I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job

You took a job as a tech in order to learn about pest control business so you could build a SaaS platform? Do I understand that correctly? In the end you decided not to build a SaaS and started your own pest control company?

Interesting pivot. What I don't understand is how the SaaS software fits into it or helps grow a pest control company.

I don't believe SaaS is a good option in this sector - the incumbent VSaaS is decent, cheap, and ubiquitous. By "tech-enabling", I mean layering tech into the ops where it adds value and helps to scale the business. Obvious wins are upselling, hands-free data entry to the CRM, smart traps/stations. My choice is to compete as a tech-enabled operator, rather than sell AI/SaaS to incumbents.

GTM? Does that mean Get The Money?

Assuming everyone knows your acronyms is just not a good writing style.

Since I couldn't understand how s/w was going to get opossums out of anyone's basement, I think the correct decision was made: hands on!

You deserve accolades for making this choice. Good Job!

Like any physical trade, this is by it's nature a local only endeavor. So a web presence that is primarily visible to geographically local potential customers would be most effective.

Any aggregation is really just a way to skim some of the profits from the people actually doing the job. That is to say, GTM according to my definition above.

Personally, when I can't get an in-real-life personal referral to some trade, and I'm forced to do web search, I always spend extra time to try to find a web page that is put up by a local company, not an aggregator.

Things like plumers.com (this is a totally made up example, not referring to any real website) I find to be extremely irritating. Since they have absolutely nothing to do with whoever will eventually show up and do the work.

This form of aggregation through, is extremely common today, and a very large part of why the modern internet sucks.

craigslist.com (the actual website) used to be a good example of referring local services, until it was overrun with spammers and scammers.

Will this correct? Will we proceed to the dead internet? Who knows! What next weeks exciting episode to find out...

The software for businesses like this is tightly intertwined with operations. Hence, it's less of a SaaS and could be more like a franchise model.