Adam Vandermyde·January 8, 2026

$14.5m Exit After 5 Years | Adam Vandermyde Interview

Adam Vandermyde, a former strategy consultant and private equity COO, bought Pro West (renamed Petro West) — a fueling infrastructure company in St. George, Utah that installs and services gas station equipment from underground tanks to dispensers — for $4.5m at roughly 3.5x EBITDA, financed with 50% seller financing, 40% SBA, and 10% equity. The sellers, retiring founders who had run the business for 25 years as 'salesmen who happen to run a business,' uniquely derisked the deal by hiring Adam as CEO first, locking in an LOI price, and letting him run the company for six months before he committed to close. Adam's core strategic move was flipping the revenue mix from ~65% construction to a service-led model, growing service revenue ~50% while managing every decision to EBITDA rather than top line. A near-catastrophic California construction project — where COVID-era pipe substitution caused every slope test to fail — required ripping up and relaying all piping at the company's cost, triggering five 'two weeks of cash left' moments and cutting over $1m in EBITDA for a year. The company survived through credit extensions, personal capital injections, and a renegotiated seller note, and went on to grow revenue from $15m to $23m and EBITDA from ~$1.3m to $2.3m. Five years after buying in, Adam ran a formal sell-side process and sold to Wesco, a PE-backed strategic, for $14.5m at ~7x EBITDA, rolling $1m of equity into the new entity and transaction-bonusing every employee.

Deal facts

purchase price: $4.5m
multiple: ~3.5x EBITDA
sde ebitda: EBITDA ~$1.3-1.5m at acquisition
revenue: ~$15m at acquisition; ~$23m at exit
financing structure: 50% seller financing (10-year term) + 40% SBA loan (10% equity down) + 10% equity from buyer (including $250k initial 5% stake)
notes: Buyer entered as CEO 6 months before closing; purchased 5% for ~$250k upfront as skin-in-the-game. Sold 5 years later for $14.5m (~7x EBITDA of ~$2.3m trailing 12 months) to Wesco, a PE-backed strategic. Exit debt of ~$5m; buyer held ~80% equity. Rolled $1m equity into acquirer. Transaction bonused all employees at exit.

Why this business

The opportunity came through a brother-in-law who was a business broker. The business fit Adam's criteria: a large enough company (~60 employees) with over $1m in earnings, in a boring but essential industry with little competition in the Intermountain West, owned by founders who lacked operational sophistication and were ready to retire. Adam saw opportunity everywhere he looked — to professionalize back-office operations, flip the revenue mix from construction-heavy to service-led, and position the business as the dominant platform in a fast-growing region that PE-backed consolidators would need to acquire.

What's working

Flipping the revenue mix from ~65-70% construction to a service-led model with growing recurring/reoccurring revenue; service revenue grew ~50% over 5 years
Created a 'customer concierge' role to represent the customer in disputes, dramatically reducing customer churn and making the business stickier
Managed to EBITDA rather than revenue — bonused all employees on EBITDA, tracked margin per labor dollar on construction jobs, and cut costs on controllables (consolidated offices, reduced yard expenses)
Built a leadership team around industry expertise he lacked, hiring a COO/CFO as a co-investor at 19% equity (strategically kept below 20% SBA threshold)
Leveraged position as largest player in the Intermountain West — five of the top eight fastest-growing US states — to attract PE-backed strategic buyers seeking coast-to-coast coverage
Ran a formal sell-side process with an investment banker, generating competitive bidding and earning multiples of the banker's fee
Transparent, employee-centric culture: biweekly 'pro talk' video updates, engagement surveys every six months, bottom-up change management

What's hard

A California construction project during COVID required substituting pipe with shorter lead times; the alternate pipe had flex that caused every slope test to fail, requiring the company to rip up and replace all piping at its own expense — losing over $1m in EBITDA that year plus significant opportunity costs
Five separate 'two weeks of cash left' moments during the crisis year; survived by extending lines of credit, injecting personal capital, and renegotiating seller note payments down 50% for six months
CEO salary was roughly half prior compensation during the pre-acquisition period
Moving a family of six from Dallas, Texas to St. George, Utah — including a high school senior and a freshman daughter active in drill team
Underestimated the financial depth of the decision to redo the California job; did not fully account for opportunity costs before committing
Initially declined the acquisition multiple times (COVID timing, unfamiliar industry, financing uncertainty, personal risk) before the owners structured the CEO-first arrangement

Notable quotes

It was started about 30 years ago by salesmen who happen to run a business. As such there's a lot of focus on the top line, but far as operations and processes and really had to take it to the next level just it wasn't there.

He said, 'We really like you as an owner of the business. What if we signed a letter of intent right now? We agreed upon a price and a multiple, but we hired you as our CEO. You run the business. You kick the tires. You look in the closets. You do what you need to do there. Figure out how to fund it. But if you add any value to the company while you're there, that's yours.' How could I say no at that?

Five times my CFO came to me and said, 'We got two weeks of cash left. We got two weeks. Two weeks.' Five times. Those are hard conversations.

There were times that you had asked me what's our revenue this quarter. I could have guessed. I couldn't tell you. I didn't care. I could tell you exactly what our EBITDA was. I just didn't care about revenue. That wasn't a thing to me. It was all about profitable growth in the form of EBITDA.