🔑 They got fired - then built a $350 billion business
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today:
- They got fired - then built a $350 billion business
- How to grow any home service business
- A $44 million business that does it all
My director of finance is Nick Keene. He's a legend. When he swears by a product, I trust him.
Every morning Nick drinks a cup of coffee, lets his dog out in the yard, and then checks our dozens of bank accounts.
It takes him 30 minutes each morning to do this routine. Last year Nick started using Vesto.
Now checking all the banks accounts takes him 5 minutes, so he has more time to hang with his dog and work on more important projects for our business.
Vesto connects all of our banks into one simple dashboard. With real-time balances, transactions, and cash flow monitoring – we went from 50+ account logins to one.
Vesto is a no-brainer. Take Nick's word for it.
(Vesto is sponsoring today's newsletter, thank you)
Imagine you fire two key executives of your company...
and they go on to create a new company that puts you out of business.
That's exactly what happened to a small chain of home improvement sales called Handy Dan in the 1970s.
The small chain was acquired and resold by a few different investors, eventually leading to one of those investors cleaning out the "overpaid" management team.
They fired executives Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank.
In 1978, Arthur Blank and his business partner Bernie Marcus were running a successful chain of hardware stores called Handy Dan – but then, they were unexpectedly fired. The next year, they conceived and launched a new kind of home improvement store: The Home Depot.
- Home Depot's official history
If those names sound familiar, it's because they are the founders of Home Depot.
After being fired from Handy Dan, they asked themselves:
What if they could build something bigger, better, and bolder than Handy Dan?
A store so massive it would dwarf the competition, stocked to the rafters with everything a homeowner or contractor could dream of, staffed by people who actually knew their stuff.
It was a crazy idea, but as Marcus later said, “The best ideas come when you’re desperate.”
And if you've been to a Home Depot, you know that their vision came true.
On June 22, 1979, the first two Home Depot stores opened in Atlanta, Georgia: 60,000-square-foot warehouses that made the average hardware store look like a broom closet.
From day one, they weren’t just selling tools; they were selling a promise: “Whatever you need, we’ve got it—and we’ll show you how to use it.”
The Big Bet
What set Home Depot apart wasn’t just its size; it was how different it was from the typical hardware store, in every single aspect. At a time when hardware stores were small, local, and often intimidating to the average DIY newbie, Home Depot flipped the script.
They bet big on three pillars:
- Scale
- Selection
- Service
The warehouses were stocked with 25,000 products, far more than the 5,000 or so you’d find at a typical competitor.
Then there was the service angle.
Marcus and Blank wanted staff who weren’t cashiers, but guides who could walk a clueless homeowner through installing a sink or advise a contractor on the best drywall.
Early on, they hired tradespeople, not teenagers looking for summer cash, and trained them to be problem-solvers. It was a costly move, but it paid off.
These moves were mocked by others at the time. "That will never work. Their stores are way too big!"
Marcus and Blank knew the business well enough to know which rules they should break.
Just a decade after Home Depot started, Handy Dan went out of business.
And Home Depot was on its way to building an empire of 2,300 stores and $150 billion in annual revenue.
I'll leave you with one more fun fact: Did you know that Microsoft is older than Home Depot? The software company was founded four years before the hardware store.
🔑 Listen to this interview if you want to build a home service empire
Jeremy Yamaguchi is entrepreneur who's built successful business in 3 totally different home service categories: Cleaning, lawn care, and pools.
I sat down with him to talk about the economics of the home service business models he's worked in, how he acquires pool service companies (his latest business), and how he's scaled to over $100 million in GMV.
And since he's run marketplace businesses, he's witnessed firsthand how thousands of home service companies have succeeded and failed. He's truly the master at the home service growth game.
Watch this video if you want to understand how to scale a home service business:
.jpg)
