A Texas holding company · Est. 2025

A long-term home
for the businesses
you spent a life
building.

VerdeMax acquires and operates essential service businesses across Texas — pool routes, plumbing, pest control, HVAC. We’re a single, serious buyer with capital in place and no plans to flip what we buy.

Houston & Dallas SDE $500K – $800K Hold horizon: indefinite
Capital committed SBA pre-qualified Texas-based One operator. One owner.
01 — Philosophy

We’re not building a portfolio. We’re building a home for the kind of businesses that quietly run Texas.

A pool route in Sugar Land. A plumbing company in Frisco. The unglamorous work that keeps a city working — and the families who built those businesses over twenty or thirty years.

When an owner is ready for the next chapter, the typical options aren’t great: a strategic buyer who folds the company in and lays off half the staff; a private-equity rollup that levers everything up and resells in three years; a relative who can’t quite take the reins.

VerdeMax exists to be the fourth option. One serious buyer, capital ready, with the patience to keep what works, the operating discipline to invest where it matters, and zero intention of selling the business onward.

i.

Own forever, not three years.

We don’t buy with an exit horizon. The businesses we acquire stay under VerdeMax indefinitely, which changes how we make every other decision.

ii.

Keep what works.

Tenured staff stay. Customer relationships stay. Brand stays. We’re buying these businesses because they work — gutting them would be self-defeating.

iii.

Invest where it matters.

Better dispatch software, more vehicles, real marketing, a clean back office. The boring upgrades that owner-operators rarely have time to make.

iv.

Honor the handoff.

Selling a business is personal. We move at your pace, sign mutual NDAs before any financials change hands, and treat the LOI as a real commitment — not an opening anchor we plan to chip at later.

02 — What we buy

Specific. Not opportunistic.

Purchase price
$1.4M – $2.2MSingle-business acquisition. Add-ons considered after the platform is in place.
Within the range that SBA 7(a) financing supports cleanly, plus equity from VerdeMax. We are not stretching to buy bigger than we can run.
Cash flow (SDE)
$500K – $800KTrailing twelve months, owner-adjusted earnings.
Stable or growing. Concentration above 25% in one customer needs a reason. Add-back gymnastics make us walk.
Geography
Texas — Houston & Dallas metrosIncluding surrounding counties: Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Collin, Denton, Tarrant.
Local on purpose. We place a full-time general manager on site who lives in the metro and runs the business from the ground — not from a spreadsheet two time zones away.
Structure
Asset or stock; SBA-ledPre-qualified with multiple SBA lenders. Equity is committed, not contingent.
We welcome a seller note. When you keep some skin in the game alongside us, it tells the staff and customers you still believe in the business — and it aligns us during the first year, when alignment matters most. Earnouts work the same way.
Seller transition
3 – 12 months, your paceAnywhere from a clean handoff to a multi-year consulting role.
Some sellers want to be done at close. Others want to stay involved for a year. Both are fine — we plan transition around what you need.

Pool service

Residential and commercial maintenance routes with weekly recurring billing.

Recurring

Plumbing

Service-call and contract plumbing with established commercial accounts.

Mixed

HVAC

Service contracts, replacement and maintenance — favoring contracted recurring work.

Recurring

Pest control

Quarterly residential routes, commercial accounts, lawn and tree adjacencies.

Recurring

Fire & safety

Inspection routes — extinguishers, sprinklers, alarms — heavily recurring by code.

Recurring

Lot sweeping

Commercial parking-lot sweeping under monthly contract with retail and industrial.

Recurring

Adjacent services

Other route-based commercial services with recurring revenue and an installed base.

Open

Not on this list?

Recurring-revenue commercial services we haven’t named — we’ll still take the call.

Reach out →
03 — The buyer

A note from the founder.

Nicholas Austin, Founder of VerdeMax
Nicholas Austin Houston, TX

I'm one person, with capital, looking to buy one good business at a time.

Most of the calls a Texas service-business owner gets these days are from private-equity rollups: someone in New York or Chicago who’s never been to your shop and has every intention of selling it onward in three years.

VerdeMax is the opposite of that. I’m a single buyer, investing my own hard-earned capital, with an SBA letter of support and a real lending partner already lined up. I’m looking to acquire one cash-flowing service business at a time and operate it for the long haul.

Before this, I spent a decade in enterprise B2B sales — closing six- and seven-figure software deals — which mostly taught me that great deals get done when both sides walk in honest and stay that way. I’m bringing that same posture here.

If you’re thinking about selling, even years out, I’d like to know you. I’ll sign an NDA before you tell me a single number. I’ll tell you fast if it’s not a fit. And if it is a fit, you’ll find I’m straightforward to deal with.

Nicholas Austin
Founder, VerdeMax · LinkedIn · nick@verdemax.com
04 — Process

From first call to closing — typically 90 to 120 days.

Step 01

Introduction

A 30-minute call. You tell me about the business, what you’d want a transition to look like, and what your timeline is. No financials yet, no pressure.

Day 030 minutes
Step 02

Mutual NDA

Standard mutual NDA before we look at anything sensitive. You see how I work and I see whether the numbers support a real conversation.

Day 1 – 7One business week
Step 03

Indication of interest

If the business looks like a fit, you’ll get a written indication of interest with a price range and broad terms. Honest range, not a high anchor.

Day 7 – 14One to two weeks
Step 04

Letter of intent

If we agree on the IOI, we move to a binding LOI with exclusivity. We treat the LOI as a commitment: the number on it is the number we expect to close at. If diligence surfaces something material that changes the picture, we’ll have an honest conversation about it — but we don’t use diligence as a tool to chip the price down for sport.

Day 14 – 21Roughly week three
Step 05

Diligence & financing

Quality of earnings, legal review, and SBA lender underwriting in parallel. We work with Viso Capital — an SBA broker who shops the deal across their lender network — which keeps the financing track moving on its own timeline rather than gating everything else.

Day 21 – 100Ten to twelve weeks
Step 06

Close & transition

Funds wire, papers sign, the keys come over. Whatever transition support you committed to begins on Day 1, on the schedule we agreed in the LOI.

Day 100 – 120Closing window
05 — Why VerdeMax

What you can expect that you’re not getting from the other calls.

i.

Capital that’s actually committed

Equity is in place. SBA pre-qualified with multiple lenders. We’re not raising the down-payment after we agree to a price.

→ no financing contingencies after LOI
ii.

A buyer, not a fund

VerdeMax is one operator with one mandate — buy and run. No investment committee that gets cold feet, no LP timeline forcing a flip in three years.

→ permanent home for the business
iii.

An LOI you can plan around

Diligence is for understanding the business — not for negotiating the price down a second time. If something material surfaces, we talk it through in the open. Otherwise the LOI number is the closing number.

→ no diligence-driven chipping
Capital & advisors
Equity capital
Founder equity. Personal financials reviewed and validated by an SBA underwriting specialist.
SBA broker
Viso Business Capital — Heather Endresen, Owner.
Training & advisors
Trained through Buy Then Build, the Contrarian Thinking community, and Acquisitions Anonymous. Counsel and QofE engaged ahead of LOI.
06 — FAQ

Questions sellers actually ask.

01

What happens to my employees?

+

The team comes with the business. We’re buying because what your people built works — replacing them would defeat the point. Tenured staff keep their roles, comp, and seniority. We honor existing benefits and only make changes where staff actively want them.

02

Will you keep the company name?

+

Yes — by default. Brand equity built over decades is real, especially in service businesses where customers chose your name for a reason. VerdeMax is a holding company, not a brand we paste on top of acquired companies.

03

Do I have to stay involved after closing?

+

Only as much as you want. Some sellers leave at close; some stay on a one-year consulting agreement; some take an ongoing advisory role. We plan the transition around what you want, not the other way around.

04

How do I know you’ll actually close?

+

Equity is committed up front. We’re pre-qualified with multiple SBA 7(a) lenders. We can introduce you to our counsel and lender contacts before LOI so you’re not taking our word for any of it. The honest test is: ask for those references early.

05

Will you load the business with debt and resell it?

+

No. The acquisition is financed with SBA debt at the holding-company level and committed equity — not the kind of leverage that strangles operations. We don’t plan resales. The base case is to own and operate this business indefinitely.

06

What if I’m two or three years away from selling?

+

Talk anyway. Most sellers get the best outcome by starting the conversation early — it lets us understand the business at our own pace and lets you sell on your timeline rather than under pressure. There’s no obligation in talking.

07

Are you working with a broker or going direct?

+

Both. We pay broker fees per industry standard and have good working relationships with several Texas-based M&A advisors. Direct conversations are equally welcome — and often the most efficient when there’s a real fit.

Get in touch

Even if it’s years out — let’s start the conversation.

Whether you’re ready to sell now or just figuring out what your options look like, reach out. I read every email and respond within one business day.

If you’re emailing, including your location, service type and rough revenue range helps me come back with something useful instead of a templated reply.

What to expect

  • 0130-minute intro call. No financials shared.
  • 02Mutual NDA before any numbers change hands.
  • 03Honest fit assessment within a week.
  • 04Written IOI with a real price range.
  • 05LOI inside three weeks if it’s a fit.