Cory Mitchell

Started in equity research. Moved to the buy side. Landed on a board after a proxy fight. Got let go. Bought a janitorial business. Got defrauded. Nearly went under. Took it from ~$1M to $2M+ and growing. I thought analyzing businesses meant I could run one. I was wrong.

@m3_melody @KennyCap_Phd Ytd interesting… positive correlation with a lot of supply that’s come to market the last 12 months. Nashville has shown it can absorb. Any reason to be worried now?

The amount of multifamily I saw in Nashville is one for the record books... For the area adjacent to downtown - if all those apartments actually did get inhabitants no one would ever be able to leave because the streets are tiny Owner Occupancy very low there @KennyCap_Phd

@BigDemoPrez I’m a dummy

Chris is right. These services are more in the commoditized end of the spectrum. Easier to see downward pricing toward the low cost producers without a brand or sources of differentiation that would allow the producer to see a step change in margins with lower costs.

A guy in my sister's class (5 years ahead of me) joined us for dinner one night. He was there once. Then never again. I didn't know why until 30 years later. This guy grew up in a troubled home. No dad. Mom was a mess. They were super poor. One day my dad went to pick my sister up from school & saw 5 kids picking on him..... He was cowering in a corner. My dad ran over immediately.

Ideas for janitorial: 1. Permit & License Pull AI agent monitors your county/city building permit database daily. Every new commercial tenant buildout, renovation permit, or certificate of occupancy filing = a business about to move in or expand. The agent auto-identifies the property manager or business owner and triggers an outreach sequence before competitors even know the space exists. 2. Google Reviews Scraper AI scans Google, Yelp, and Bing reviews for commercial properties — specifically hunting for complaints about cleanliness, odors, dirty restrooms, or pest issues. When it finds them, it identifies the property manager and queues an outreach: “We noticed your tenants have mentioned cleanliness concerns — we’d love to show you what BHS can do.” 3. Job Posting Intelligence AI monitors Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter for companies posting janitorial or facilities roles. A business hiring an in-house cleaner is either about to be disappointed or is already unhappy with a current vendor. That’s a warm lead. The agent flags them and initiates outreach timed to when they’re most frustrated. 4. Health & Fire Inspection Reports Many municipalities publish health inspection violations and fire marshal reports publicly. AI scans these for commercial properties that received citations related to sanitation, cleanliness, or biohazard conditions. Property managers with a recent citation are motivated — they need a solution fast. 5. Commercial Real Estate Leasing Activity AI monitors LoopNet, CoStar activity (via public listings), and local commercial RE broker announcements. Every new lease signed = a company moving into a space that needs janitorial services lined up. The agent identifies the incoming tenant, maps them to a decision maker on LinkedIn, and triggers outreach. 6. Facilities Manager Job Change Tracker AI monitors LinkedIn for facilities managers, property managers, and office managers who just changed jobs. A new FM at a building is one of the highest-probability moments to win a contract — they’re evaluating everything the previous person set up. The agent flags the job change and triggers outreach within days of them starting. The attorney’s model works because he found a data exhaust stream the competition ignores. For janitorial, the equivalent streams are permit filings, inspection records, lease activity, and job postings — all public, all ignored by most cleaning companies, all rich with intent signals. The best part: tools like Clay, Apollo, and Phantombuster combined with a simple AI layer (GPT or Claude API) can automate most of this for a few hundred dollars a month

@chipperPat @Baup0stGOAT With @chipperPat on this one!

@Baup0stGOAT Oh man…

@chipperPat Wait did we find one thing we disagree on after all these years ?!? 😆

We just won our first class A rfp. Over 500k sq ft. And what I’m most excited about isn’t the size of the account. It’s the chance to roll out technology that almost nobody else in our space is using. Property managers don’t just want a building cleaned. They want visibility. Accountability. Proof. Confidence that standards are actually being met when no one is watching. That’s where this gets interesting. We’re implementing new tech on this account that should give customers a level of transparency and operational control they typically don’t get from a janitorial vendor. If we execute this the way I think we can, it won’t just help us serve this property better. It will make us different. And in a crowded market, different wins. The goal is simple: build a case study, show property managers something they haven’t seen before, and create a reason for more of them to want to work with us. Big opportunity.

@AizikZimerman Congrats! All organic?!

Last March we did $1.67m of revenue This March we are targeting $3.5m It’s been an exciting month!

@pjmcgeary Great for rankings and seo. Miles and miles ahead, but as a consumer 98 reviews is a large enough sample size to get confidence in the star rating.

This is the equivalent of a mic drop in business. 98 reviews compared to 1,000. Competitors are laps behind. Thank you, next 🤝

@AizikZimerman We have an offshore recruiter as well and we’re 10% your size!

Most service businesses know hiring is everything. Yet recruiting is the first thing that gets deprioritized, because it's slow, messy, and pulls you away from everything else. Here's how we changed that. We hired 3 overseas recruiters whose only job is to recruit technicians and field staff for our Chicago-based business. They handle everything: posting jobs on Indeed, sorting applicants, outbound sourcing, scheduling interviews, and all the follow-up. The result? We run 8 to 10 interviews per day and always have a full pipeline of candidates. Global talent didn't replace our local team. It enabled it. Without dedicated people running recruiting full-time, we wouldn't be growing the way we are. It's one of the biggest unlocks in our business. If you run a service business and you're not treating recruiting like a daily operation, you're leaving growth on the table.

@ClintFiore How often would you go to a place like that? I’m guessing about as often as you eat that type of food at the state fair.

I'm still mad nobody has made a mainstream fast food restaurant with state fair type of foods. Why do I have to go to a fair to get this delicious stuff?

@chipperPat It’s being talked about more and more in smb twitter!

All the SMB bros should look into fence construction.......not easy to get a good one.

If janitorial multiples were 3-4x where are they going if it’s one of the safest from ai disintermediation?

@remotecleanguy Don’t forget the 2am calls because the alarm is going off!

Everyone wants to build a 7 figure business but nobody wants to answer the phone at 9pm on a Saturday because your cleaner called out and the client is losing their mind. It's not glamorous

I think this also has to do with trust. Boomers trust their doctors and pop whatever pill they get pushed on them. Also has to do with heathspan vs lifespan. Younger generations, especially after Covid, are taking health into their own hands and are more focused on healthspan.

@Codie_Sanchez Number two hits hard

I have a friend who is 40 and damn near a billionaire. A few years ago, I asked him for advice on investing... and here's what he told me: 1. Most of wins in life land on the edge of controversy. 2. Be careful what you read, it becomes the way you think. 3. Anger is useful in physical fights but a killer of logic. 4. Having a strong opinion is a mark of intellect but having the ability to change it is THE mark of true intelligence. 5. Share your MVPs - every time you produce a product or idea, more come back ten-fold. 6. Anytime something is common practice, check if it’s common sense. 7. Strong beliefs paired with little knowledge is a dangerous spot to operate. 8. Your skin regenerates itself every 72 days completely. Your ideas need an equal level of velocity and regeneration. Challenge the old ideas and let them be reborn into something better. 9. Shortcuts and get-rich-quick schemes will get you lost. 10. Read widely, voraciously and continuously.

@pmje73 I was gonna say, isn’t it always? But this cycle feels like it’s been more about what’s possible.

The market right now is really working through a daily exercise of trying to find consensus on what’s inevitable, what’s probable and what’s possible.