New Leadership That Helped Scale Abacus from $30M to $100M

In this episode of To The Point Home Services Podcast , Chris and Chad sit down with Tony Patino , President of Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical , to unpack one of the most impressive leadership journeys in the home services industry. Tony joined Abacus in 2017 from outside home services . Fast-forward to today, and he’s helped scale the company from roughly $30M to over $100M+ , while expanding service lines, redesigning systems, and building elite teams across multiple trades. This conversation is loaded with practical insights for operators, leaders, GMs, and anyone looking to grow inside (or break into) the home services world. ⭐ What You’ll Learn How Tony transitioned from retail, Aramark, and moving services into plumbing/HVAC/electrical How to earn trust from seasoned technicians when you’re “not from the trades” The mindset that helped Tony scale Abacus through major transitions: new facility ServiceTitan rollout adding electrical building water treatment launching generators Why humility, curiosity, and solving simple technician pain points are core to leadership How Abacus built a unified sales process across trades Why cross-selling and a single “VIP Membership” structure transformed their business Lessons from working with industry legends like Alan O’Neill, Kevin Comerford, Darryl Bingham & others The biggest hiring mistakes—and the one sales hire that changed everything What contractors consistently overlook when building new verticals Whether you’re at $3M or $300M, Tony breaks down the frameworks that actually move the needle. ⏱️ Timecodes 00:00 – Intro: gloomy weather, fat-face jokes, and basketball trash talk 01:16 – Introducing guest: Tony Patino 02:00 – Tony’s background: retail → Aramark → moving → recruited to Abacus 05:00 – Why being a “student of the game” matters 05:25 – Tony’s first podcast ever 06:00 – Early management lessons & leadership foundations 07:30 – Getting recruited… twice 09:23 – How Tony won over plumbers without being a plumber 12:00 – Misconceptions Tony had about the industry 14:00 – How he built trust with techs & managers 16:40 – Rolling out ServiceTitan and using tech to earn credibility 18:45 – Little changes that fix big technician pain points 20:00 – Growing electrical and learning multiple trades 24:00 – Mentorship from industry giants & learning from Wrench Group leaders 25:50 – Deep dive: building water treatment as a real vertical 27:30 – Launching generators the right way 28:50 – The biggest internal gap Tony identified: sales leadership 29:40 – Hiring the wrong sales leader—and fixing it fast 32:00 – Merging new and existing sales teams without destroying culture 36:00 – Cross-selling across trades: where contractors mess this up 38:00 – Building a unified VIP membership 41:00 – Why Abacus scaled fast—and what’s next 🔗 Resources & Mentions • Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical — https://www.abacusplumbing.net/ • Wrench Group — https://www.wrenchgroup.com/ • ServiceTitan — https://www.servicetitan.com/ 🙌 Connect With the Guest • Tony Patino — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonypatino/ Thank you to our Sponsors! Basic Capital: https://basiccapital.com/tothepoint Chiirp: https://chiirp.com/ Contractor Commerce: https://www.contractorcommerce.com/ryno/ Bluon: https://www.bluon.com/get-demo?referral_code=ToThePoint Avoca.ai: https://avoca.ai/r/tothepoint 👍 Enjoying the Podcast? Do Us a Quick Favor! If you found value in this episode, help us keep making great content: ✅ Subscribe to the channel 💬 Drop a comment with your biggest takeaway 🔁 Share this episode with your team or another operator 🔔 Turn on notifications so you never miss an episode

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