Abhi Ravishankar

Today, I celebrate 1 year of buying and running my first small business. Here's the (wild) story of how I went from being in a startup Board meeting, to a vineyard in St Emilion, to caring about swimming pools in California and kitchens in Seattle. A SMB/ETA story 🧵

@WilsonCompanies @thehvacjack Amazing! Congratulations!

Do anything to work with awesome people. Go into debt if you have to. Today we merged with @thehvacjack putting combined revenue over $40m - onward!

@BigDemoPrez I’m a dummy

@TechWith_Nova Openclaw

My OpenClaw bot builds websites & mails a postcard with a QR link to local businesses on autopilot... You can use it to land new customers without a single cold call, here's how it works: - Finds 100s of local businesses via Google Maps - Builds each one a custom website in minutes - Prints a real postcard with their site preview + QR code - Mails it directly to their door - They scan it, see their site, and reach out - Runs 24/7 completely hands off Direct mail gets a much higher response rate than cold email. Reply "OpenClaw" and I'll send you the full breakdown of how you can do it too (must be following so I can DM)

@lukepierceops @Hayden__Slack BLUEPRINT

Automation consultants charge $15K for what Claude Code now does in 2 hours. I know because we're the ones who used to charge it. Here's the exact process: Step 1: Discovery (20 min) → Paste your org chart, tool stack, and top 3 bottlenecks → Claude interviews you with clarifying questions → Outputs a full process inventory ranked by time cost Step 2: Workflow Mapping (15 min) → Describe any department's daily operations in plain English → Claude builds a complete process map → Every manual handoff, redundant step, and automation trigger flagged Step 3: Opportunity Audit (10 min) → Feed it the workflow map output → Returns your top 10 automation opportunities → Ranked by ROI, complexity, and build time Step 4: Architecture Design (20 min) → Claude designs the full system architecture → Which tools connect where, what the data flow looks like → Agents for complex logic, linear flows for the repetitive stuff Step 5: Build (ongoing) → Claude writes the actual workflow JSON → Self-documents everything as it builds Step 6: The output. A live dashboard your whole team can work from. → Clickable process maps for every department → Automation opportunities ranked by ROI → Implementation progress by phase → KPIs updated in real time → One link you share with clients, freelancers, or your team to execute This is what we hand every client at the end of discovery. The .md file is what makes all of it possible. Without it, Claude guesses. With it, Claude builds like a $15K consultant. Like this post, RT and comment "BLUEPRINT" and I'll send you the full prompt stack and the .md file we use internally. (Must be following so I can DM you) 🎁 Bonus: The first 100 people get a real Precision AI Blueprint — an actual sample audit doc from a client engagement so you can see exactly what the output looks like.

Small business is probably the future of employment, more than people realize

@JJEnglert Guide

I've used Claude Code to build 20+ projects in the last 6 months. Thousands of new users across them. And I've never written a single line of code. I just dropped a 24-min video with my top 10 tips for non-developers — the exact playbook I use every day to run multiple AI agents that handle work that used to take me a full week. This is the best beginner guide to learning and building with Claude Code out right now. Every tutorial I found assumes you're a developer. This one doesn't. I cover everything from first install to running multi-agent workflows — with live demos and real examples for every single tip. How I set up new projects, how I got Claude to match my writing style, how I automate repeatable workflows with one command, and how I run multiple agents working on different tasks at the same time. I also built a full resource repo to go alongside the video — curated video tutorials, the best skill libraries, plugin directories, MCP server guides, written docs, community links, and a starter CLAUDE.md template you can copy-paste into your first project today. Comment "GUIDE" and I'll send you the full guide with everything you need to learn Claude Code! (make sure we're connected so I can DM you)

The lucid dream of the aspiring SMB/HoldCo entrepreneur… Work an elite corporate/finance job for 5–10 years Decide to blow it up and buy a business Deploy life savings and sign a PG to buy a mid-scale machine shop with steady F500 customers Lose your long-time GM in the first 6 months, fire two employees caught stealing parts, lose a client worth 12% of revenue. You brute-force biz dev to 50% growth by year 2, hire a younger, motivated GM, and by year 3 you’ve implemented HR/ERP/training systems. Hit stride. Systems are humming, the team is firing on all cylinders. Hours drop from 50–60/week to 30–40, then to 20–30. Decide to pursue a bolt-on acquisition of a supplier that also does custom on-site servicing. Suddenly you’re on more radars (good and bad). You lose key employees amid the uncertainty. You promote a young manager to cover both businesses, trying to mentor and create career paths for hungry hustlers — but you overestimate his ability and motivation. He burns out and quits. The “synergies” turn out to be dissynergies. Six months later you realize you bit off more than you can chew. Your hours spike to 60–70/week. Every day there’s a fire. You need a clone just to function. Your wife and family — once elated at your success — now wonder why you’re doing this. You’re 40. Two years felt like ten. But you’ve become sharper, tougher. You rally your support systems, professional and personal, and go back to basics. You realize the fancy optimization frameworks from B-school are largely useless in the wild west of SMBs. You don’t abandon them, but you shelve them. You start thinking like a human again. You slow down. You’ve matured. The chaos subsides. Seven years later, you’ve built a true machine. Looking back, you wonder how much pain was caused by your own deliberate changes — but it doesn’t matter. You’re hardened. You’ve earned respect. You’re inspiring to peers, friends, family. Now you’re mid-40s. Your kids are teenagers, you’re spending real time with them. Your wife never cared about EBITDA or ops, but she always cared about what it did to you both. Slowly, you close the gap that had grown in your marriage. Romance rekindles. Vacations feel different. You still can’t fully shut off, but you trust your team. Systems are running. You can actually enjoy yourself. You bought the beach house. The mountain getaway. 3 jet skis. 4 snowmobiles. Your wife has what she wants. You drive a custom F-350 Raptor. The family Yukon is fully loaded. You haven’t thought much about it, but your net worth is now $12.5M. You grew the business 5x, and the market’s up 300% since you bought that “little” machine shop 10 years ago. Life is good. Around the campfire with your buddies, trading war stories over beers, you realize you may have “made it.” Then, you wake up. You realize it was just a lucid dream. You scramble for a pen, trying to write it down before it fades. Your toddlers are screaming. Your wife is already up making them breakfast. You’re just another dad with a Teams call in 90 minutes. At least it’s WFH Friday.

@RandBusiness I desperately want to! Waiting for @msaskin to expand westward.

Every business owner who owns a fleet of vehicles and technicians should look into hiring a mobile fleet maintenance company. It’s like a 10 minute oil change shop, but it’s a mobile mechanic and they come to you. They do all the light regular maintenance stuff like oil changes, tire swaps, brake pads, wipers, etc Most importantly, they come in and service your vehicles when they are not in use, sitting dormant in your parking lot before work, after work, during team meetings, etc. I have a feeling that most of the traditional 10 minute oil change shops actually take ~30 minutes, not including the commute or waiting time if there’s a line. I wonder how much money owners are wasting in dollars and opportunity cost spent on light vehicle maintenance like this. Is anyone using a service like this already? Is it worth it?

@Jaybroyermusic Amazing story! Congratulations and very inspiring

Today, we’ve built a $14M company across 4 locations with 80+ employees. And it all started with two guys, a dusty old building, and a hand written agreement on printer paper. Stay tuned for the story of deal #2

Alright so maybe it’s time for the origin story. How we turned a dying $800K pool shop with 2 employees into a $5M player. And kicked off what would become a $14M HoldCo No investors. No MBA. And WTF is ETA? Here’s the true story of Deal #1: 🧵👇

@businessbarista ai

The best AI tools & tactics are stuck in private chats and buried Slack threads. So I'm spinning up a few WhatsApp groups for folks who are actively using AI in their day-to-day. First is an AI group for ceos/founders. Second is an AI group for engineers & engineering leaders. Third is an AI group for marketers & marketing leaders. No sales pitches. Just smart people sharing how they’re using AI to move faster, do more, and stay ahead. If you want to join one of these groups, reply with "ai" and I’ll DM you an invite.

@rezajafer Congrats and good luck, Reza!

After an incredible run at Trivest, I’m launching a new chapter as an Independent Sponsor focused on customer obsessed service companies in 🇨🇦🇺🇸 Same mission. More flexibility. Fewer Zooms. Onwards and Upwards 🚀 Shout out to all the inspiring IS and PE folks on here

@msaskin 🤣

That math maths, right @abhilash ?

I have my doubts on the model, and it is HARD. But 2 things are true: (1) I know @jeremyyamaguchi is a sharp builder having spoken to him, (2) pool service software sucks and good ones have high impact. I’m rooting for Jeremy’s team. Need new ideas and models in the space.

@jeremyyamaguchi 🚀 Jeremy!

The legendary companies of yore began in a garage with a fateful push to prod The next generation of greats might kick off with an LOI, a diligence checklist, and a firm handshake Exciting times

A year ago, I made a weird bet: that you could raise venture capital to buy boring old businesses—and scale them like tech startups Most the VCs I pitched said their LPs wouldn’t get it Now those same firms are raising billion-dollar funds on this strategy Here's the thesis:

@chasemurdock @HoldCoConf @SMB_ash @girdley @WilsonCompanies @KHendersonCo @Sam_Rosati @honestlytara84 Same here, Chase. Look forward to having you here!

@abhilash @HoldCoConf @SMB_ash @girdley @WilsonCompanies @KHendersonCo @Sam_Rosati @honestlytara84 Thanks Abhi -- was great to catch up with you. Love what you're building and need to get out to the Bay soon!

Two killer conferences last week — @HoldCoConf here in Utah and @SMB_ash in Dallas. Huge thanks to @girdley @WilsonCompanies @KHendersonCo @Sam_Rosati and @honestlytara84. Incredible job bringing together so many thoughtful operators. Fun to see so many familiar faces now that both events are in their third or fourth year. I was grateful to speak at both and connect with sharp, experienced folks across the spectrum. A few takeaways that stuck: Twitter isn’t what it used to be. The algorithm now favors platitudes. The tweets that built this community — the ones that sparked real conversations, deals, and friendships — don’t surface like they used to. And it’s starting to show offline. @moseskagan captured this shift perfectly in his chat with @whentheresawill Build slow, compound. I had more private conversations than I expected with operators feeling restless. FOMO. Wanting more, but not sure why. My advice: fall in love with the day-to-day — or you’re still stuck on the arrival fallacy treadmill. This game compounds slowly and steady is the strategy for most of us. Lots of talk about tariffs — not the market. Nearly everyone brought up trade uncertainty — either directly from tariffs or through the second-order effects hitting their customers. The financial impact is real and widespread. Interestingly, almost no one mentioned the stock market. Most folks I spoke with had decoupled their financial future from the S&P and tied it instead to themselves — an empowering shift. Exits don’t always feel like wins. Several who sold told me they're now struggling to re-integrate — realizing they may have left too soon or underestimated what they’d built. A good reminder: the thing you're building might be worth more, financially and emotionally, than what the market can offer. There’s a real gap in operator training. Reception to The Operator Accelerator was strong. @BetterCeo, my team, and I built it because support for owners post-close is thin. There are agencies, CFOs, and coaches...but very little designed to help owners become great operators, which is where value is either built or destroyed. Can't wait to launch in May. Starting vs. acquiring are different games. One of my favorite sessions was @girdley's on incubating new ventures. As rates rise, multiples hold, and M&A competition stays fierce, starting looks more appealing. We’re incubating three businesses right now at @DecadaGroup and it’s a different muscle. Startups reward speed and iteration. Acquisitions reward discipline and systems. Don’t mix the playbooks. Roll-ups done right are rare — and powerful. The session with @RegZeller and Jeff Homer was a standout. Jeff’s built a focused, high-conviction platform — 80+ music schools and counting. A great reminder of the power in going deep on a niche. Validating for us at Decada, given our own fine art school thesis. And finally — a reminder of why we do this. No one grounds this community like @BrentBeshore. His fireside chat was striking — equal parts humility, wisdom, and conviction. A clear-eyed reminder that we’re not just buying and growing companies — we’re building something bigger. No one better than Brent to remind us of that. After a week of wall-to-wall conversations, my social battery’s low — but I’m walking away sharper, more grounded, and grateful to be part of this community.

@darynakulya Wow! This looks amazing. I probably will Joe seriously consider switching from @dialpad to @OpenPhone on the 10+ lines I have

Check it out --> openphone.com/integrations/j…

I'm excited to announce @OpenPhone's integration with @GetJobber! 🎉 This one's been a long time coming. Now, when a phone call creates a new request in Jobber, you can automatically sync call summaries and transcripts right into the request.⚡️ No more manual data entry or hunting for information after calls—everything is right there in Jobber, where your team is already working. This integration helps home service businesses save time and ensures important context from calls is easily accessible when and where they need it. If you're using Jobber for your business, I'd love to hear what you think of the integration! And if you're not already using OpenPhone but run a service business, this might be the perfect time to give us a try 🙂

@RandBusiness @HoldCoConf @AdamFlamm @andrew_heer @BoilerPlateCPA @UjwalVelagapudi Great start to the show @HoldCoConf! @andrew_heer appreciate you picking us up and giving us a ride!

@HoldCoConf already off to a rockin’ start! @AdamFlamm @andrew_heer @BoilerPlateCPA @UjwalVelagapudi @abhilash