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01 · What it is
Built for both sides of the trade.

For the operators running platforms.

For the founders selling them.

For the sponsors funding them.

For the leaders being placed into them.

Each edition covers the deals that closed. The talent that moved. The capital that shifted. What it means for the cycle ahead.

No filler. No hot takes. Signal only.
What an edition looks like
Blackstone paid 18.5x EBITDA for Champions Group. Goldman paid 17-20x for Sila Services. Altas paid 17x for Redwood. The market has repriced what a scaled essential services platform is worth.

Three transactions reset what sponsors will pay for scaled, recurring-revenue platforms. The multiple arbitrage still works: buy at 5-9x, integrate, exit at 15-20x. What’s changed is who has the operational track record to get there.

Real Talk  ·  INC'D
Every edition covers
01
The Big Idea
One thesis. Fully developed. The market narrative everyone is dancing around, said plainly.
02
Deal Ticker
Recent transactions across essential services verticals. Who bought what, at what multiple, and what it signals.
03
The Number
One data point that matters. Context on what it means and what you should do about it.
04
Talent Moves
Leadership changes across the sector. Who's in, who's out, and what each move tells you about the platform.
Deal Ticker
Tecta America  ·  Commercial Roofing
Six acquisitions in 2025. Reportedly exploring a sale at $3-4B. 110+ locations, 4,500+ employees. If it closes near the upper end, it prices at 2.5-3x revenue for a commercial trades platform. That is a new benchmark.
Roofing
Summit Companies  ·  BDT & MSD Partners
Acquired from BlackRock Long Term Private Capital, Q4 2025. 37 states. Pye-Barker closed 57 acquisitions in the same year. Fire and life safety is the most active essential services vertical by transaction count and it is not close.
Fire & Life Safety
Zayo  ·  Crown Castle Fiber Solutions
$4.25B. 90,000 route miles added. Meanwhile the BEAD program was restructured in June 2025, removing the fiber preference and reopening state plans for rebid. The fiber ISP space is being reshaped by strategic M&A and federal policy simultaneously.
Telecoms
Rollins  ·  32 Deals, Q1-Q3 2025
EBITDA margins at 25.2%, up 120bps year-on-year. The pest control thesis holds: 70-85% recurring revenue, 25-35% EBITDA margins for quality operators, and a $26B US market growing at 6.1% CAGR. Rollins keeps buying. The independents keep getting calls.
Pest Control
The Number
18.5x

What Blackstone, Goldman, and Altas paid for scaled HVAC platforms in 2024-2025. The ceiling for essential services has moved. Quality assets with clean integration are transacting at a premium most sponsors weren't modeling two years ago.

"Essential services used to trade at a discount to the broader market. That gap has closed. The question now is whether the platforms that benefited from cheap entry prices are actually ready to exit at these levels."

What it becomes

Real Talk does not stop at the newsletter.

Polls and surveys running across both sides of the trade. Signal from inside the search market that the rest of the industry sees months later.

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