreneurship and what it talked
29:54 about and it was really kind of in the
29:56 the middle of the book it starts talking
29:57 about because it talks about vision and
29:58 having all this but then it got into he
30:01 basically has been his whole career the
30:04 guy that’s writing the book he’s talking
30:06 about how luck plays a huge role in the
30:11 success of it however luck happens
30:15 usually when things are down it’s the
30:18 people that are persistent that are
30:20 digging out of a hole right that never
30:22 quit never give up that’s when the luck
30:25 appears and he interviews i’m talking
30:27 about he’s talking about thousands of
30:28 stories and entrepreneurs and people
30:30 that are rock climbers and all this
30:32 stuff really gets into you know it’s in
30:35 the times where we struggle is when we
30:37 become those people that find luck find
30:40 success we break through and it sucks i
30:43 really wish it wasn’t that way because
30:44 it’s no fun but that’s what we’re doing
30:47 here right we’re we’ve got to keep
30:49 digging keep building keep the seats to
30:51 solve problems not to pat ourselves on
30:52 the back that’s it that’s it and you
30:56 know to your point to add to that uh PE
30:59 again people say oh man you’re so lucky
31:01 and this and that the thing that I tell
31:03 them is you have to move because if
31:06 you’re stationary and you don’t take
31:08 action well of course you’re not going
31:09 to get lucky that’s not how luck works
31:12 right but if you move you’re you’re
31:14 inherently going to find chaos and
31:16 problems and right as you’re as you’re
31:19 kind of going beyond the horizon of what
31:21 you know of course it’s going to be
31:24 dangerous and risky but unless you start
31:27 moving towards your goal right this is
31:30 again a very marine century kind of
31:31 mindset always moving toward the
31:34 objective
31:35 you know you’re never going to put
31:37 yourself in the path of
31:39 luck right uh so I think I always tell
31:43 people like when in doubt make a
31:45 decision make just make a decision
31:48 you’re going to find out like if you if
31:49 you make enough decisions off of the
31:52 information that you have you’re never
31:53 going to get 100 100% information right
31:56 so make a decision with the information
31:58 that you
31:59 have and then make sure you have a
32:01 feedback loop to quickly figure out if
32:03 that decision is giving you the right
32:05 signals that you’re going to the right
32:07 direction or the wrong direction and
32:09 then just keep iterating on that process
32:12 make a decision learn from it make a
32:14 decision learn from it that’s how you
32:16 get lucky
32:17 because I tell people all the time in
32:19 the time that I’ve been doing this I’ve
32:22 gained 10 years of experience and wisdom
32:25 in what not to
32:27 do which inherently gives me really good
32:30 intuition on things I should do will do
32:34 and can do right that’s I could not say
32:37 it better man that is we were literally
32:40 whiteboarding earlier this week on the
32:41 on the third acquisition and just put in
32:43 okay what are all of the things we need
32:44 to put into this deal to avoid all the
32:46 mistakes we’ve made right and some of
32:49 them are just gimmies right things that
32:50 you know a seller will agree with etc
32:52 but they significantly reduce the risk
32:54 reduce the cash and all of the different
32:56 things just to give it a chance to you
32:59 know be lucky I mean right we may look
33:01 back in two years and say you know that
33:02 was really lucky but then it’s like well
33:04 no we made all these other 50 mistakes
33:06 so the right structure with the set of
33:08 things so that way it’s not going to be
33:11 lucky it’s actually like we just wrote
33:13 our success that we set ourselves up for
33:15 so it it is truly said that in this in
33:18 the game that we are all playing it only
33:20 takes one right it takes one success
33:24 this is all of this stuff’s enterprise
33:26 and success could be a lot of things
33:27 some people have a number whatever for
33:29 me it’s enough cash coming in that I can
33:32 do everything I want to do and I don’t
33:33 have to work for it right right and
33:35 that’s that is a beautiful place to be
33:37 you know and I’ve had moments of that
33:38 where I’m like I’ve arrived and then
33:40 I’ve had moments where I haven’t but
33:42 it’s it’s not about having the the and
33:44 some people it may be about the Lambo i
33:46 I don’t care have your dream but
33:48 whatever that is these businesses have
33:50 the ability to create the lifestyle we
33:53 want you know because we do a lot we do
33:55 work on the front to see the results in
33:57 the back right there’s you know that’s
33:60 that’s the part we just got off a
34:01 podcast literally and I thought this was
34:03 amazing Dominic and and I think it might
34:04 feed into what you’re doing the
34:06 gentleman has really he’s a self-funded
34:08 holding company so he took his company
34:11 he he’s used his own cash he’s been
34:13 rolling it forward but he said the and
34:15 he’s now on company number six and he
34:17 rolled into a bigger one but he’s then
34:19 breaking out the real estate and he’s
34:21 doing these different things which kind
34:22 of sounds like where you’re I think your
34:24 mind goes but what he said and I the
34:26 biggest takeaway I took he said it
34:27 compounds massive you said the compound
34:30 interest right because if you’re buying
34:33 at a 3x it’s a 33% rate or you’re hoping
34:36 you’re hitting around 33% and if you’re
34:38 compounding at those type rates and you
34:40 do that over a period of 20 years right
34:43 you’re going to you’re going to have
34:44 it’s going to it’s going to be there you
34:46 know now it’s not it’s not as easy but
34:47 it’s that compound so I kind of have a
34:49 feeling that’s where you’re heading is
34:51 that mentality i’m buying these
34:52 companies tucking them in and then I’m
34:54 going to keep growing it is yeah you’re
34:57 absolutely right like I started out with
34:59 Nostra Group which is my personal
35:02 holding company um and and I I alluded
35:05 to this previously but I love I’m If
35:08 you’ve ever read any books by uh Nate
35:10 Nate Silver he talks about like the
35:12 foxes and the hedgehogs right and the
35:14 foxes really are the generalist types
35:18 who touch a lot of different disciplines
35:20 hedgehogs are really people who are are
35:22 experts they go really deep in one thing
35:24 i naturally am a fox i like looking at
35:26 different problems i specifically like
35:29 understanding how can I sit at the nexus
35:32 and take a skill set that I built over
35:34 here and apply it over here i call that
35:36 the transcendence of disciplines um
35:39 which is I guess a very esoteric way of
35:40 describing it but nevertheless the
35:43 holding company aspect was really
35:44 attractive to me because I was like well
35:47 I get to learn lessons across the
35:48 portfolio and then I get to like
35:50 reinvest those into different solutions
35:53 right and that’s kind of like we’ll talk
35:55 about this later but the AI company
35:56 that’s where that came from that came
35:58 from me being a software engineer and
36:00 then me being an operator and then
36:03 seeing a problem and saying “Oh over
36:05 here I built some skills that I think I
36:07 could solve that problem.” And then now
36:09 I’m just you know dipping it into um go
36:13 into the AI let’s jump right into it
36:15 let’s get into it yeah let’s get into it
36:17 this is good stuff i actually might be
36:19 tapping you to figure out some more
36:21 about it too yeah yeah that’d be great
36:23 that’d be great i mean so the the thesis
36:25 is this um especially in the lower
36:29 middle market you kind you’re you hit
36:31 this ceiling where to scale you need top
36:35 tier talent but you may not have the
36:37 cash flow to hire that top tier talent
36:40 right so what does that mean that means
36:42 either a you can’t hire enough people
36:45 right think of a home service business
36:47 that needs you know three dispatchers to
36:50 really handle the volume they can’t
36:52 afford it you know whatever that’s like
36:54 a really simple use case um or you can’t
36:58 go out and find that a player who is you
37:02 know you just kind of give them the
37:03 objective and then they can kind of run
37:05 and make magic happen for you um in your
37:07 case you were talking about the operator
37:09 right imagine you’re at the the lower
37:11 end of the market where you can’t afford
37:13 that that top tier operator um and
37:16 therefore that restricts the time that
37:18 you have because now you got to keep
37:20 eyes on this particular project right
37:23 that’s one problem the other problem
37:26 is our payroll expenses as we all know
37:30 is is typically on the one of the
37:32 highest operating expenses we always
37:35 have yeah and so the question was how do
37:39 we help businesses automate in such a
37:43 way that the payroll expenses do not
37:45 grow linearly with the scaling of the
37:48 company because that can increase the
37:50 margins that you’ll
37:51 experience the third problem and this is
37:54 probably the biggest one for for us as
37:56 owners i we call it the messy inbox
37:59 problem but you can imagine a scenario
38:01 where you’re getting emails phone calls
38:03 text messages Slack messages team
38:06 messages and you’re you’re having to
38:08 play the pivoting of priorities game um
38:12 and if you don’t have the right systems
38:14 in place you lose track of which
38:17 priorities are going to have the highest
38:18 impact on that particular day and as we
38:21 all know like as owners you should be
38:23 making like three decisions a day that
38:24 are the most impactful to move the
38:26 business forward but what happens is
38:28 especially in the lower middle market is
38:30 you get hung up on some scenario that
38:33 your customer support escalated to you
38:35 because there’s an angry customer and
38:36 now you have to go do that but you were
38:38 actually doing your cash flow projection
38:40 for this next acquisition and now that
38:42 get gets put on hold i was just talking
38:44 to a friend i’m talking to a friend of
38:46 mine about this exact situation um where
38:49 he’s trying to do this expansion project
38:51 but he’s put it on hold because he has
38:53 all these other little fires that he’s
38:55 having to put out right that’s the messy
38:56 inbox part um what we’re doing is we’re
38:59 building a digital
39:01 workforce that will give you end
39:04 toend workflow automation and that’s
39:07 think of customer inbound customer wants
39:11 to reschedu a job your digital workforce
39:14 can go from talking to the customer to
39:16 looking at your calendar evaluating
39:18 what’s available sending that back to
39:20 the customer and then getting them
39:22 rescheduled and then sending you a
39:23 notification like “Hey we just
39:25 rescheduled this person.” Or handling an
39:26 objection right customer wants a
39:28 cancellation and a refund your AI agents
39:31 have a standard way that you maybe you
39:33 have a playbook of how to handle those
39:36 objections uh to prevent that person
39:39 from uh you know from getting the refund
39:42 uh or from leaving you uh leaving your
39:44 business so those are a couple use cases
39:46 happy to go into detail but I’ll pause
39:47 there oh and so how like on that thing
39:50 right there so is the company launched
39:52 yet
39:55 yeah so we’re in beta phase uh I’ll give
39:57 you the the resources to um to share
39:60 share with the audience yeah and we’ll
40:01 put that in the show notes yeah we we
40:03 have a wait list uh there’s about
40:05 there’s almost 300 companies on the wait
40:06 list as we speak uh we’re doing three
40:09 pilots right now uh where we’re we’re
40:12 launching agents uh over the next few
40:14 weeks uh for those companies um and uh
40:17 yeah so so on that I I know we’re going
40:20 to jump to our rocket round but I’m
40:22 going to tell you so we are we are we’re
40:24 last year we pursued a platform
40:27 acquisition in the wastewater business
40:29 um to build a it was a construction
40:31 company he builds wastewater down in
40:34 South Texas that B business it did not
40:37 work out for many reasons but we’re
40:38 still in relationship with the seller
40:40 right we think that we will get that
40:42 eventually we stumbled across a bolt-on
40:45 much smaller right but it has service
40:47 component to it it’s all service in the
40:50 wastewater in South Texas so we are
40:53 going in right now and we have hired you
40:56 know we hired the right partner to come
40:58 in gave them a nice slug of equity all
40:60 the above to start figuring out how to
41:02 create how to get into the service model
41:04 and really start like you said
41:06 standardize all the processes but like
41:09 you said we’re limited on cash we’re
41:11 limited on all these things and this is
41:13 one of those perfect like if I could
41:14 figure out like an AI agent that was
41:17 actually
41:18 calling our customers that did a panel
41:22 20 years ago and just at least creating
41:24 a a I don’t know I want to talk to you
41:27 about that so I just want I just want
41:28 you I think is that’s pretty good i’ll
41:30 wait till those 300 people get out the
41:32 queue but uh we will be in conversation
41:34 because uh that I was literally thinking
41:36 the other day is like how do we automate
41:38 how do we because these are like we
41:40 don’t need to have people in the office
41:41 and it’s and it’s in a small town and we
41:44 just don’t have a great employee pool
41:46 exactly and so it’s like if I can
41:48 automate all these little things that
41:49 are just automation it’s really it can
41:51 be automated uh so very cool idea that’s
41:55 going to be your home run right there
41:56 bud congratulations no I appreciate it i
41:58 appreciate it yeah yeah no absolutely
42:01 and and you know I I’ll I’ll I’ll end
42:03 just the AI talk with this for for
42:05 business owners who are thinking about
42:07 uh maybe signing up for our company uh
42:10 are you a customer support company or
42:13 are you a plumbing company you have to
42:16 think about like what is the value that
42:17 you’re delivering to your customer we’re
42:19 automating all the stuff that you that
42:21 that you aren’t doing or that you aren’t
42:24 focusing on or shouldn’t focus on we
42:26 should say um but what that allows for
42:28 you really not only the savings and the
42:32 time savings but what that allows for
42:34 you is instead of your customer support
42:37 person who probably has a decent
42:39 relationship with your customers instead
42:41 of them handling emails and text
42:42 messages all day they can spend more
42:44 time calling your customers and building
42:46 rapport
42:48 and building relationships because
42:50 that’s what humans can do right that’s
42:53 what makes us different than these AI uh
42:56 workforce agents is we can build those
42:59 relationships so let’s automate the
43:01 stuff that humans don’t need to do and
43:03 let’s give your people the power to go
43:05 build those relationships for you which
43:07 is just going to be increased lifetime
43:10 revenue lifetime value of customers over
43:13 over the long term unbelievable Dominic
43:16 awesome great stuff let’s get to the
43:17 rocket round all right this is where we
43:19 ask our guests three questions learn a
43:21 little bit more about them so Dominic
43:23 what do you like to do in your free time
43:25 yeah so uh as I mentioned earlier I have
43:27 a one-year-old uh he keeps me busy he’s
43:30 a he’s a busy little guy uh so I spend a
43:32 lot of time uh doing hikes right with
43:35 the family uh getting outdoors trying to
43:38 have an active life instead of spending
43:40 all the time in front of a computer
43:42 awesome nice all right next question
43:44 most memorable moment in your business
43:45 journey
43:47 um I
43:49 think the most memorable moment was
43:54 securing deal
43:55 two the reason for that
43:58 was I saw the process working it was the
44:02 first time that I that I was able to
44:05 validate the thesis and the process and
44:08 the systems that I built were actually
44:10 allowing me to do the things that I was
44:12 dreaming of
44:14 okay fantastic and what is your favorite
44:17 tool or resource
44:20 this is a good
44:21 one um
44:26 I’ll do Can I do a general one yeah
44:29 whatever you want books
44:32 oh wow books uh I mean we can learn
44:36 somebody spent 30 years in a field and
44:40 they condensed it to 200 pages and we
44:42 can consume that and change our lives so
44:45 it’s self-education amen through books
44:47 that’s why I love the power of podcast
44:48 the power of books the internet i mean
44:50 it’s all the the ephemeral just kind of
44:52 dissemination of of of information so
44:54 absolutely so Dominic how can people get
44:56 a hold of you yes so uh I use LinkedIn
45:00 you can find me Dominic Blue on LinkedIn
45:03 um Twitter at
45:05 Dominic_blue um those are the two main
45:08 places and then if people want to reach
45:10 out via email ask questions uh my email
45:13 is
45:17 domin.com and I’ll give you the info so
45:19 you can put in the show cool we’re
45:21 posting our show notes to your your
45:22 website too because uh the AI stuff
45:24 because I’m gonna sign up and Sounds
45:26 good man yeah buddy thank you so much
45:28 man really enjoyed meeting with you and
45:29 talking with you i loved it yeah thanks
45:31 Dominic thanks guys thank you for having
45:33 me i appreciate it this has been great
45:35 thank you for listening to the M&A
45:37 Launchpad podcast if you’ve enjoyed
45:38 today’s podcast and would like to
45:40 support us please leave us a rating and
45:42 a review after you listen if you’re
45:43 looking for guidance on your next
45:44 business acquisition or sale capital to
45:47 support your next business transaction
45:48 or to invest in a private equity
45:50 opportunity visit equityaunchpad.com to
45:53 learn more and to connect with our team
45:55 if you know of an individual who would
45:56 be a great guest for the show head over
45:58 to
46:01 equityaunchpad.com/nominate where you’ll
46:02 have the chance to refer yourself or
46:04 someone else to be a guest on our show
46:05 i’m Casey Menchu and I look forward to
46:07 talking with you next week
