I have annoying carpenter ants does anyone recommend Taurus SC?
I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
191–200 of 201 posts
Re: I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Although if we can get more robot sushi restaurants for a while I will not complain.
Yeah if software developers have anything to do with that, it’s providing the software or the money. Running a restaurant is extremely complex, specialized knowledge with a dizzying number of moving parts. Something like 40% of restaurants close their first year, and the large majority don’t make it 5. Funding someone that knows how to run a restaurant and an engineer with food processing expertise, HAACP compliance…
I'm sure there are many software engineers and similarly unqualified people in that 40%.
Re: I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 ba…
I like the story, I struggle to see how to outplay PE. Yes, PE enshittifies the experience. You can be a better human and win customers that way. The headwinds are the usual david-v-goliath going up against scale/consolidation stories: - consolidation gives more purchasing power. When all the PE-controlled pest control vendors in the state are negotiating as one, they get bigger cost breaks - PE has a bigger war ches…
Service businesses win on service, which notably degrades over time with PE firms.
So you win by taking the long view and building incrementally and opportunistically jump in as the incumbent falters.
Re: I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does it matter that pen and paper dominate? How much of the business's expenses are overhead?
I worked in scheduling and timekeeping industry for a little bit, when pen and paper is mentioned you think "oh it's just notes written, and some other things" but in reality it's literally whole departments storing everything in daily/weekly sheets/binders and it's like 20 people's job to keep it all in order and keep the ship running for next week. When someone asks what the plan is for next week, the answer is nor…
Yeah, my first job at a startup was at an oil and gas saas that ingested unstructured data into a standardized db for smaller operators.*
"How much money did we make yesterday?" was a nontrivial question that required a several people a couple of days to compile manually before our software.
--- * Would probably make a killing today; this was over a decade ago and the extraction was 98% regex and custom if statements
Re: I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah if software developers have anything to do with that, it’s providing the software or the money. Running a restaurant is extremely complex, specialized knowledge with a dizzying number of moving parts. Something like 40% of restaurants close their first year, and the large majority don’t make it 5. Funding someone that knows how to run a restaurant and an engineer with food processing expertise, HAACP compliance…
I'm sure there are many software engineers and similarly unqualified people in that 40%.
They don’t make up the majority of that 40%— it’s tough even for experienced people— but the majority of that crowd ends up in that 40%… or soon after if they’re good at convincing other people who have no idea what they’re doing to invest in it. The NRA (the other one) stats that I’m probably misremembering slightly are actually pretty eye-opening.
The problem is that the business requires showing the customer just enough of the labor, planning, etc that goes into their experience to make them feel like they’re getting a lot for their money, but not so much that they feel bad for enjoying it. Unfortunately, the customer doesn’t see most of that labor, and so often they think “well I’ve been to so many restaurants that I b know how they work… I could do this…” They’re almost always totally wrong.
Re: I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is risk averse a thing. Blue collar jobs are just jobs unless you are going self employed and buying all the gear etc.
> buying all the gear Most blue collar jobs require this. A mechanic usually has to provide his own tools. This can be tens of thousands of dollars just for a basic set that lets you do standard jobs. Then you might have specialty tools for specific equipment. Even a framer or roofer is bringing his own hammers, saws, PPE, and anything else that's required. You don't just roll up to a job and get handed everything yo…
Big time money on tools and professional tools are not fucking cheap. I have about $1800 in measuring equipment alone that I had to buy out of pocket. Add in wrenches I can put my entire body weight into all day long, a drill index, multiple top-end hammers, screwdrivers, grinders, deburring tools, punches, clamps, handheld grinders, etc. etc. etc.
I think mechanics have it worse though. In my shop I mostly only need imperial tools, at least.
Re: I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sure there are many software engineers and similarly unqualified people in that 40%.
They don’t make up the majority of that 40%— it’s tough even for experienced people— but the majority of that crowd ends up in that 40%… or soon after if they’re good at convincing other people who have no idea what they’re doing to invest in it. The NRA (the other one) stats that I’m probably misremembering slightly are actually pretty eye-opening. The problem is that the business requires showing the customer just…
Oh for sure. I worked in a restaurant for years through college: eventually the mildly famous chef/owner retired (staff found out by guests commenting on the newspaper story that night). Turned out he had sold it to an up-and-coming local star chef, a couple years past his “apprentice of the year award” and back from working in major kitchens overseas. We were convinced it would be dead within months: it was a 26yo chef who had never run a business, backed up by his wife (who was waiting tables for the first time ever as her second shift after a day job covering the mortgage), and his parents, who came across as thought they had never been inside a restaurant kitchen before that.
Turned out his dad had just been pushed into retirement from head of purchasing and logistics at a multi-state department store, so he ran the paperwork and it was a dream team. Mom was not my type of person but worked her ass off cleaning the whole place every day, very impressive. After about a year they were doing well enough that his wife got to quit working night shift there.
Re: I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
#198Re: I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 ba…
I like the story, I struggle to see how to outplay PE. Yes, PE enshittifies the experience. You can be a better human and win customers that way. The headwinds are the usual david-v-goliath going up against scale/consolidation stories: - consolidation gives more purchasing power. When all the PE-controlled pest control vendors in the state are negotiating as one, they get bigger cost breaks - PE has a bigger war ches…
In this toy model, the strategy that (may) outcompete is delivering a better service.
> The end-game is always monopolization
This is one happy end state of PE but let’s be clear that for large swathes of human history it has not been the goal of most participants in local economies. If PE’s edge is diluted they may find themselves less able to achieve this on the margin.
Re: I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 ba…
I like the story, I struggle to see how to outplay PE. Yes, PE enshittifies the experience. You can be a better human and win customers that way. The headwinds are the usual david-v-goliath going up against scale/consolidation stories: - consolidation gives more purchasing power. When all the PE-controlled pest control vendors in the state are negotiating as one, they get bigger cost breaks - PE has a bigger war ches…
Where there's a consolidated critical asset like the concrete plant, they can monopolize the area. Different with PC when the work is being done by individual techs on their routes.
Also I'm starting with the goal "Be the best pest control company" and building up from there, rather than to monopolize it.