Iris Levine·November 4, 2024

$6m Business, 3 Minutes From Childhood Home | Iris Levine Interview

Iris Levine, a 29-year-old Nashville native who paid her way through Tufts University in three years while working multiple jobs, made her way through corporate finance and two tech startups before buying The Porch Company, a 30-plus-year-old outdoor living design-and-build firm in her hometown, in 2024. The business generates over $6 million in annual revenue building high-end custom porches with in-house carpenters, carries above-average margins for the construction industry, and runs on a two-to-four month project backlog that largely insulates it from cyclicality. Iris acquired the business with less than $150,000 of personal equity using a 5% SBA loan structure — a rate her lender had to push internally to approve — forgoing a quality of earnings and obtaining her Tennessee contractor's license during diligence to satisfy transferability requirements. She brought immediate value by modernizing the firm's systems (accounting, project management, expense tracking) in the first week, and within two months reported working fewer hours than at her prior tech jobs, with employees embracing the changes. A central theme of her story is buying a business for flexibility and legacy: the company is literally three minutes from the house she grew up in, in a neighborhood she once could not safely play outside, and she now employs 23 people all earning more than her late mother ever did.

Deal facts

multiple: slightly lower multiple than comparable (lower than Stoneman North episode's comparable; project-based discount noted)
sde ebitda: at the upper end of $400k-$1m SDE range searched; described as 'really stellar' debt coverage with above-average industry margins
revenue: $6m+
financing structure: SBA loan (5% equity injection approved after pushback from lender); less than $150k personal equity into the deal; working capital included at close; HELOC used to preserve cash reserves
notes: Full buyout, no retained seller equity. Seller was woman who founded the business. Iris obtained a Tennessee contractor's license during diligence as a condition of the deal. Lender: Lane Roads at LiveOak Bank. No quality of earnings was performed.

Why this business

Iris wanted to come back to Nashville, be embedded in her hometown community, have flexibility to eventually raise a family, and be her own boss. Her cousins introduced the concept of buying an existing business rather than starting one. The Porch Company specifically appealed because it was woman-owned, over 30 years old, had an outstanding reputation, was a recognizable brand in Nashville, and offered a platform to apply her tech/systems background to a business hungry for modernization. The business being literally 3 minutes from her childhood home in a neighborhood she grew up in added deep personal meaning.

What's working

Strong word-of-mouth and referral-driven demand; 50+ near-five-star Google reviews; nearly everyone in Nashville knows the brand or has a porch built by the company
Two-to-four month pipeline backlog provides revenue visibility and cushion against cyclicality; currently booked through February-March
Projects are cash-flow positive — customers pay deposits upfront and payments track project progress, so the business does not carry working capital risk typical of construction
Above-average margins for the industry; revenue has steadily grown over 30 years and held post-COVID without a boom-bust spike
In-house carpenters give quality control over the proprietary build process, making the product difficult to replicate and supporting 30-year-old structures
Nashville's mild climate allows year-round construction, eliminating the seasonal cyclicality that would exist in northern markets
Team stability — employees with 10 and 17 years tenure stayed through the transition; sellers were willing to be hands-on during transition
Rapid tech modernization (new accounting system, project management software, expense management) welcomed by staff and already showing efficiency gains within weeks of close

What's hard

Project-based revenue means the pipeline must constantly be fed; no recurring contracted revenue stream
Recruiting and retaining skilled trade workers (in-house carpenters) is difficult in a tight labor market for trades
Iris had no construction background, requiring her to study for and pass the Tennessee contractor's license exam in two weeks during diligence
A key second-in-command leader was not retained at close, leaving Iris short on project management depth in the first weeks
Decided not to do a quality of earnings — acknowledged as a risk, though so far financials have matched expectations

Notable quotes

I'm a few months into actually owning the business but I feel pretty confident that what I see and know and have felt is going to be kind of what sustains and the numbers are true.

This business is 3 minutes from the house that I was literally born in — a neighborhood that I couldn't go outside to play — and now I'm employing 23 people all of which are making more than my mom ever made. I couldn't have dreamed it up if I tried.

I treat my search like I was a CEO of my search business — putting the training wheels of how I operate a real business, which is everything is trade-offs of where you're going to put your capital and trusting your gut but relying on the numbers.

You got to keep feeding the Beast. The fact that it was project-based was something that I knew was not really nice — I just know what you're gonna have in revenue six months from now.