Ep.217: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Mike Stone (@michael-stone).

My guest today is Mike Stone, CEO of CertaPro Painters, the largest painting company in North America structured as a franchise with 370 owners across 500 territories and over $700m in revenue. Their goal is to become a $1B company shortly and a $2.5B revenue company by 2032. The painting industry is a $60B industry growing modestly and is highly fragmented, making this an interesting industry to explore given the lack of similarly-sized national competitors.

Mike and I talk about why the industry is so fragmented, the tailwinds behind the industry, what needs to evolve and grow to hit their growth goals, and how CertaPro builds a differentiated playbook within home services.

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Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

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Links:

Mike on LinkedIn

CertaPro

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:26) - Mike’s path to the CEO of CertaPro

(00:09:16) - Meeting Herb Kelleher

(00:11:25) - Where does your company stand today among competition?

(00:13:14) - What is holding back your competition from scaling like you?

(00:14:54) - Is it faster growing under a franchise model?

(00:19:52) - Are there other consolidators chasing talent?

(00:22:37) - What has become harder as you’ve grown?

(00:26:59) - Successful meeting structures

(00:29:24) - What data do you value for marketing?

(00:32:22) - How does seasonality affect business?

(00:33:43) - What else do you need to build to scale to your goals?