Michael Kaplan was a financial partner in ZeroRez, a Minnesota-based carpet cleaning company. We talk about what it took and what it was like to scale a 300-thousand-dollar business up to 18 million.

Michael talks about the mistakes he and his partners made with money and hiring almost costing his business. He also leveraged an economic downturn and the existing radio budget to work in the business’s favor. Hear how out of all things, a radio campaign changed things seemingly overnight.

Michael Kaplan is now a private equity and angel investor who was part owner and president of the wildly successful carpet cleaning franchise called Zerorez. He is now associated with Red Hook Investments and is actively finding new ways to help small service companies grow.

Michael grew up in Minneapolis, moved to Maine (undergrad) then to Atlanta (for barbeque and bourbon) then to Boston (pondering a Jimmy John’s franchise) then to Minneapolis (law school), where help to turn around the troubled carpet cleaning business.

Over the last few years, he's been focused on investing in small home service companies, by purchasing a minority interest in their company, providing capital and expertise along the way, and guiding the business to success. He also loves to buy distressed or "stuck" companies, within the home service space in order to unlock their value.