In this episode of Pest Control Legends, Dan Leibrandt interviews Tony Hoffman, co-founder of Rumble Pest Solutions, and Greg Lake, Rumble's CEO. Tony and his three partners started the company in Springdale, Arkansas in 2017 with a $40,000 investment, $10,000 from each founder. They were cash flow positive in two months and profitable in six. Nine years later, Rumble is doing $12 million in revenue and just landed on the PCT Top 100 for the first time. Greg joined as CEO in August 2025 after two decades scaling TruGreen from $200 million to over $1 billion and running 200 branches with 3,000 door to door reps.

We get into the actual mechanics of how Rumble scaled: the door to door playbook, why they keep sales teams small at 12 to 15 reps per market, and the 18 month retention cliff that determines whether a customer stays long term. Tony breaks down how he thinks about partnerships and why he treats his four way co-founder relationship like a marriage. Greg walks through what he learned running pest control at scale and how it applies to a growth stage business now backed by Dynamic Core Capital Partners. We also cover their acquisition scorecard, their greenfield expansion model for two new markets, and how private equity values door to door companies differently than digital-grown ones.

The back half of the conversation gets into culture and people. Greg explains the difference between internal and external customers and why every operational decision at Rumble runs through both. Tony talks about the hiring profile that has worked best for them in door to door (small town kids with manual labor backgrounds over flashy talkers), and the pressure test he uses for every business decision: whether his technicians are proud to wear the logo to their kid's soccer game. We also get into Greg's framework for consistency across branches, why pursuing excellence means refusing to be mediocre, and how culture functions as the personality of the organization rather than a poster on the wall.

Tony Hoffman, Co-founder of Rumble Pest Solutions:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyhoffman/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.j.hoffman.1

Website: rumblepestsolutions.com

Dan Leibrandt, Host of Pest Control Legends:

Facebook: https://facebook.com/DanLeibrandtOfficial  

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danleibrandt/   

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanLeibrandt   

Website: https://danleibrandt.com

Pest Control Legends Platforms:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PestControlLegends 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46XRaco5nPWcqHWIoQ2eZ5

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pest-control-legends/id1768175212

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b060991d-e5d5-4683-b83f-8db469714ba7/pest-control-legends 

Podcast Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:51 Tony's Path Into Pest Control and Starting Rumble

06:01 Is Door to Door Required for Pest Control

07:30 Greg's Journey From TruGreen to Rumble

14:36 Customer Obsession and Internal vs External Customers

22:59 Scaling From $1M to $10M Through Retention

26:56 Consistency Across Branches

31:26 Advice for Operators Under $1M

37:00 Partnership Dynamics and the Four Co-Founders

39:08 Greenfield Expansion and Private Equity Backing

44:02 Door to Door Tradeoffs and the 18 Month Cliff

48:47 Hiring for Door to Door and Management

52:02 Building Culture

54:36 Final Message to Pest Control Operators

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