Andy Rougeot·December 8, 2025

SBA Acquisition to $9m Cash Exit in 5 Years | Andy Rougeot Interview

Andy Rougeot is a Harvard Business School-trained Army veteran (intelligence officer, served with Rangers overseas) who did a geographically focused self-funded search in Denver in 2017 and acquired RG Maintenance, a niche business repairing sliding gates and access control keypads for self-storage facilities across Colorado. He bought the business at 3.25x EBITDA on ~$725k EBITDA using an SBA 7(a) loan, accepting hair around significant owner dependency and Public Storage customer concentration in exchange for a low price, dominant 95% market share, and highly recurring quasi-actuarial revenue. Andy embedded himself hands-on in the field, navigated a rocky early period including fraudulent employees, and then pivoted from a failed attempt to expand into non-storage verticals to a winning strategy of geographic expansion guided by Public Storage: they told him their worst-served markets, he opened new states (Oregon, Bay Area, Washington, Arizona) using player-coach GM hires drawn primarily from military veterans. By the time he sold in July 2022 to an LA-based PE firm doing a roll-up, the business had grown to approximately $9m revenue and $1.7m EBITDA across five states and ~40 employees, and he exited for $9m all-cash — roughly a 5x EBITDA multiple — to fund a run for Denver mayor (he came in fourth). Post-exit Andy became an active personal investor in 26+ self-funded search deals and raised a fund focused on buying search fund LP secondaries.

Deal facts

purchase price: ~$2.36m (implied: 3.25x EBITDA of $725k)
multiple: 3.25x EBITDA
sde ebitda: EBITDA $725k at acquisition; grew to $1.7m EBITDA by exit
revenue: $2.5m at acquisition; ~$9m at exit
financing structure: SBA 7(a) loan (self-funded search); all-cash exit at $9m to PE buyer
notes: Exact dollar purchase price not stated verbatim; implied ~$2.36m from 3.25x multiple on $725k EBITDA. Sold July 2022 to LA-based private equity firm doing a roll-up. Exit was all cash; Andy wanted to roll equity but buyer declined. Exit multiple approximately 5x+ EBITDA on $1.7m EBITDA.

Why this business

Andy wanted to stay in the Denver metro area because his wife worked in the ski industry, forcing a geographically focused, industry-agnostic search. RG Maintenance appealed because it had ~95% market share in a niche with highly recurring quasi-actuarial revenue (gates get hit by trucks on a predictable basis), high margins from in-house steel fabrication, insurance companies as payers who were time-sensitive not price-sensitive, and a low purchase multiple of 3.25x that offset the hair of heavy owner dependency and customer concentration with Public Storage.

What's working

Dominant niche position: ~95% market share in Colorado for self-storage gate and access control repair, with no pure-play competitors in other markets
Quasi-actuarial recurring revenue: gates get damaged at a predictable rate, creating insurance-like revenue visibility without a formal contract
In-house steel fabrication of replacement gates at low cost, sold at high margins to insurance-company payers who prioritize speed over price
Geographic expansion driven by existing large customer (Public Storage) directing Andy to their worst-served markets, providing a warm lead and de-risking new market entry
Hiring military veterans as player-coach general managers: adaptable, servant-leader oriented, willing to operate with light oversight in new remote markets
Grew from Colorado only to five states (CO, OR, CA/Bay Area, WA, AZ) and from $2.5m to ~$9m revenue over five years while maintaining similar margins

What's hard

Extreme owner dependency at acquisition: founder Rick was sole salesperson, primary technical decision-maker, and single point of contact for all customers and technicians
Customer concentration: Public Storage represented over 50% of revenue by check volume, though decision-maker risk was more diffuse across seven district managers
Failed initial expansion thesis: attempt to serve non-storage gate customers (HOAs, apartments, industrial) failed because gate and keypad types differed too much from storage-specific equipment
Early employee misconduct: two technicians discovered hiding in a storage facility using drugs, submitting fraudulent invoices; one then claimed company tools as personal property with no inventory to dispute it
Ran business too lean for too long: Andy did all sales himself until 2022 and flew to each remote market monthly rather than hiring dedicated salespeople or a recruiter sooner, slowing growth
Interest rate sensitivity of REIT customers: post-sale, rising rates in 2022 caused all storage REIT customers to simultaneously cut non-mandatory maintenance spending, a correlated risk Andy did not fully anticipate
Should have grown to 20-30 markets rather than 5, and potentially explored vertical integration with keypad SaaS providers or their vendors

Notable quotes

I think veterans just have that gut instinct of like, if I don't know what to do, find the dirtiest, sweatiest job or and go do that.

It was a highly recurring revenue outside of that construction side of the business where you wouldn't know which gate in the given day was going to get hit by a truck, but a relatively large percentage of these gates were hit by a given truck in a given day. So sort of actuarily like an insurance company recurring revenue.

I went to our biggest customer of public storage and said, 'Where's your worst provider in the country?' And they said, 'Oregon. We hate the guy in Portland.' And I said, 'Well, if I provide the exact same service, same quality, same pricing as we do in Colorado. Will we get the business in Oregon?' They said, 'Of course.'

By 2022 we're in five markets. We're up to $1.7 million in IBIDA on about $9 million in revenue and we're 40-ish employees.