Why I invested in Veteran Home Service

I just made a new investment. Veteran Home Service is a veteran-owned, family-run plumbing company in Savannah, Georgia.

It's not an AI company or a software company. It fixes pipes.

That's exactly why I wanted in.

It starts with Danny

Danny and I worked together on Quarter Oak Communities, which we sold earlier this year. You learn a lot about someone when you build and sell a company with them. You see how they act when a deal almost falls apart, when the numbers come in soft, when someone has to make a hard call at 11pm.

I saw all of that with Danny, and I came out of it with a simple rule: when Danny calls, I listen.

So when he called about this, I didn't need much convincing. I'm excited to back him and to be his partner again. The best investments I've made started with a person, and the business came second. This one is no different.

Make it in software, invest it in boring

My thesis for JET Ventures fits in one sentence. Make cash in AI and software, then put it into boring businesses.

Software is a great way to make money right now. Margins are high, you can ship fast, and AI has made a small team far more capable than it was five years ago. It's also a market where the ground moves every quarter. Something you built in January can be a commodity by June.

Plumbing doesn't move like that.

Pipes burst in a recession. Water heaters die whether rates are up or down. No model release is going to unclog a drain in Savannah in August. Demand is steady, the work can't be offshored, and the customer usually needs it done today.

I like holding both. Software gives me upside and speed. Boring businesses give me cash flow I can count on. Each one makes the other easier to own.

Plumbing first, then build out

We're starting with plumbing on purpose.

It's the most essential trade in the house. When something breaks, it's urgent, which means customers call whoever picks up and shows up. A strong plumbing company earns trust one emergency at a time, and that trust becomes the base for everything else.

Once plumbing runs well, we add services. HVAC is the obvious next step. After that come other essential services, like septic. Each one sells to the same homeowner, uses the same dispatch and back office, and gives a customer who already trusts us another reason to call.

That's the playbook: get one trade right, then stack the next one on top.

Building it the right way

A lot of what I've learned about private equity comes down to one idea. The best businesses don't depend on any one person to run.

That means clean books, systems a new hire can learn in a week, a team that doesn't need the owner on every job, and customers who come back because they're on a service plan, not just because a pipe burst. Most small home service companies are great at the work and thin on everything around it. We want to be great at both.

So that's how we'll build. Grow plumbing, add HVAC and the other trades, and pick up good local companies along the way when it makes sense. Put the reporting, processes, and people in place to support all of it.

If we pull that off, a lot of doors open. Larger home services companies, many of them PE-backed, spend a lot of time looking for businesses like that. Maybe that's a path for us in five years or so. Maybe we keep building. Either way, it isn't the reason we're doing this. The goal is to build a great company that takes care of its customers and its people, and the options come from doing that well.

Why this pairing works

Danny knows how to run and grow an operation. I bring the capital and what I've learned from private equity about building a business that lasts. We've already done this together once.

Plumbing first. Then HVAC. Then the rest of the essentials.

If you know a great plumbing, HVAC, or septic business in Southeast Georgia whose owner is thinking about what's next, I'd love to talk.