Season 2
SEASON 2 EPISODE 1
$14 trillion in small business wealth is expected to change hands in the next ten years as Baby Boomers exit the economy. For landscape contractors, designers, and trades business owners, that's not just a statistic, it's a question about what gets carried forward, and who carries it.
David Hori has spent his career where people and business meet. From HR to startup leadership to growing pro.com into an acquisition-ready construction company, his approach has always been the same: keep people in focus, and everything else follows. He now coaches business owners on how to build, prepare, and when the time is right, transition their companies to new ownership.
"There's nothing less sustainable or good for our economy than the current private equity model of buying companies, building them together, juicing them and selling them to a bigger fish upstream. I think it's tremendously destructive. And so that is exactly why I'm positioning myself on the other end of the spectrum: buying businesses where legacy matters to those holders, keeping that at the forefront."
—David Hori
What you'll learn:
Why every trades business owner should build to sell, even if they never plan to
What makes a business "buyable": the risk factors that kill deals, and how to address them before a buyer shows up
How David achieved 98% employee retention through a major acquisition and what that actually looked like
Why customer concentration, owner dependency, and handshake vendor agreements are red flags a bank won't ignore
The difference between being selfish about money and being a steward of your business
How KPIs can be an act of clarity and care for your team, not a threat
Where technology fits into the trades right now, and the one tool David recommends for nearly every small construction business
Brit and Bethany draw the regenerative parallel throughout. A business with all its revenue in one customer is like a landscape planted 90% in a single species: no resiliency, no future. They also bring the perspective of an owner learning to move from artist to operator, navigating the same push and pull between caring for people and staying financially sustainable.
David Hori is the founder of Topline Operators, where he buys profitable local businesses and advises owners on growth and exit strategy. His philosophy stands in direct contrast to private equity: preserve the team, the culture, and the legacy the founder built.
His background spans 25+ years of scaling businesses, including a decade in VC-funded startups where all three founder partnerships exited via acquisition (Toyota, Opendoor, and Qualtrics). One of his favorite businesses to scale was a residential construction GC, which is what brought him to the trades and kept him there.
With $14 trillion in business value expected to change hands as baby boomers retire, David helps owners exit well or find a better path. His track record includes integrating 1,100 employees post-acquisition with 98% retention.
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