Unique Indoor Comfort

Unique Indoor Comfort

Case Study - Nate Kukla, CEO

6x
Overall Revenue Growth After Investment vs. Before

70/30
Unique / Operator Ownership Split

4.9 or higher
Google Reviews for all 12 companies

5

"The Grove Mountain guys were fair, collaborative, and great to work with. We had a fantastic investment outcome, while also preserving the culture and integrity of our companies. I would highly recommend the Grove Mountain team to any owner/operator who wants to monetize their hard work and... "The Grove Mountain guys were fair, collaborative, and great to work with. We had a fantastic investment outcome, while also preserving the culture and integrity of our companies. I would highly recommend the Grove Mountain team to any owner/operator who wants to monetize their hard work and brand equity, but also remain part of a high-growth organization and have another chance to make more money again in the future."
men sitting in a room

Searching For the Right Investor

Finding Grove Mountain

We had been approached by several investor groups and strategic acquirors, but were not looking to do anything. I was hyper-committed to delivering an excellent customer experience and just didn't think financial investors would see things the same way. The first meeting with Grove Mountain was better than expected, and we starting talking over the next few months about how it would work, why the consolidation idea made sense, what the equity could be worth, and we learned a lot about them and vice versa - it was time well-spent. It turns out that they were actually quite committed to both customers and employees, something I was able to confirm with some of their prior CEO partners. At the end, they gave us a fair and creative offer, and we also felt good about the go-forward strategy and management set-up. We sold about 70% of our business in June 2021, and we kept 30%.

The Process

Getting to Know Our New Partners

Experiencing Growth

Solidifying Growth

Getting to Know Our New Partners

From the start, they spent a lot of time learning the business, asking questions, and analyzing data. Over the first 6-9 months, they helped put a weekly and monthly cadence around reporting, measuring, and tweaking the operations (sales, systems, ops) on a more frequent and better way than we had been doing prior to the deal.

Experiencing Growth

We then found a few really great companies to add to the platform, and we did those deals relatively quickly. Between these items, the individual companies and the platform all started to perform pretty well. For me personally, they did a good job of encouraging and supporting me but also leaving me alone to lead the businesses.

Solidifying Growth

Over the next year or so, the strategy was consistent: we would make improvements to the companies and also buy other companies. One thing they stuck to was finding high-integrity businesses where the founder/owner wanted to stay, keep some equity, and keep running the business. This was really smart and allowed us to integrate together much more easily than if we had done it differently.

The Results

By the end of our tenure with Grove Mountain, we'd experienced substantial growth, acquired several companies that would scale the platform, had reduced technician turnover, and accomplished our business goals.

  • 12 Companies Bought
  • 6x Total Revenue Growth
  • 50% Less Turnover than industry average
  • Significant equity value creation for everyone

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