tezclarke

OP here - this was my first post on HN, loved it. Thanks for all the discussion, it helped challenge and solidify my thinking.

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.

It's only going to get easier, cheaper and faster to build these things for yourself. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, and the other way around is increasing now. Industry insiders building their own tools to solve specific problems.

On residential - lots of people don't want to get their hands dirty. For commercial - it's rarely worth doing in-house and in manufacturing / food industries getting it wrong can lead to fines / closure losing contracts, so it's not worth penny pinching.

For the d2d residential services, you're buying peace of mind and usually the provider will guartantee the service. E.g. if you see ants and you're not due a visit until next month, they'll drop in and sort it.

Getting the initial conversation even to research (not just to sell to) is more difficult than before for these reasons.

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

Tough as consumer goods are generally getting cheaper and better quality. Can’t remember the last time we had a problem with the TV. We have left them behind when moving apartments as they’re relatively cheap now

It’s the business characteristics I like. Recurring and one off revenue, big market, growing, regulations. The exam barrier to entry rather than 4y apprenticeship like plumbing

Agree.

A lot of people have been sold a lie about uni education (and willingly bought it in a lot of cases).

AI slop - you've sent me the same message on linkedin and you vibe coded that two minutes ago.

They killed it. "A better way to rent"

I give this example as I previously worked at a big European REIT. My job was to implement renewable energy across the portfolio which on paper was a no-brainer due to legislation and grants / feed in tariffs etc.

We got huge pushback from every angle with the local teams, people paying lip service to drag it out and delay. Eventually I got to the root cause... The capex had to come out of the business unit, and the payback would negatively affect their KPIs and bonus. Next time I came across this kind of issue, I asked to see the incentive structure before approaching anyone.