Sure. Like I said most aren't glamorous nor necessarily tech in their core nature. I know some of the rough FTE counts, but also some of these used quite a bit of part time help.
Electrical Contractor - ~$14M/Annual revenue, less than 30 FTE's. Honestly a couple variations of this too around, one was a regional HVAC supply company etc.
Small boat manufacturer - ~$25M annual revenue, less than 60 FTE's (IIRC) Family owned, started only about 10 years ago. Owners worked their asses off until the past few years (I think he said when he crossed the $18M mark as that was some magic number for them).
Family that has purchased many Franchise stores from Texas to Virginia and Florida - ~$8M annual rev and they never work in a store other than when it opens to help set the tone. They visit them often though. I have no clue the count of employees they have, but in the holding company we did work for it was only about 4-5.
Plumbing contractor - ~$9M annually, they started as a pure service contractor and then also opened up regional distribution of supplies. Supply side is the higher growth side for them, even through the real estate market stupidity. I guess everyone needs a toilet that works and pipes that don't leak though, so makes some sense.
Financial Auditing Software - ~$14M annually, they wrote custom software 15-18 years ago (and keep updating it) that analyzes loan risks and compliance for underwriters. Around a dozen FTE's, owner would rarely wear shoes when he came to the office, always made me laugh.
Consumer wearables (shirts, hats, backpacks etc) - ~$11M annually, < 25 FTE's. Actually a few of these types of business we have worked for, but they seem to come and go more than others, so my sense is sustainability doesn't seem to be really easy in that market place.
Some of these numbers are old and I know at least 2 of these are likely doing considerably better now. The things I noted when I was doing work for these and others is how they structured their companies. They always focused on hiring people to manage things for them and focused on training the leadership. They never made the business all about them, maybe to help get it off the ground but not after. That lets them pick and choose what they do and allows them the freedom of the "lifestyle" business. I probably have done work with 25-30 over the past 7 years that would fit into this category now. I can't say I have seen too many with > $25M in revenue, as that seems to be when people start selling out or they have to jump back in 100% and push to a new level (just my observation/guess).
Also, in talking to them the other common theme is it was never "lifestyle" in the early days, it was only after they hit their magic tipping number or a certain number of years of profitability at a certain level that it became "lifestyle" for them.
All the rich people I know IRL have businesses like this. None are in websites or startups. I know millionaires who don't have an email address. I wish I had gone into one of these fields, the web feels like the most saturated place on the planet right now.
Almost all the wealthy people I know did it through a combination of real estate and small businesses too. Only a few came directly from anything technology based.
I don't necessarily think the web is saturated it is more that the tech media and places like HN have a small but very active community and so things seem very crowded. I personally intentionally sought out a lot of the traditional companies to consult with because I knew they have been underserved and frankly not well appreciated by the general tech community. Sure, lots of SaaS solutions get built but many times they are 65% of what the company needs etc, and with a little extra help and integration work we can give them a cost effective, 98% solution that they can live with and helps them make more money. It comes with challenges though too as these same small businesses can be a challenge to work with at times more than a startup or an enterprise client, so its not a panacea by any means.
Personally, I have been diversifying for years and working to acquire real estate and work in markets that have little to do with technology as a core. Not because I don't love the tech industry, I just am playing the odds, diversifying and doing stuff that I love so it all works out for me. Plus something appeals to me at some level not to be behind a computer day in and day out the rest of my life.
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Could you give more insight onto these types of companies? Employees, industries, products, revenue/profit, everything. They sound interesting.
Sure. Like I said most aren't glamorous nor necessarily tech in their core nature. I know some of the rough FTE counts, but also some of these used quite a bit of part time help.
Electrical Contractor - ~$14M/Annual revenue, less than 30 FTE's. Honestly a couple variations of this too around, one was a regional HVAC supply company etc.
Small boat manufacturer - ~$25M annual revenue, less than 60 FTE's (IIRC) Family owned, started only about 10 years ago. Owners worked their asses off until the past few years (I think he said when he crossed the $18M mark as that was some magic number for them).
Family that has purchased many Franchise stores from Texas to Virginia and Florida - ~$8M annual rev and they never work in a store other than when it opens to help set the tone. They visit them often though. I have no clue the count of employees they have, but in the holding company we did work for it was only about 4-5.
Plumbing contractor - ~$9M annually, they started as a pure service contractor and then also opened up regional distribution of supplies. Supply side is the higher growth side for them, even through the real estate market stupidity. I guess everyone needs a toilet that works and pipes that don't leak though, so makes some sense.
Financial Auditing Software - ~$14M annually, they wrote custom software 15-18 years ago (and keep updating it) that analyzes loan risks and compliance for underwriters. Around a dozen FTE's, owner would rarely wear shoes when he came to the office, always made me laugh.
Consumer wearables (shirts, hats, backpacks etc) - ~$11M annually, < 25 FTE's. Actually a few of these types of business we have worked for, but they seem to come and go more than others, so my sense is sustainability doesn't seem to be really easy in that market place.
Some of these numbers are old and I know at least 2 of these are likely doing considerably better now. The things I noted when I was doing work for these and others is how they structured their companies. They always focused on hiring people to manage things for them and focused on training the leadership. They never made the business all about them, maybe to help get it off the ground but not after. That lets them pick and choose what they do and allows them the freedom of the "lifestyle" business. I probably have done work with 25-30 over the past 7 years that would fit into this category now. I can't say I have seen too many with > $25M in revenue, as that seems to be when people start selling out or they have to jump back in 100% and push to a new level (just my observation/guess).
Also, in talking to them the other common theme is it was never "lifestyle" in the early days, it was only after they hit their magic tipping number or a certain number of years of profitability at a certain level that it became "lifestyle" for them.
All the rich people I know IRL have businesses like this. None are in websites or startups. I know millionaires who don't have an email address. I wish I had gone into one of these fields, the web feels like the most saturated place on the planet right now.
Almost all the wealthy people I know did it through a combination of real estate and small businesses too. Only a few came directly from anything technology based.
I don't necessarily think the web is saturated it is more that the tech media and places like HN have a small but very active community and so things seem very crowded. I personally intentionally sought out a lot of the traditional companies to consult with because I knew they have been underserved and frankly not well appreciated by the general tech community. Sure, lots of SaaS solutions get built but many times they are 65% of what the company needs etc, and with a little extra help and integration work we can give them a cost effective, 98% solution that they can live with and helps them make more money. It comes with challenges though too as these same small businesses can be a challenge to work with at times more than a startup or an enterprise client, so its not a panacea by any means.
Personally, I have been diversifying for years and working to acquire real estate and work in markets that have little to do with technology as a core. Not because I don't love the tech industry, I just am playing the odds, diversifying and doing stuff that I love so it all works out for me. Plus something appeals to me at some level not to be behind a computer day in and day out the rest of my life.