theses

3x Thesis: Why bundling boring services beats building a single-product home services company

Lee McCabe

12 Oct 2025 — 1 min read

The invisible infrastructure of the American household has a ton of business opportunity

Say you’re scaling a single-product home services business, pest control, lawn care, maybe appliance repair. You centralize ops. One call center. One CRM.

But you’re still selling one service.
One category.
One shot at retention.

Now compare that to a diversified platform that owns:
• Pest control
• Lawn care
• Water filters
• Appliance maintenance
• Pool maintenance
• Roofing inspections
• HVAC

Different verticals. Same driveway.

Why this wins:

1. You Sell the Whole Household

Bundle services into a monthly subscription. Say $299/month covers all routine maintenance.
• Bugs gone
• Lawn pristine
• Pool sparkling
• AC humming
• Roof inspected
• Filters swapped

But here’s the kicker:
When the $12K HVAC dies or the roof needs replacing, who do they call?
You.
Zero CAC. Full-ticket revenue.

2. Every Visit Is a Cross-Sell

Pool tech spots a cracked shingle.
Pest tech hears the AC wheezing.
Lawn guy notices water damage.

Every driveway is a funnel.
One customer. Five upsells. No extra acquisition cost.

3. Shared Ops + AI = Margin Machine

Centralized:
• Routing
• Dispatch
• CRM
• Scheduling

Add AI:
• Predictive triggers: “Roof age + storm = offer inspection”
• Multi-service routing: One tech, three jobs
• Churn detection: Save before they cancel
• Smart bundles: Dynamic offers based on home profile

You’re not just scaling ops. You’re compounding efficiency.

4. Brand Trust Becomes a Flywheel

You’re no longer “the bug guy.”
You’re the household COO.
The one brand they trust with everything.

That creates retention. And pricing power.

5. Not a Roll-Up. A Platform.

Single-service businesses? 6–8x EBITDA.
This? Subscription revenue, embedded customer relationships, owned channels to $10K+ ticket items.

That’s not a service company.
That’s infrastructure.

So yeah,build the best home service company in your zip code. (Still great. Don't get me wrong!)

Or own the entire home and catch the roof and the HVAC before they fail.

Which model wins more?

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