A new wave of multi-brand platforms is absorbing 40-unit HVAC and plumbing systems at valuations that would have looked absurd two years ago. The operators who built them aren’t slowing down. Here is the map of who owns what, and who is lining up next.
Seven of the nineteen Neighborly brands now have voice agents live after-hours, and the franchisee call-back rate is already shifting the unit economics.
The back-office sprawl at most 500-unit systems now rivals a mid-market hospital. That is not a tech problem. It is a leadership one.
The spread between platform and tuck-in pricing has closed 2.3 turns since January. The operators who ignore it will be the ones selling into it.
And worse at one, which is why the good deployments still have a person on swing shift. Here is what separates the two.