Jack Carr·February 24, 2025

Back from the Brink When Everybody Quits Day 1 | Jack Carr Interview

Jack Carr, a former director of operations for a portfolio of Napa Valley wineries, used proceeds from a Bitcoin mining server farm exit (low seven figures) to fund a search for a business to buy. He targeted HVAC in high-growth Sunbelt markets — ultimately buying Rapid Response, a Nashville-area residential HVAC service company doing $780k in revenue and roughly $250k in SDE, for approximately $620-640k via SBA 7(a), closing in June 2022. On day one, all three technicians quit after the seller accidentally disclosed the sale to a supply warehouse a week before close. With only a part-time dispatcher, Jack spent the next four months teaching himself HVAC from YouTube at 3am then running 3-7 service calls per day through a Nashville summer — eventually earning his HVAC, electrical, and plumbing licenses. Rather than viewing the rocky start as a catastrophe, Jack built every system from scratch the way he wanted, leaving him immune to employee leverage on pricing or process. He then executed a micro-acquisition strategy: buying two additional books of business for $12-25k each (often discovered off-market via Facebook Marketplace or distributor relationships), retaining 70-80% of acquired customers through proactive outreach campaigns including a voicemail recording from the selling owner, text and email blasts, mailers, and free maintenance visits. Combined with an aggressive Google My Business and review strategy (scaling from 60 to nearly 500 reviews at the primary location), the business grew from $700k to $3m in revenue by end of 2024 and is tracking toward $4-5m in 2025, with a stated goal of $20m by 2030.

Deal facts

purchase price: $620k-$640k (approx)
multiple: 2.5x SDE
sde ebitda: SDE ~$200k-$250k
revenue: $780k at acquisition; $3m by end of 2024
financing structure: SBA 7(a) loan
notes: Closed in 45 days. Subsequently acquired two additional books of business: first for ~$12k-$13k (rev-share based), second for ~$25k including truck. Goal of $4-5m revenue by end of 2025 and $20m by 2030.

Why this business

Jack chose HVAC because it was the one trade he could never figure out at the winery — he saw the technical complexity around refrigeration theory as a genuine moat. He also saw PE moving into the industry and wanted to get in front of that tailwind. He targeted Nashville specifically because it was a fast-growing market with lots of residential turnover, giving him a chance to acquire new customers before they built loyalty to existing operators.

What's working

Aggressively acquiring small books of business from retiring or exiting operators at very low cost (~50% of estimated customer acquisition cost for half the three-year customer base), then retaining 70-80% of those customers through proactive outreach (voicemail from old owner, text blast, email blast, mailer, and free maintenance offer)
Dominating Google My Business presence in the Brentwood/Nashville suburb — 4-5x more reviews than nearest competitor, which drives LSA, PPC, and organic SEO rankings
Deep operational knowledge from learning HVAC hands-on (3 hours of YouTube study + 7+ field calls per day for four months), which prevents being held hostage by employees on pricing or process decisions
Networking in HVAC mastermind groups to rapidly learn best practices — pricing, CRM (ServiceTitan), flat-rate vs. dynamic pricing, membership programs
Maintaining and transferring Google My Business pages from acquired operators rather than consolidating, preserving geographical and review equity

What's hard

All three technicians quit on day one because the seller disclosed the sale to the supply warehouse a week before close, removing any chance for a proper leadership transition
Ran solo as the only technician for approximately four months (3-7 calls per day all summer), learning HVAC refrigeration theory from scratch while also managing dispatch, hiring, and operations
Buying too small: the $780k revenue / $250k SDE business lacked real infrastructure (no systems, no processes, no lead generation, no real team) — Jack now argues anything under $1m SDE is not a 'real business' unless the buyer has deep operational skills
Hiring was extremely difficult without a proper physical location (started from a garage, then a storage unit), which limited ability to attract quality technicians
Operating as a small fish in a big Nashville pond means competing with $100m+ PE-backed HVAC companies on marketing, customer acquisition, and talent

Notable quotes

What's worse than all your techs quitting on you day one and having to figure out how to be a tech? The phone's not ringing and you have techs that you need to schedule and get out and you're paying them.

I wake up at 3, learn HVAC till 6, run calls till 6pm, do all my paperwork, try to put stuff on Indeed, get people on board, start the next day very similar.

If you're going to go for that [$1m business], make sure you buy correctly and understand the risk associated with that — and one of those risks being everybody leaving day one.

Don't be held hostage by your employees. Understand your business from all aspects. At the end of the day, you're the one on the hook. If you build it someone else's way and it fails, it's still on you.