Mark Haney: And now from the Marquee Media Studio
Mark Haney: inside Mark Tank.
Mark Haney: It's the Mark.
Colton Paulhus: Haney Show.
Mark Haney: Colton Paulus is in the house and we have a
Mark Haney: brand new camera, so we are gonna look good.
Mark Haney: If you are listening to this, it's the same
Mark Haney: old audio, but if you are watching this on
Mark Haney: YouTube, see if you can notice between the
Mark Haney: old cameras and the new.
Mark Haney: We have this three camera setup and one of
Mark Haney: the cameras is brand new Scott, my man,
Mark Haney: tells me it is better than the rest.
Mark Haney: So, anyway, enough about me and my camera
Mark Haney: setup.
Mark Haney: This is about Colton Paulus and Anchored
Mark Haney: Tiny Homes.
Mark Haney: This is like one of the fastest growing
Mark Haney: companies in the region and the product is
Mark Haney: really interesting.
Mark Haney: The story of Colton and him recruiting his
Mark Haney: family in to build this business Super
Mark Haney: interesting.
Mark Haney: So we are gonna dive into all of that and
Mark Haney: hopefully learn a little bit about how you
Mark Haney: scale a company like you guys are doing.
Mark Haney: It's really really incredible.
Mark Haney: Welcome to the show, colton Yep.
Colton Paulhus: Thanks for having me on.
Colton Paulhus: I look forward to it.
Mark Haney: Yeah, you and I have been kind of tracking
Mark Haney: you from a distance.
Mark Haney: We have known each other a number of years
Mark Haney: and you have had some good ideas in the
Mark Haney: past and kind of got them off the ground
Mark Haney: and then you kind of maybe switched to
Mark Haney: another idea or two and always impressed me
Mark Haney: with your ambition.
Mark Haney: But now the results are beginning to speak
Mark Haney: for themselves.
Mark Haney: So maybe just give me a little of the
Mark Haney: background.
Colton Paulhus: That's right.
Mark Haney: Maybe just give us your origin story, if
Mark Haney: you will.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, I was a sports growing up so I was a
Colton Paulhus: college athlete, went to Colorado State,
Colton Paulhus: played Division one football.
Colton Paulhus: When I got out of college my first job was
Colton Paulhus: actually selling insurance, so didn't
Colton Paulhus: really know a ton about business.
Colton Paulhus: I didn't really have the like door to door
Colton Paulhus: knocking story selling things door to door.
Colton Paulhus: I was focused on sports.
Colton Paulhus: But then when I got out of college I came
Colton Paulhus: home and got a sales job selling for
Colton Paulhus: farmers insurance working for a guy by the
Colton Paulhus: name of Bob Nielsen locally.
Colton Paulhus: Actually fell in love with the sales
Colton Paulhus: process.
Colton Paulhus: I was like I could call someone sell
Colton Paulhus: something, get a commission.
Colton Paulhus: Call someone sell something, get a
Colton Paulhus: commission.
Mark Haney: A lot of people don't like that.
Mark Haney: That's right I loved it.
Colton Paulhus: I loved it.
Colton Paulhus: It was like a, it was like a drug to me.
Colton Paulhus: So I got really addicted to the sales
Colton Paulhus: process, but you know, I wasn't really
Colton Paulhus: living a quality of life that was that was
Colton Paulhus: on par with my goals.
Colton Paulhus: So I was drinking quite a bit, partying
Colton Paulhus: really not living a life that I'm living
Colton Paulhus: now, right, so anyway, so I got.
Colton Paulhus: I ended up one night when I was working for
Colton Paulhus: farmers insurance.
Colton Paulhus: I ended up getting into some trouble.
Colton Paulhus: So then what I did is I actually pivoted
Colton Paulhus: from selling insurance to launching a
Colton Paulhus: mobile app by the name of athletes
Colton Paulhus: entourage.
Colton Paulhus: So that was the second kind of business
Colton Paulhus: that I started.
Colton Paulhus: Athletes entourage was a mobile platform
Colton Paulhus: connecting athletes to, you know,
Colton Paulhus: professional athletes that wanted
Colton Paulhus: mentorship and coaching and all that
Colton Paulhus: different stuff, and then that never really
Colton Paulhus: took off.
Colton Paulhus: So I pivoted to more fit incorporated,
Colton Paulhus: which was the same thing but fitness
Colton Paulhus: influencers, and that had a little bit of
Colton Paulhus: success.
Colton Paulhus: I think I had maybe a hundred subscribers
Colton Paulhus: at a time hundred and eighty five but never
Colton Paulhus: really did what I wanted it to do.
Colton Paulhus: And then I pivoted again to a company by
Colton Paulhus: the name of Fresh Water Bottles, which was
Colton Paulhus: a stainless steel water bottle company that
Colton Paulhus: had a cause associated with it.
Colton Paulhus: And then the fifth business that I started
Colton Paulhus: was DMC media, which was just a local
Colton Paulhus: marketing company.
Colton Paulhus: All of these different businesses had a
Colton Paulhus: little bit of success but never really had
Colton Paulhus: the success that I wanted.
Colton Paulhus: So then after DMC media, I ended up getting
Colton Paulhus: married to my wife.
Colton Paulhus: We were kind of building it together at the
Colton Paulhus: time.
Colton Paulhus: I think I had 15 clients, local businesses,
Colton Paulhus: that we were supporting on a marketing
Colton Paulhus: level.
Colton Paulhus: And then what happened is I we stopped that
Colton Paulhus: business.
Colton Paulhus: I tried to get my insurance license one
Colton Paulhus: more time and I actually got denied because
Colton Paulhus: of my past.
Colton Paulhus: So you know, there was a DUI, there was
Colton Paulhus: things, I got expelled from a university so
Colton Paulhus: the insurance committee actually denied my
Colton Paulhus: license.
Colton Paulhus: So I was doing really well.
Colton Paulhus: I was selling for like six weeks because I
Colton Paulhus: got approved tentatively and then they
Colton Paulhus: looked at my file and denied it.
Colton Paulhus: So I was kind of that emotion.
Mark Haney: You like heartbreak.
Mark Haney: You're like I put so much into this.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, there was a ton of time.
Colton Paulhus: I actually failed the test twice, right, so
Colton Paulhus: I put a ton of time into it.
Colton Paulhus: I was recently married.
Colton Paulhus: My wife was pregnant.
Colton Paulhus: We were having our daughter at the time,
Colton Paulhus: four months from now.
Colton Paulhus: So I was panicked.
Colton Paulhus: I'm like I got to provide for my family.
Colton Paulhus: What am I going to do so anyway?
Colton Paulhus: So I started researching different things.
Colton Paulhus: I had always looked at different businesses
Colton Paulhus: and wanted to start companies, but what
Colton Paulhus: happened is I actually got an ad on
Colton Paulhus: Facebook from a competitor, a tiny home
Colton Paulhus: competitor and I kind of got gripped by it.
Colton Paulhus: So I ended up researching what is a tiny
Colton Paulhus: home?
Colton Paulhus: How do you build them?
Colton Paulhus: What does it look like?
Colton Paulhus: All these different things?
Colton Paulhus: And then I went to my dad and I said, hey,
Colton Paulhus: do you think we could build tiny homes?
Colton Paulhus: He said, yes, I threw up an ad on Facebook
Colton Paulhus: and within three days we had 300 people
Colton Paulhus: reach out.
Colton Paulhus: So I kind of had that aha moment like OK,
Colton Paulhus: this might, there might be a market here.
Colton Paulhus: And then really, the rest was history.
Colton Paulhus: We ended up meeting with four people at
Colton Paulhus: like a Starbucks Pete's coffee I ended up
Colton Paulhus: selling to people at this coffee shop over
Colton Paulhus: the course of two weeks I think our first
Colton Paulhus: contract was like 80,000.
Colton Paulhus: The second one was 95.
Colton Paulhus: And then really, the rest was history.
Colton Paulhus: We started going all in January of 2020.
Colton Paulhus: We landed a finance partner and then we
Colton Paulhus: started selling five to seven of these a
Colton Paulhus: month over the next 12 months, so walk.
Mark Haney: Let me make sure I understand the time
Mark Haney: frame, because this all happened in a
Mark Haney: relatively short amount of time.
Mark Haney: So the first five attempts.
Colton Paulhus: That's what we'll call it.
Mark Haney: That's over what span of time?
Mark Haney: That was five years.
Colton Paulhus: That was about five to six years.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, that's how I was thinking.
Mark Haney: Happened.
Mark Haney: Pretty well, you're, you were quick to
Mark Haney: pivot or whatever.
Mark Haney: How fast they say and that's really cool
Mark Haney: that you were able to, I guess not meet
Mark Haney: your expectations and make a new decision
Mark Haney: really quick.
Mark Haney: Did people ever accuse you of being like
Mark Haney: flighty or indecisive?
Colton Paulhus: All the time, Dude, what are you into now?
Colton Paulhus: I mean.
Mark Haney: I'm going to admit I even thought that at
Mark Haney: one point.
Mark Haney: I'm like I thought you were doing insurance.
Mark Haney: What happened to the?
Colton Paulhus: That's right yeah.
Mark Haney: And I'm like, hmm, okay, I always thought
Mark Haney: you were ambitious and so tracking.
Mark Haney: But now you're onto something I've seen you
Mark Haney: in the business journal getting recognized
Mark Haney: for the high growth, and so maybe tell me
Mark Haney: what the company looks like today, and then
Mark Haney: we'll kind of back into some of the lessons
Mark Haney: learned along the way.
Colton Paulhus: That's right.
Colton Paulhus: So the company now we have 72 employees.
Colton Paulhus: We'll eclipse 100 million in system wide
Colton Paulhus: sales this year, and so it's grown like
Colton Paulhus: crazy.
Colton Paulhus: And this has been four years.
Colton Paulhus: So we went from zero to 100 million in
Colton Paulhus: sales in less than four years and, like you
Colton Paulhus: said, I started a ton of different things
Colton Paulhus: and I still have a thousand ideas a week I
Colton Paulhus: have to hone myself in.
Colton Paulhus: Sometimes I'm like, hey, no, let's focus.
Colton Paulhus: This is what's clicking, this is what's
Colton Paulhus: working.
Colton Paulhus: But yeah, it's been fun.
Colton Paulhus: We've scaled it fast, built a great team.
Colton Paulhus: I think one of the things I've learned
Colton Paulhus: recently that I didn't do the first three
Colton Paulhus: years is hire very skilled people, and I
Colton Paulhus: feel like I waited too long because I'm
Colton Paulhus: like, oh, that salary is high, you know,
Colton Paulhus: can we afford that?
Colton Paulhus: But I think now I'm realizing actually
Colton Paulhus: pre-hiring those skilled people makes you
Colton Paulhus: so much more money.
Mark Haney: Yeah, you held off on it because, hey,
Mark Haney: you're an early stage company, that's right.
Mark Haney: You're not in a position to go hire the
Mark Haney: best and the brightest, necessarily.
Mark Haney: So you sort of cut back in those areas and
Mark Haney: you're saying that was a mistake.
Mark Haney: That was a mistake, did it cost you?
Colton Paulhus: It cost us yeah.
Mark Haney: And what?
Colton Paulhus: Opportunity.
Colton Paulhus: Opportunity, operational excellence,
Colton Paulhus: because I'm more visionary right and then.
Colton Paulhus: So we've really needed an integrator, or
Colton Paulhus: multiple integrators.
Colton Paulhus: There's a book Traction that I really like.
Colton Paulhus: So I think we just waited too long to hire
Colton Paulhus: skilled people in each category design,
Colton Paulhus: permitting and construction and we just
Colton Paulhus: wanted to do everything ourselves for a
Colton Paulhus: while.
Colton Paulhus: But now we've pivoted and we've done that
Colton Paulhus: the right way, so it's been helpful.
Mark Haney: Well, I remember I knew your mom and dad a
Mark Haney: little bit and your dad built sheds.
Mark Haney: At one point, if I remember correctly, he
Mark Haney: had a successful business that built sheds,
Mark Haney: and then, obviously, we went into the
Mark Haney: financial crisis and then this surfaced
Mark Haney: after the financial crisis.
Mark Haney: That's right, you're the youngest son,
Mark Haney: right?
Colton Paulhus: No, I'm the oldest.
Colton Paulhus: My brother is 29.
Colton Paulhus: I'm 32.
Mark Haney: Ok, so you come home and you guys get it
Mark Haney: rocked and kind of put the shed business on
Mark Haney: steroids with you're building tiny homes.
Mark Haney: That's right, and maybe I'll stop for a
Mark Haney: second and have you describe for our
Mark Haney: audience what is an anchored tiny home.
Mark Haney: Look like, what does it feel like?
Mark Haney: What's the value there?
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, so a tiny home.
Colton Paulhus: We started the business with tiny homes on
Colton Paulhus: wheels, so we were manufacturing, we had a
Colton Paulhus: warehouse.
Colton Paulhus: We had a 25,000 square foot warehouse at
Colton Paulhus: one point.
Colton Paulhus: But in 2020, California came out with a law
Colton Paulhus: that said any residential lot can build
Colton Paulhus: ADUs so accessory dwelling units.
Colton Paulhus: So we pivoted again and saw the opportunity.
Colton Paulhus: We started getting customers asking us
Colton Paulhus: weekly do you build ADUs, do you build ADUs?
Colton Paulhus: And finally I'm like, yeah, we build them.
Colton Paulhus: And then we ended up just saying we kind of
Colton Paulhus: created some models and went into that.
Colton Paulhus: So we're actually not doing tiny homes on
Colton Paulhus: wheels anymore.
Colton Paulhus: So an ADU is an accessory dwelling unit, so
Colton Paulhus: think of it as a backyard home.
Mark Haney: So that's where you might put.
Mark Haney: You've got a limited sized lot potentially,
Mark Haney: and I think the ADU laws excuse me,
Mark Haney: regulations require you to, or allow you to,
Mark Haney: build something up to a certain number of
Mark Haney: square feet.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, 1,200 square feet.
Mark Haney: OK, so these are homes that are under 1,200
Mark Haney: square feet.
Mark Haney: They fit in, let's call it, your backyard
Mark Haney: or somewhere on your property, and there's
Mark Haney: a regulation that basically allows us, as
Mark Haney: landowners or homeowners, to do that,
Mark Haney: regardless of where our property is located
Mark Haney: or anything like that.
Mark Haney: There's not really the set of restrictions
Mark Haney: you might have had in the past.
Mark Haney: Now it's like no, you can put at least one
Mark Haney: of these on your house.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah.
Colton Paulhus: So the state came in and took the control
Colton Paulhus: out of the city's and county's hands.
Colton Paulhus: So the state said no, every residential lot
Colton Paulhus: has to allow.
Colton Paulhus: Every city and county has to approve ADUs
Colton Paulhus: on a residential lot.
Colton Paulhus: Just because of the housing crisis that
Colton Paulhus: we're in, we're not going to catch up with
Colton Paulhus: single family homes.
Colton Paulhus: They had to think of a different, new
Colton Paulhus: alternative.
Mark Haney: What a concept.
Mark Haney: You can use your own land to build a place
Mark Haney: and the state of California has allowed us
Mark Haney: to do that.
Mark Haney: That's cool.
Mark Haney: It's interesting how people get cities in
Mark Haney: different municipalities.
Mark Haney: They put all these building restrictions
Mark Haney: and codes on us.
Mark Haney: And to have something that takes some of
Mark Haney: those barriers away.
Mark Haney: That's freeing and it has to be really
Mark Haney: something that allows people to maybe have
Mark Haney: their mother-in-law stay at their play or
Mark Haney: have that have to be in the same house with
Mark Haney: you.
Mark Haney: Build your own little house or maybe even a
Mark Haney: little rental.
Mark Haney: I mean, what's the best?
Mark Haney: So our breakdown is.
Colton Paulhus: 70% is family, so aging parents, grandmas
Colton Paulhus: getting old kids coming home from college,
Colton Paulhus: and they just can't afford a $600,000,
Colton Paulhus: $700,000 house.
Colton Paulhus: So the family might own a piece of property
Colton Paulhus: and they want to build a 800 to 1,200
Colton Paulhus: square foot house.
Colton Paulhus: I mean, we even sell 2,300 square foot ADUs.
Colton Paulhus: So 70% is for family, 25% investor and then
Colton Paulhus: 5% just a wealthier client that just wants
Colton Paulhus: some more room on their property.
Colton Paulhus: But when you think of investor, it's
Colton Paulhus: actually not people with 40, 50, 60 rentals.
Colton Paulhus: A lot of times it's someone that just wants
Colton Paulhus: to supplement their mortgage.
Colton Paulhus: So they might have a $3,000 mortgage
Colton Paulhus: payment and they build an ADU and they can
Colton Paulhus: cash flow $800 to $1,000 a month and all of
Colton Paulhus: a sudden their mortgage payment goes down
Colton Paulhus: or they have that free cash flow.
Mark Haney: OK, so they are renting them to somebody to
Mark Haney: help their cash flow.
Colton Paulhus: OK.
Mark Haney: So the only time I've been in a tiny, I
Mark Haney: haven't been in your guys as tiny homes.
Mark Haney: I was at a trade show like a little land
Mark Haney: home and garden show back when I was
Mark Haney: helping my concrete company sell concrete.
Mark Haney: I would go to the home and garden shows all
Mark Haney: the time and I remember walking into these
Mark Haney: tiny homes and thinking this is really cool,
Mark Haney: but they're tiny.
Mark Haney: So you're saying they started about 2,300
Mark Haney: square feet and that's I mean, that's 10 by
Mark Haney: 20 or whatever 20 by 15.
Mark Haney: That's right.
Mark Haney: What can you get?
Mark Haney: Can you even get a bathroom and a kitchen
Mark Haney: and all that?
Colton Paulhus: Yeah.
Colton Paulhus: So our smallest model, that we tells 240
Colton Paulhus: square feet, is a 12 by 20, and it's just a
Colton Paulhus: small kitchen and a bathroom and it's a
Colton Paulhus: studio.
Mark Haney: OK, so you have a hide-a-bed where you have
Mark Haney: one of those beds that tuck into the wall.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, okay.
Mark Haney: Interesting, so, and then they go up to
Mark Haney: 1200 square feet.
Colton Paulhus: Most people are right around the five to
Colton Paulhus: 800 square foot range, so one bed to two
Colton Paulhus: bed unit is most of what our consumer is.
Mark Haney: And are there walls?
Mark Haney: I mean, are you, like you know, in the
Mark Haney: small ones would I typically.
Mark Haney: Would it be?
Mark Haney: You say one to two bed?
Mark Haney: Is that one to two bedrooms?
Mark Haney: Or is that, you know, just a couple beds,
Mark Haney: couple twin beds in one?
Colton Paulhus: room, no one to two bedrooms.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, oh, okay, there's a wall separating
Colton Paulhus: them.
Colton Paulhus: So the way they lay it out, we get creative
Colton Paulhus: and all kinds of stuff.
Colton Paulhus: Maybe a 10 by 10, 10 by 12 bedroom, but
Colton Paulhus: yeah, people put beds in them.
Mark Haney: That's awesome.
Mark Haney: And then they share the yard, potentially
Mark Haney: for his common area to play or run around
Mark Haney: or whatever.
Mark Haney: That's really cool.
Mark Haney: So what you mentioned maybe or maybe this
Mark Haney: is my impression of what you said is that
Mark Haney: we don't have enough housing in California,
Mark Haney: or I guess across the country, across the
Mark Haney: country, yeah.
Mark Haney: So this helps solve that by just making it
Mark Haney: more affordable, just to slap up a quick
Mark Haney: home or put a really affordable home
Mark Haney: together, correct?
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, yeah.
Colton Paulhus: So I mean it does two things right.
Colton Paulhus: So it cuts the red tape from restricting
Colton Paulhus: people right From building what they want
Colton Paulhus: on their property.
Colton Paulhus: And then the second thing is is it really
Colton Paulhus: enables that entry level buyer to have
Colton Paulhus: somewhere to live?
Colton Paulhus: So you know, these big home home developers
Colton Paulhus: are building anywhere from 1800 to 3,500
Colton Paulhus: square foot homes, but that cuts out to
Colton Paulhus: people that are making 60, 70, 80 grand a
Colton Paulhus: year and they can't buy a house.
Mark Haney: So how do you buy any?
Mark Haney: How do you buy one of these ADUs?
Mark Haney: So what's the purchase?
Colton Paulhus: You can't buy them.
Colton Paulhus: But maybe it's a family compound and
Colton Paulhus: they're kind of putting money into one pot
Colton Paulhus: where they can share some of the benefits.
Colton Paulhus: So like, let's say, the mom is moving on to
Colton Paulhus: the property, she sold a house in the Bay
Colton Paulhus: Area, maybe had 160,000 in equity, and then
Colton Paulhus: she puts that 160 into the kids property,
Colton Paulhus: right?
Colton Paulhus: So then they're kind of both benefiting,
Colton Paulhus: right, I love that we're.
Mark Haney: as you know I think you might know this
Mark Haney: we're building a family compound right now
Mark Haney: and we haven't done any tiny homes yet.
Mark Haney: But when you said have your mom move out
Mark Haney: there, that kind of that put me off a
Mark Haney: little bit.
Mark Haney: I want my mom passed away a while ago, but
Mark Haney: I don't know I'm not sure I want my
Mark Haney: mother-in-law.
Colton Paulhus: Not a lot of people.
Colton Paulhus: They live out there.
Mark Haney: So it's like ah you know, hopefully my wife
Mark Haney: is not listening to this podcast getting
Mark Haney: any ideas.
Mark Haney: I don't think I want a tiny home.
Mark Haney: I wouldn't mind having a tiny home.
Colton Paulhus: I think that'd be cool, but maybe for my
Colton Paulhus: grandkids when they get older.
Colton Paulhus: I don't know what my mother-in-law out
Colton Paulhus: there Hopefully she's not listening.
Mark Haney: Okay.
Mark Haney: So the yeah, you really are addressing the
Mark Haney: housing crisis that we have Interest rates
Mark Haney: have come up Is that it's tough, tougher
Mark Haney: and tougher to buy a home.
Mark Haney: It's forcing us to want to, I guess, stay
Mark Haney: in our homes longer, because if you've got
Mark Haney: a home with, say, a three or 4% interest
Mark Haney: rate, you're not really.
Mark Haney: I mean, the market isn't set up so that you
Mark Haney: can trade up really easily.
Mark Haney: You trade up and you've got to.
Mark Haney: You may have gone to an 8% interest rate
Mark Haney: loan.
Mark Haney: It's like, well, my God, I can't even go
Mark Haney: sideways.
Colton Paulhus: That's right.
Mark Haney: So people you know, but you want to
Mark Haney: continue to improve your lifestyle and make
Mark Haney: changes, move to a tiny home so the
Mark Haney: interest rates hurt or helped you.
Colton Paulhus: I'd say it's neutral.
Colton Paulhus: So it's hurt us in the more affluent buyer.
Colton Paulhus: So someone that maybe owns more rental
Colton Paulhus: properties wants to, you know, do a HELOC
Colton Paulhus: and then add a rental unit so that it's
Colton Paulhus: hurt us.
Colton Paulhus: But when it comes to the parents and the
Colton Paulhus: housing for family, it hasn't hurt us
Colton Paulhus: because we're still the most affordable
Colton Paulhus: option.
Colton Paulhus: So when it comes to an apartment complex
Colton Paulhus: that's 2000 to 3000 a month, versus a care
Colton Paulhus: facility, versus financing an ADU on a
Colton Paulhus: HELOC, it still is the most affordable
Colton Paulhus: option.
Colton Paulhus: You can finance a $200,000 ADU for 1800
Colton Paulhus: bucks a month.
Mark Haney: Okay.
Mark Haney: So HELOC, home Equity Line of Credit.
Mark Haney: So that's where you've got your first on
Mark Haney: the house already and you decide you want
Mark Haney: to put up a tiny home.
Mark Haney: You go to a traditional bank and get a home
Mark Haney: equity line of credit and then you know,
Mark Haney: say you get a $150,000 line of credit, you
Mark Haney: put some of it into this, into this tiny
Mark Haney: home, and then you're not.
Mark Haney: Typically you got a, is that interest only?
Mark Haney: Or you got to pay.
Mark Haney: Those are those termed out or how there's a
Mark Haney: few different options.
Colton Paulhus: There's variable rates, there's fixed rates.
Colton Paulhus: Most of the time it's spread out over 20,
Colton Paulhus: 25 years.
Colton Paulhus: Oh okay, yeah, yeah.
Mark Haney: Okay, that's cool.
Mark Haney: And do you guys get involved when you sell
Mark Haney: it typically directly to the consumer,
Mark Haney: right?
Mark Haney: So it's somebody who owns their own home
Mark Haney: that's buying it.
Mark Haney: There's no middleman in there, correct,
Mark Haney: okay?
Mark Haney: And do you help coordinate the financing
Mark Haney: piece?
Colton Paulhus: and all that kind of stuff.
Colton Paulhus: We're truly a white glove service.
Colton Paulhus: So we handle everything from finance to
Colton Paulhus: design, to permitting to construction.
Colton Paulhus: So we brought on a director of finance
Colton Paulhus: that's a licensed mortgage officer.
Colton Paulhus: We don't do the loans, we just play
Colton Paulhus: quarterback and kind of figure out where it
Colton Paulhus: needs to go.
Mark Haney: So yeah, so in terms of that process, maybe
Mark Haney: walk me through that process, because I'm
Mark Haney: kind of not the loan process necessarily,
Mark Haney: but how you quarterback that.
Mark Haney: We hear about you.
Mark Haney: We say, hey, you know I'm interested, you
Mark Haney: do a site visit, how does it?
Colton Paulhus: start.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, so we have an ADU expert that we call
Colton Paulhus: him, that will come out to your site we
Colton Paulhus: have 18 now.
Colton Paulhus: They'll visit your site, measure for
Colton Paulhus: utilities, kind of ask you what you're
Colton Paulhus: looking for.
Colton Paulhus: What's it for?
Colton Paulhus: Do you want a one bed, a two bedroom?
Colton Paulhus: We'll stake out their lot, you know, kind
Colton Paulhus: of figure out what they can build, first
Colton Paulhus: and foremost, with the setbacks, with
Colton Paulhus: easements, with trees, power lines, all
Colton Paulhus: those different things.
Colton Paulhus: Once we figure out what they can build,
Colton Paulhus: then we'll draft up a proposal.
Colton Paulhus: And some people make us draft up five, six,
Colton Paulhus: seven because they're not sure exactly what
Colton Paulhus: they want.
Colton Paulhus: And we're willing to do that because we're
Colton Paulhus: a custom builder, and so we'll kind of walk
Colton Paulhus: them through that whole process.
Colton Paulhus: If they're interested, we'll ask them if
Colton Paulhus: they have financing.
Colton Paulhus: If they say no, not lined up yet, I do have
Colton Paulhus: a local credit union, and then we'll say
Colton Paulhus: okay, let's connect with our internal team
Colton Paulhus: and at least we'll help, kind of guide you
Colton Paulhus: through this process Got you?
Mark Haney: What about the permitting?
Mark Haney: So I'm, as I mentioned, I'm building that
Mark Haney: family compound and I dealt with permitting
Mark Haney: issues and crossing property lines because
Mark Haney: it's like 74 acres and building multiple
Mark Haney: houses and stuff, and so what are the
Mark Haney: biggest hiccups that happen throughout that
Mark Haney: new construction process?
Mark Haney: Because it's a ground up?
Colton Paulhus: house.
Mark Haney: Yeah, so you mentioned it when we were
Mark Haney: talking earlier, but PG&E SMUD, I wasn't
Mark Haney: gonna say it PG&E's got me right now, man,
Mark Haney: they've got me by the short hairs.
Colton Paulhus: They're understaffed right now and they're
Colton Paulhus: just slow.
Colton Paulhus: They take a while to get back to us.
Colton Paulhus: So we're implementing things where we
Colton Paulhus: submit even before we have the permit, just
Colton Paulhus: so we're getting way ahead of it.
Mark Haney: I was wondering if you were having PG&E
Mark Haney: issues or so and you say you deal with.
Mark Haney: Well, you don't just build them in the
Mark Haney: Sacramento area.
Colton Paulhus: So it's smud PG&E.
Mark Haney: I guess.
Mark Haney: So what's the geographic footprint of the
Mark Haney: company?
Colton Paulhus: So we're all the way, kind of in the North
Colton Paulhus: Bay all the way down, so we'll serve us
Colton Paulhus: like the East Bay area, san Jose, silicon
Colton Paulhus: Valley, all the way down to Sacramento.
Mark Haney: Okay, so that geographic area that gets you
Mark Haney: up to 100 million, that's right.
Mark Haney: Okay, that's really cool.
Mark Haney: You mentioned, I think, as we were walking
Mark Haney: around earlier, that some of this is
Mark Haney: turning into a franchise model.
Mark Haney: Maybe walk me through how you came across,
Mark Haney: how you decided to go that route, you know,
Mark Haney: instead of just doing all these employees
Mark Haney: and build them all yourself.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, so there was actually a customer that
Colton Paulhus: reached out.
Colton Paulhus: I was the original sales rep for the
Colton Paulhus: company.
Colton Paulhus: So I ended up meeting with this client,
Colton Paulhus: talking to him about ADUs.
Colton Paulhus: He wanted to build like 15 on different
Colton Paulhus: rental properties and he was just like
Colton Paulhus: enthralled with our business.
Colton Paulhus: And then he told me he's like, hey, I've
Colton Paulhus: been in the franchise business for 25 years.
Colton Paulhus: That's what I've done.
Colton Paulhus: And then so, anyway, so I started
Colton Paulhus: researching day after day.
Colton Paulhus: I'm like this might be a good opportunity
Colton Paulhus: for us to grow and not need necessarily
Colton Paulhus: maybe venture capital or private equity
Colton Paulhus: right away.
Colton Paulhus: I'm not saying that's off the table forever,
Colton Paulhus: but so I just started researching after he
Colton Paulhus: told me about it and walked me through,
Colton Paulhus: ended up reaching out to kind of a
Colton Paulhus: franchise brand builder that helps you with
Colton Paulhus: your FDD, with your, you know, getting
Colton Paulhus: legal, all that different kind of stuff.
Colton Paulhus: And this was in 2021.
Mark Haney: You weren't even considering franchising
Mark Haney: until this guy started talking about it.
Colton Paulhus: Wasn't, weren't even considering it, we
Colton Paulhus: were just going to grow corporate and just
Colton Paulhus: launch new markets.
Colton Paulhus: And then he brought it up and I'm like man,
Colton Paulhus: that's a really cool, interesting idea.
Mark Haney: Yeah, it makes sense.
Mark Haney: I had a guy on my show I may have even told
Mark Haney: you about this we talked a while back is
Mark Haney: Paul Porter.
Mark Haney: He has Premier pools and they have a local.
Mark Haney: There's a local Premier pools here, but
Mark Haney: then he spun off and created a franchise
Mark Haney: pool service and they grew like crazy.
Colton Paulhus: Oh yes.
Mark Haney: And it's like, if you can create that
Mark Haney: system, you can.
Mark Haney: I mean, because people, I get this all the
Mark Haney: time.
Mark Haney: Mark, hey, I got this service company, how
Mark Haney: do I scale it?
Mark Haney: Or I got a construction company, how do I
Mark Haney: scale it?
Mark Haney: And it's a lot of times it's very, very
Mark Haney: difficult to scale some of these kind of
Mark Haney: businesses, but basically you're creating
Mark Haney: entrepreneurs.
Mark Haney: That's right, Right.
Mark Haney: So somebody who knows how to build a house
Mark Haney: or do construction, they can basically take
Mark Haney: your brand.
Colton Paulhus: Is that what happens?
Mark Haney: Yeah, they take your brand, your system,
Mark Haney: your formula and apply it in their market
Mark Haney: Totally, and you grew that way.
Mark Haney: All you need to do is find these
Mark Haney: entrepreneurs.
Colton Paulhus: That's right, and you're building 41 of
Colton Paulhus: them.
Colton Paulhus: So we've grown.
Colton Paulhus: In the last we launched in April of this
Colton Paulhus: year, we've sold 41 territories so far.
Colton Paulhus: Wow, it's insane.
Colton Paulhus: And they're all in California.
Colton Paulhus: No, these are actually nationwide.
Colton Paulhus: So Austin, Texas, Tampa Bay, Florida,
Colton Paulhus: Orlando, Florida, kind of all over.
Mark Haney: Okay, yeah, so in terms of you are
Mark Haney: describing your geographic footprint, was
Mark Haney: that just for let's call that the company
Mark Haney: owned?
Colton Paulhus: builds.
Mark Haney: And then you franchising the rest of the
Mark Haney: country.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, so corporate some some people call it
Colton Paulhus: company owned outlets, but it's corporate
Colton Paulhus: and then franchising corporate is the one
Colton Paulhus: that's going to do a hundred million, and
Colton Paulhus: then franchising is so early that it's
Colton Paulhus: probably going to do two, two and a half
Colton Paulhus: top line, and then we have obviously our
Colton Paulhus: royalties, our revenue.
Colton Paulhus: So, yeah, that's that's what we're really
Colton Paulhus: excited about is that part can grow.
Colton Paulhus: It's kind of a blue ocean.
Colton Paulhus: I don't know if you've read that book, but
Colton Paulhus: nobody's really franchising ADUs.
Colton Paulhus: It's so early on that we feel like if we
Colton Paulhus: could scale this super fast, we could scale
Colton Paulhus: this super fast, we can be the dominant
Colton Paulhus: player.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah.
Mark Haney: And with your marketing background, I have
Mark Haney: to imagine obviously it's helped you to
Mark Haney: grow your business.
Mark Haney: But to systematize the marketing because so
Mark Haney: many construction people, marketing is not
Mark Haney: necessarily their forte.
Mark Haney: They may be good at swinging a hammer or
Mark Haney: making sure things come together, they're
Mark Haney: organized a lot of times, but marketing
Mark Haney: business is like oh wow, you get this, so
Mark Haney: you've got to built in.
Mark Haney: You guys do lead generation and stuff like
Mark Haney: that for your franchisees.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, that's our biggest component.
Colton Paulhus: So we brought on a guy by the name of Clay.
Colton Paulhus: He's our VP of marketing and he he was with
Colton Paulhus: us from day one and he's really helped us
Colton Paulhus: scale.
Colton Paulhus: I mean, he's a genius, he's one of those
Colton Paulhus: just marketing gurus, so we work really
Colton Paulhus: well together.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, we handle all of the marketing for
Colton Paulhus: our franchisees.
Colton Paulhus: So they'll pay us kind of a flat fee for
Colton Paulhus: the marketing costs and then we'll run all
Colton Paulhus: of their Facebook, instagram, google and
Colton Paulhus: paid media and then we'll actually book the
Colton Paulhus: point, the appointments, on their calendar.
Mark Haney: Okay, so the ADU seems, seems like a blue
Mark Haney: ocean, very, you know, very big market that
Mark Haney: a lot of people are going to see the
Mark Haney: affordability piece on.
Mark Haney: Hey, I can put a nice small home in my, in
Mark Haney: my backyard.
Mark Haney: And because they're newer, they're, it's a,
Mark Haney: it's a, it's a newer, it's a newer concept.
Mark Haney: There's almost unlimited growth.
Mark Haney: I mean, there's just a ton of people that
Mark Haney: are going to discover that this opportunity
Mark Haney: exists.
Mark Haney: That's right, and so you could have the
Mark Haney: entire United States as your market.
Mark Haney: That's right, and it take a long time to
Mark Haney: saturate that market.
Colton Paulhus: Oh, big time.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, because the thing is is new laws are
Colton Paulhus: being passed nationwide, so, like different
Colton Paulhus: cities and counties are starting to allow
Colton Paulhus: ADUs, so we're still at the very, very
Colton Paulhus: beginning of this being even approved
Colton Paulhus: nationwide.
Colton Paulhus: I think eventually it will be, because it's
Colton Paulhus: happening month over month.
Colton Paulhus: So, yeah, I mean, by the time we get to
Colton Paulhus: scale, a competitor might just be so far
Colton Paulhus: behind that we're the dominant player.
Mark Haney: Do you have you looked into using tiny
Mark Haney: homes to help solve the homeless crisis?
Mark Haney: I mean, there's so many people that are
Mark Haney: throwing ideas against the wall, but it's
Mark Haney: it's.
Mark Haney: It's different.
Mark Haney: It's a difficult issue.
Mark Haney: Yep, have people approached you about?
Colton Paulhus: that they have.
Colton Paulhus: It just has never really worked out because,
Colton Paulhus: because Good idea, you know, our units are
Colton Paulhus: anywhere from 90,000 to 300, 400,000, so we
Colton Paulhus: are affordable.
Colton Paulhus: But we're actually building a custom home,
Colton Paulhus: whereas a lot of these homeless homes are
Colton Paulhus: sheds or kind of cheaper options, and we're
Colton Paulhus: not set up for the manufacturing to be that.
Colton Paulhus: That's not what you guys are interested in
Colton Paulhus: at this stage.
Colton Paulhus: Okay, gotcha.
Mark Haney: Okay.
Mark Haney: So your dad you recruited your dad, you
Mark Haney: recruited your brother Tell me about the
Mark Haney: dynamics of work.
Mark Haney: Like I know your dad, he's nobody to mess
Mark Haney: around with.
Mark Haney: Neither are you but like your dad's, like a
Mark Haney: mountain of a man.
Mark Haney: So, and you're the son, you're the kid, but
Mark Haney: you're running the show right?
Mark Haney: Well, we all are.
Colton Paulhus: I'm more the visionary idea guy.
Colton Paulhus: My brother's a true operations guy, so he
Colton Paulhus: manages from the time the job, sells all
Colton Paulhus: the way through the process and oversees
Colton Paulhus: the team to do that.
Colton Paulhus: And then my dad's the construction guru.
Colton Paulhus: So we wouldn't be where we are on the
Colton Paulhus: construction side of things without him.
Colton Paulhus: And I think what we did early on is we set
Colton Paulhus: the tone to say let's stay in our lanes and
Colton Paulhus: let's stay in between the lines, right?
Colton Paulhus: So I think a lot of family businesses, they
Colton Paulhus: take things personal.
Colton Paulhus: We will scream at each other and we'll have
Colton Paulhus: an argue match right.
Colton Paulhus: But it doesn't leave the office right.
Colton Paulhus: So like we're like, hey, we still wanna
Colton Paulhus: watch football on the weekends together and
Colton Paulhus: hang out, we're not gonna take this
Colton Paulhus: emotional moment in the business outside.
Mark Haney: So that's an interesting thing.
Mark Haney: There's a family business association here
Mark Haney: in the Sacramento.
Mark Haney: There's a couple of them.
Mark Haney: I'm a member of them, even though ours
Mark Haney: isn't quite a typical family business.
Mark Haney: But there's a lot of those kind of issues
Mark Haney: that I guess that we all contemplate.
Mark Haney: I grew up in a family business and there
Mark Haney: was obviously there screaming and yelling
Mark Haney: and brothers and sisters and mom and dad.
Mark Haney: My dad was on the volatile side compared to
Mark Haney: the average and my mom wasn't gonna take
Mark Haney: any crap off of anybody so you know, I grew
Mark Haney: up in one of those families.
Mark Haney: Sounds like there's some similarities,
Mark Haney: that's right, but I'm wondering like?
Mark Haney: What is there?
Mark Haney: Is there like a rule that look, anything
Mark Haney: goes, but it's all about the unity of the
Mark Haney: family?
Mark Haney: In terms of like that's?
Colton Paulhus: first.
Colton Paulhus: That's right.
Colton Paulhus: That's by far first right.
Colton Paulhus: It's faith, family and then business right.
Colton Paulhus: And it's like we have huge dreams and we
Colton Paulhus: have big goals but at the end of the day,
Colton Paulhus: if we all hate each other at the end of the
Colton Paulhus: day, why is it even worth it?
Colton Paulhus: It's not worth it.
Colton Paulhus: So we made a decision early on that we were
Colton Paulhus: never gonna take offense and we were never
Colton Paulhus: gonna take what happens inside the business
Colton Paulhus: outside the business.
Mark Haney: Okay.
Mark Haney: So that's interesting because we, you know,
Mark Haney: I remember growing up as a kid when my dad
Mark Haney: had a TV shop and my parents would talk.
Mark Haney: There's two things we talked about at the
Mark Haney: dinner table, and it was the business and
Mark Haney: football right, because we all played
Mark Haney: football and here my sister didn't, but all
Mark Haney: the boys we had played football and that
Mark Haney: was the only thing that got my dad talking
Mark Haney: If we're talking business winning or if
Mark Haney: we're talking about football, which is, and
Mark Haney: winning.
Mark Haney: So I hear other people saying and I don't
Mark Haney: know what your philosophy is on this to
Mark Haney: compartmentalize, like, leave that at the
Mark Haney: office and don't talk about it around
Mark Haney: family dinner on Sundays, or is it okay to
Mark Haney: come because you guys are really into this
Mark Haney: where your wife and maybe even your mom and
Mark Haney: is your brother married?
Mark Haney: He just got married.
Mark Haney: He just married, so sometimes the spouses
Mark Haney: feel left out, as some of those deep
Mark Haney: conversations at the dinner table.
Mark Haney: Do you make a conscious effort to sort of
Mark Haney: compartmentalize it?
Mark Haney: Hey, don't bring, you know, building tiny
Mark Haney: homes to the family dinners.
Mark Haney: We do the best we can.
Colton Paulhus: So like there is a rule, my wife would be
Colton Paulhus: like, hey, okay, not tonight, not tonight.
Colton Paulhus: But it's about 80, 20, so 80% of the time
Colton Paulhus: we try not to, it will come up.
Colton Paulhus: I mean, we're literally building this thing
Colton Paulhus: together.
Mark Haney: There's many things that happen.
Mark Haney: There's so many growing a company,
Mark Haney: especially an early stage company.
Mark Haney: When you're growing like this, I mean
Mark Haney: there's decisions that you just didn't
Mark Haney: expect yesterday that you gotta make today.
Mark Haney: That's right, yeah.
Colton Paulhus: Or even at night sometimes we're at dinner
Colton Paulhus: and it's like I just got this email.
Colton Paulhus: What do I do?
Colton Paulhus: So, yeah, but we've done a good job.
Colton Paulhus: We try to keep it as separate as we can,
Colton Paulhus: but you can't fully do it.
Mark Haney: What do you guys fight about?
Mark Haney: Just curious, and how does that go down?
Mark Haney: Does?
Mark Haney: Your dad play position power because he's a
Mark Haney: father?
Colton Paulhus: No, he actually doesn't surprisingly, but
Colton Paulhus: just about ideas and speed of growth.
Colton Paulhus: I'm kind of like a push-to-envelope guy.
Colton Paulhus: So you know, and they're like, hey, let's
Colton Paulhus: take this step first and let's do this.
Colton Paulhus: And I'm like, hey, let's push the envelope,
Colton Paulhus: we can build the biggest company.
Colton Paulhus: So maybe like speed of growth.
Mark Haney: So you're what gives everybody confidence.
Mark Haney: You're the one that says, yes, we can,
Mark Haney: that's right.
Mark Haney: Who's the one that says, well, wait a
Mark Haney: minute.
Mark Haney: You know, hold your horses, gentlemen, my
Mark Haney: dad and brother.
Colton Paulhus: Oh, they're both a little bit like that, so
Colton Paulhus: sometimes I'll get out-voted, right?
Colton Paulhus: You need that balance, right?
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, that's cool.
Mark Haney: So it works out really well.
Mark Haney: Okay, so in terms of like, did you guys
Mark Haney: decide?
Mark Haney: So you guys are obviously the next gen, but
Mark Haney: you guys are you equal partners?
Colton Paulhus: How did that go down?
Colton Paulhus: We're all.
Colton Paulhus: A third, a third, a third.
Mark Haney: Oh nice.
Colton Paulhus: We decided you know he had his contracting
Colton Paulhus: business before and we just decided when we
Colton Paulhus: started this business, let's go all in
Colton Paulhus: together, yeah.
Mark Haney: That's this.
Mark Haney: So what's been the, I guess, the biggest
Mark Haney: surprise from a challenge standpoint, like
Mark Haney: from a difficulty standpoint, in building
Mark Haney: this Cause?
Mark Haney: Right now it sounds like, wow, everything's
Mark Haney: going great, we made the decision to pivot
Mark Haney: or, you know, start franchising, and we're
Mark Haney: tracking for a hundred million.
Mark Haney: I mean, everybody out there listening is
Mark Haney: going dang dude that's fast.
Mark Haney: What surprised you in terms of like having
Mark Haney: a overcoming obstacle.
Colton Paulhus: I would say everybody's dealing with this.
Colton Paulhus: But finding good subcontractors and
Colton Paulhus: contractors has been tough, so fine.
Colton Paulhus: Recruiting so if you're out there, no
Colton Paulhus: Recruiting enough subs has been tough.
Mark Haney: What's sub is right now.
Mark Haney: So I own a concrete company and I got a
Mark Haney: security company that's kind of in
Mark Haney: construction at some level at casinos.
Mark Haney: But we have you know, we deal with subs a
Mark Haney: lot as well.
Mark Haney: What subs are the toughest to come by right
Mark Haney: now?
Colton Paulhus: I would say electricians and plumbers and
Colton Paulhus: then finish carpenters are kind of our
Colton Paulhus: biggest three bottlenecks right now, a
Colton Paulhus: little bit on the concrete side and a
Colton Paulhus: little bit on the framing side, not quite
Colton Paulhus: as much as electrical plumbing and finish.
Mark Haney: And it's because it's so big your dad and
Mark Haney: brother aren't out there swinging a hammer
Mark Haney: or doing anything like that.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, they're not ever out in the field.
Colton Paulhus: We have, I think, nine or 10 project
Colton Paulhus: managers, a construction operations
Colton Paulhus: director, so it's at the scale where we're
Colton Paulhus: truly working on the business as much as we
Colton Paulhus: can.
Colton Paulhus: You know so, but also have to field
Colton Paulhus: customer calls and things like that.
Colton Paulhus: That's great.
Mark Haney: Well, okay, so maybe you can maybe give me
Mark Haney: a little bit of what's the vision.
Mark Haney: So you're at 100 million.
Mark Haney: Your vision gets a lot bigger.
Mark Haney: A lot of people they might set out, hey, we
Mark Haney: wanna build a $100 million company and that
Mark Haney: seems like it's so far away.
Mark Haney: Well, you guys are here four years later
Mark Haney: and you're on track to do that.
Mark Haney: Have you had, to like, expand the size of
Mark Haney: your dream a little bit, that's for sure?
Mark Haney: Which it looked like?
Colton Paulhus: I think it expands at each level.
Colton Paulhus: So at first it was like let's get to 10,
Colton Paulhus: let's get to 50, let's get to 100, right.
Colton Paulhus: So now we're here.
Colton Paulhus: We believe we can build a multi-billion
Colton Paulhus: dollar portfolio of companies over the next
Colton Paulhus: five to 10 years.
Colton Paulhus: And so what I mean by that is Anchored
Colton Paulhus: Tinyomes is going to be the bread and
Colton Paulhus: butter forever, right, and we're gonna
Colton Paulhus: scale this thing through franchising.
Colton Paulhus: But we just launched what's called Anchored
Colton Paulhus: Brands and then Hello Builder.
Colton Paulhus: So two of these entities are basically
Colton Paulhus: centered around helping service brands
Colton Paulhus: scale through franchising.
Colton Paulhus: So Anchored Brands is actually gonna be a
Colton Paulhus: portfolio of franchise brands in the HVAC,
Colton Paulhus: in all the service brands, and we're gonna
Colton Paulhus: kind of build this infrastructure to help
Colton Paulhus: those companies scale.
Mark Haney: Okay, so that's really interesting.
Mark Haney: So the Tinyomes piece is one leg of the
Mark Haney: stool, if you will, and I discussed pools
Mark Haney: about Paul Porter and Premier Pools.
Mark Haney: What other of these services are most ripe
Mark Haney: for franchising and maybe disrupting the
Mark Haney: traditional model?
Colton Paulhus: So a lot of it.
Colton Paulhus: So roofing has been huge.
Colton Paulhus: Roofing has grown tremendously over the
Colton Paulhus: last two years in the franchise space.
Colton Paulhus: Landscaping is another big one, like
Colton Paulhus: specialty electrical contractors is a big
Colton Paulhus: one, so high-end finishes that may be a way
Colton Paulhus: for you guys to get your subs to just
Colton Paulhus: create a leg of the stool that says
Colton Paulhus: franchising, for I don't know if Finnish
Colton Paulhus: Carpentry is gonna be a franchise but yeah,
Colton Paulhus: roofing, I could see that.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, oh yeah.
Mark Haney: Okay, interesting.
Mark Haney: Yeah, I would think that it has to do with
Mark Haney: the things that people are more likely to
Mark Haney: wanna advertise and things like that.
Mark Haney: Yeah, landscaping.
Mark Haney: Yeah, so landscaping, roofing, plumbing,
Mark Haney: electrical HVAC, really any service brands
Mark Haney: and when you say service, are you talking
Mark Haney: about the recurring revenue type service
Mark Haney: brands or are you saying, more like the
Mark Haney: companies, that you're building something
Mark Haney: from start to finish and the transaction
Mark Haney: ends?
Colton Paulhus: More like the transaction would end Okay,
Colton Paulhus: more like the construction company, yeah,
Colton Paulhus: yeah, but HVAC and plumbing you can have
Colton Paulhus: kind of that monthly or annual service fee.
Colton Paulhus: So there will be that component.
Colton Paulhus: But we're just gonna help these companies
Colton Paulhus: franchise and then take a royalty at
Colton Paulhus: corporate Wow yeah.
Mark Haney: Wow, okay, what did I not ask you?
Mark Haney: What else do we need to cover?
Mark Haney: I feel like I was zipping through on my
Mark Haney: agenda, but I wanna make sure we stay on
Mark Haney: your agenda too.
Colton Paulhus: I just think I'm excited to be.
Colton Paulhus: I mean, I know you believe in this big time
Colton Paulhus: the Sacramento region and really growing a
Colton Paulhus: big entity out of Sacramento.
Colton Paulhus: I talk with Greg Connolly a lot and you
Colton Paulhus: know we wanna build a multi-billion dollar
Colton Paulhus: company to help put Sacramento on the map.
Colton Paulhus: Like I just really believe in helping this
Colton Paulhus: town become an entrepreneur's town, less of
Colton Paulhus: a government town right and I think there
Colton Paulhus: needs to be more people that see you know
Colton Paulhus: my success and we're at the ground floor
Colton Paulhus: and we've made mistakes and we're not
Colton Paulhus: perfect, but I do think, people like you
Colton Paulhus: sharing your story and that's why I'm
Colton Paulhus: trying to get kind of our company out there.
Colton Paulhus: More is, I believe, people need to hear the
Colton Paulhus: story of successful entrepreneurs in the
Colton Paulhus: Sacramento region.
Mark Haney: That's I love, that I mean that's the
Mark Haney: reason why I started the show in the first
Mark Haney: place is I felt like I, you know I didn't
Mark Haney: have that.
Mark Haney: Let's call it the older brother, or, you
Mark Haney: know.
Mark Haney: I mentioned, you know, my mom and dad.
Mark Haney: They got sick a long time ago.
Mark Haney: I didn't really have anybody that had had
Mark Haney: success.
Mark Haney: That was close in my life that I could sort
Mark Haney: of think about emulating or aspire to be
Mark Haney: like I didn't know those people and I think
Mark Haney: most small business people don't know those
Mark Haney: people.
Mark Haney: People don't really have good access to you
Mark Haney: know, like the great connolly's or you or
Mark Haney: Dale Carlson.
Colton Paulhus: Sleep.
Mark Haney: Train.
Mark Haney: It's like how do you, how do you find out
Mark Haney: how they did it?
Mark Haney: Okay, I wanted to start a show so that
Mark Haney: other people can start to feel that I love
Mark Haney: it, yeah, and that you know I now it's fun.
Mark Haney: Now it's like I'm sort of addicted to it
Mark Haney: too, Because you know, I keep learning and
Mark Haney: being sort of surprised by the innovative
Mark Haney: mindsets of young people, or even people
Mark Haney: that are, you know, older, my age type,
Mark Haney: people that drink these.
Mark Haney: There's still a lot of innovation, a lot of
Mark Haney: drive out there.
Mark Haney: People just need to feel like, well, if
Mark Haney: Colton Paulus and Mark, hey, if those
Mark Haney: schmucks can do it throw them in.
Colton Paulhus: That's right, I can do it too.
Colton Paulhus: Yeah, yeah, that's what.
Colton Paulhus: There's way smarter people, right?
Colton Paulhus: It's like I just stayed with it, yeah, he
Colton Paulhus: didn't quit.
Mark Haney: Look at him.
Mark Haney: A lot of people would have quit after.
Mark Haney: You know a couple of those setbacks that
Mark Haney: you mentioned.
Mark Haney: It's like oh geez, I'm just better go get a
Mark Haney: job with a state or something like that and
Mark Haney: he's like no, I'm staying.
Mark Haney: I'm gonna still dream big baby.
Colton Paulhus: That's right.
Colton Paulhus: I knew right.
Colton Paulhus: Just with the way my mind works and
Colton Paulhus: operates, I knew I always was gonna be an
Colton Paulhus: entrepreneur when I started in this journey,
Colton Paulhus: and so I just knew I was never gonna quit.
Colton Paulhus: And eventually, if you don't quit,
Colton Paulhus: something's gonna click Well.
Mark Haney: I appreciate that and I think you've
Mark Haney: inspired.
Mark Haney: Whatever our audience is, you know and I
Mark Haney: think that's a good takeaway is don't quit
Mark Haney: and you'll eventually figure it out.
Mark Haney: And you may have to pivot four, five, 10.
Mark Haney: The Lord knows, I pivoted a lot in
Mark Haney: nighttime and you're gonna be pivoting
Mark Haney: folks, but you don't quit.
Mark Haney: That's right you can figure it out.
Mark Haney: You can figure it out.
Mark Haney: Well, thanks for coming on the show today.
Colton Paulhus: I appreciate it, Mark.
Mark Haney: Thank you for having me Well.
Mark Haney: You're an inspiration, thank you, thanks,
Mark Haney: man.
Colton Paulhus: Means a lot.
Mark Haney: And to all you out there fighting the good
Mark Haney: fight for entrepreneurship and for the
Mark Haney: backyard advantage and, of course, all of
Mark Haney: you out there fighting the good fight for
Mark Haney: our freedom, our security and our way of
Mark Haney: life here at the Heaney Biz, at Mark
Mark Haney: Heaney's show and the Growth Factory.
Mark Haney: We're never above you, we're never below
Mark Haney: you, always by your side.
Mark Haney: This segment includes the personal
Mark Haney: knowledge, experiences and opinions about
Mark Haney: angel investing by seasoned angel investors.
Mark Haney: This content is for informational purposes
Mark Haney: only and should not be considered as legal,
Mark Haney: tax, investment or financial advice.
Mark Haney: Nothing in this segment constitutes a
Mark Haney: solicitation, recommendation or endorsement.