Abhi Ravishankar·January 20, 2025

The $50m Lifestyle Holdco | Abhi Ravishankar Interview

Abhi Ravishankar is a former BCG partner and startup operations executive (robotics warehousing) who left corporate life in 2023 to build a lifestyle-oriented holding company with three longtime friends, all Bay Area professionals with MBA backgrounds. Rather than going it alone, the four structured a hold co (initially Route One Capital, rebranding to Trust One Partners) with equal equity at the hold-co level and a sweat-equity pool (~20%) for whoever operates each acquired business, meaning Abhi owns roughly 40% of his operating company and 20% of each partner's future business. The first acquisition was a 40-year-old Silicon Valley pool service company purchased for roughly $2-2.5m (high-end of 3-4x on ~$650-700k SDE), financed with ~25% partner equity and a ~75% seller note at 5-6% interest — no SBA, closed in six weeks. In 18 months Abhi completed four add-on acquisitions, grew headcount from 17 to 51, and scaled revenue from ~$3m to an ~$8-9m run rate, targeting $10m within a year. A second hold-co business — a Shelf Genie kitchen/cabinet franchise in Seattle ($4-5m revenue) — was acquired for a partner who is still transitioning from his W2. The central thesis is that the partnership model trades some upside for dramatically lower loneliness, built-in operational coverage, diversification across businesses, and the ability to invest ahead of growth without investor pressure — all in service of a lifestyle built around family flexibility rather than maximizing near-term cash.

Deal facts

purchase price: ~$2.0-2.5m (implied: slightly above 3-4x on ~$650-700k SDE)
multiple: high end of 3-4x SDE (toward 4x)
sde ebitda: ~$650-700k SDE on ~$3m revenue (a little over 20% margin)
revenue: ~$3m at acquisition; grown to ~$8-9m run rate (18 months later)
financing structure: ~25% equity (self-funded by 4 partners) + ~75% seller note at ~5-6% interest; no SBA
notes: Platform acquisition: 40-year-old pool service company, 14 routes, 17 employees, Bay Area/Silicon Valley. Four additional add-on acquisitions completed within 18 months. Second hold-co business: Shelf Genie kitchen/cabinet franchise in Seattle (4-5m revenue), acquired by a partner. No external investor capital. Hold co formerly called Route One Capital, rebranding to Trust One Partners.

Why this business

Abhi wanted a business local to his Bay Area home, in a blue-collar or blue/white-collar industry, with recurring revenue, that would let him build long-term equity while supporting a lifestyle oriented around family flexibility. Pool service checked every box: it was 15 minutes from his house, had reoccurring route-based revenue, a 40-year operating history with long-tenure employees, and was large enough to serve as a consolidation platform. His criteria explicitly excluded anything requiring frequent travel or on-call weekend disruptions.

What's working

Roll-up / programmatic add-on acquisition strategy: completed 4 add-ons in 18 months, tripling revenue from ~$3m to ~$8-9m run rate
Organic growth outpaced acquisition volume: in year 1, organic customer growth exceeded what 3 of the 4 add-on deals contributed
Primary-secondary partner model: each business has a lead operator and a shadow CEO (another partner), enabling genuine flexibility, fresh external perspective, and coverage during absences
No external investor capital: long-term hold orientation allows reinvesting in people ahead of growth without short-term distribution pressure
Seller financing at favorable terms (~5-6% interest, large seller note): avoided SBA colonoscopy and closed in 6 weeks when competing buyer used SBA
Hiring ahead of growth: added an ops manager early despite J-curve pain, resulting in stronger infrastructure for subsequent add-ons
Leadership team built out: grew from 1 service manager to 5-person leadership team (directors for sales, residential, commercial plus quality managers)
Geography advantage: operating in Silicon Valley/South Bay, 21 of top 100 richest US zip codes, high willingness to pay for quality pool service
120,000 pools in two operating counties; currently serving ~1,500 (roughly 1% penetration), leaving massive organic runway

What's hard

Integration is always painful and imperfect: combining 5 different companies into one coherent operation is the biggest ongoing time sink
J-curve on EBITDA in year 1: margins compressed into the teens during growth/integration phase, though beginning to recover by month 18
Seller notes amortize faster than SBA loans (roughly 7 years vs 10): higher monthly debt service impacts cash flow more than a slightly higher interest rate would
Closed the retail storefront: was told it would be a lead-gen source but served only DIY customers who had already self-selected out of being service clients
Buying pure pool routes (customer lists only) is marginally effective: getting good employees is as hard as getting customers; preferred targets now must include employees
Trademark oversight on the original hold-co name (Route One Capital) required a rebrand to Trust One Partners
Partners still on W2s: full-time participation is sequential, creating an imbalance in day-to-day operational bandwidth in the near term

Notable quotes

I wanted to build a career around my life and not the other way around. We are all used to building life around our careers and I wanted to switch that.

If I wanted to do that I would have probably liked to get a call about a robot going bust in a warehouse in South Korea rather than doing this. I didn't want that — that didn't pass my sniff test of what I wanted to do.

We wrote the number for each of us on that whiteboard. We also wrote what is the drop-dead date by when you will be full-time. And we go back to it every six months or so.

I've seen people on Twitter talk about hey I want to hire another operations manager but I can't make that investment. It could be a reason where the numbers just don't pencil, but it also could mean they have to make certain distributions to investors and they cannot afford to hire another 80-100k ops manager to get out of the way so they can focus on growing the business.