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

onhand.pro

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

#161

Post by maxbeech »

anoojb wrote: post #81
tezclarke wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On "venture or nothing" - This will be my second company and this time round I have stripped right back to the problem, which is actually quite basic - pest control is a big, good business to be in and it's possible to build a very big, profitable business by doing the simple things right, consistently. It will compound over time if the basics are done right (which is harder to do than I thought before this experimen…

This is amazing. Thanks for sharing the story. > ...and noticed companies have become less likely to offer their time for ride-alongs and research calls. They get too many requests, and vibe coding is drawing their attention to self-build. Is this ACTUALLY happening? Are entrepreneurs who get into vibe-coders really eating up time a bunch of time for trades people?

[dead]

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

#162

Post by skizm »

tezclarke wrote: post #157
skizm wrote: post #156

> We have an acquisition of a small residential operator lined up, which we'll build the tooling for and grow a platform around once we’ve proven the model works and can scale. This is the exact process private equity tries to do at scale, right?

We plan to build more technology in house than PE does. We will start with this first small acquisition, learn and go from there. It might grow by more acquisitions, franchising or organically by attracting the right technicians over, or having a better training program to quickly train and get experience for new guys

Hopefully I didn’t come off as dismissive. Love the hustle here. It’s always been a dream of mine to quit big tech and do something local like this. Glad to see others have made the jump successfully.

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

#164

Post by theptip »

tezclarke wrote: post #69
btown wrote: post #63

> That’s why selling SaaS or AI to this kind of company isn’t for me - I’d rather focus my energy on building a company from my own principles, and hire people who share them from the beginning. > When I told my manager I was leaving, he said I should start my own company and give him a call when I do. So that's what I'm doing. I love hearing stories like this, because it shows a way to be a builder without the "vent…

On "venture or nothing" - This will be my second company and this time round I have stripped right back to the problem, which is actually quite basic - pest control is a big, good business to be in and it's possible to build a very big, profitable business by doing the simple things right, consistently. It will compound over time if the basics are done right (which is harder to do than I thought before this experimen…

I think there is the potential for a beautiful correction here; the general narrative over the last 5-10 years is PE buying up good businesses, enshittifying them and loading up debt to improve margins, and driving down quality.

But this leaves an opportunity for anyone that cares to build a business that is higher quality (and even better if it’s possible to build it efficiently too).

I think with AI lowering the barrier to entry we should expect to see a lot of new small businesses appear, and perhaps if we are lucky this trend can drive a reversal in the enshittification.

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

#165

Post by andrew_lettuce »

btown wrote: post #63

> That’s why selling SaaS or AI to this kind of company isn’t for me - I’d rather focus my energy on building a company from my own principles, and hire people who share them from the beginning. > When I told my manager I was leaving, he said I should start my own company and give him a call when I do. So that's what I'm doing. I love hearing stories like this, because it shows a way to be a builder without the "vent…

The idea that AI makes adaptation and maintenance easier for non domain experts seems a stretch at best. All we've seen to date is it makes building shallow copies quicker for more people, and helps experts go faster. Neither of these applies to the majority of bootstrapping vertical domains

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

#166

Post by foobarian »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #132
tezclarke wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On "venture or nothing" - This will be my second company and this time round I have stripped right back to the problem, which is actually quite basic - pest control is a big, good business to be in and it's possible to build a very big, profitable business by doing the simple things right, consistently. It will compound over time if the basics are done right (which is harder to do than I thought before this experimen…

> which is actually quite basic - pest control is a big, good business to be in and it's possible to build a very big, profitable business by doing the simple things right, consistently. I would have thought the opposite because pest control is the easiest thing to DIY for most people. All the insecticides and traps and knowledge for what to use is available online, there is usually no emergency so research can be do…

My biggest problem with a service like pest control is I can't tell what it does. I'm not talking about getting rid of a hornet nest or squirrels in the attic, I'm talking about the door-to-door salespeople who want you to subscribe to a quarterly sprinkling of some magic dust around your house. If I could get a trustworthy measurement like "number of 2x4s not destroyed by carpenter ants" or "sqft of siding not rotten because of nests" I would be a lot more open to it.

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

#167

Post by Joel_Mckay »

isatty wrote: post #62

The possum is a friend and not a pest though. I hope you aren’t killing them :(

Possums and Skunks may carry diseases like most wild animals, but usually only show up if there is a rat/mouse infestation around a food/garbage source.

Taming wild animals is bad for their long-term well-being around human populations, as rabies also initially causes uncharacteristically "friendly" behavior at first.

I agree people should leave nature alone whenever possible. =3

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

#169

Post by williamdclt »

charlie0 wrote: post #147
tgtweak wrote: post #91

I know about 4 friends that have left their parent company, built a killer product that same company didn't think to build or didn't believe in, only to get acquired by that same company after a few years... some have done it multiple times. I think this falls in exactly that situation. You see how janky these national companies are doing things, plot out a disruptive course, then disrupt them in a particular region…

How did they deal with non-competes? Are they in CA or somewhere those aren't enforceable?

Sounds like they didn't build competing products, they built products that'd have been very valuable to the parent company.
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