DiscoverThe Turn: Blue Collar to Billions
The Turn: Blue Collar to Billions

The Turn: Blue Collar to Billions

Author: Iconic Founders Group

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You've fought hard for your business. Growth was earned, not given. Maybe you've scaled, maybe you've sold, but who have you become in the process? This isn't another podcast obsessing over multiples and deal structure. We get to the heart of what you're actually going through. Hosted by Kory Mitchell, CEO of Iconic Founders, we sit down with blue-collar business owners who've built something real, businesses like HVAC, landscaping, pest control, construction. These are honest conversations about the challenges, the lessons, and the moments that changed everything. Because the real story isn't just how you got here, it's about the lessons along the way. 


About the Host, Kory Mitchell: Kory Mitchell is the host of The Turn and the founder of Iconic Founders Group. He's lived the founder's journey, building a small regional specialty contracting business with his family into a national ($200m)brand and navigating two transactions, including a 9-figure exit. With 25+ years in the specialty contracting industry, Kory learned how personal and high-stakes the decision to sell can be. Now he guides founder-led companies through legacy-preserving transactions and serves as a board member for several large national specialty trades businesses, bringing an operator's perspective to strategic growth. 


About Iconic Founders: Iconic Founders Group provides expert guidance for blue-collar industry founders ready to grow and sell their businesses while preserving legacy. We work with founder-led businesses doing $3M–$20M in profit across specialty contracting and trades, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, pest control, roofing, concrete, environmental services, tree services, excavation, asphalt paving, restoration, and more. Whether you're seeking liquidity, finding a partner to scale, or protecting the team and culture that made you great, Kory and the Iconic Team serves as a trusted advisor throughout the entire process, from readiness to strategic buyer alignment, all the way to a proud and well-earned close. Learn more at www.iconicfounders.com. 


Built Something Great? We Want to Hear Your Story. Whether you're in the thick of scaling, contemplating an exit, or reflecting on lessons learned, we'd love to connect. Visit us at www.iconicfounders.com and subscribe to The Turn wherever you get your podcasts.

27 Episodes
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In Part Two, Brenden Van Buren picks up where Part One left off: running Pro Max, the commercial fencing company he bought in 2018. He gets candid about his first year in charge, from learning to hire and fire to a stretch when roughly one in ten laborer candidates showed up for interviews. He breaks down the growth levers that worked and the one that didn't: acquisitions in a fragmented market, a new office in State College, a gate automation and access control line he didn't know he was bu...
Brenden Van Buren grew up inside a fifth-generation heavy highway construction business that was just shy of $1 billion in sales. By the time he left, he was running a $50 million project and had been offered a promotion to chief estimator. He turned it down, went to business school with one stated goal, to buy a small business, and joined Carnegie Mellon's first entrepreneurship through acquisition class. In Part One, Brenden explains how search funds actually work, including the tradi...
Once you take the check, you lose control. Baxter Fain learned that the hard way. He built Trinity One Group from a HELOC and 4:30 a.m. mornings during the Great Recession, then sold it less than two years later after naming a price at dinner. What followed: changes to his team’s healthcare, commission splits, and policies he never negotiated up front. On this episode of The Turn, Baxter and Kory Mitchell talk about founder guilt, partnership pressure, and why the terms for your people matte...
Integrating acquisitions under private equity pressure will break an unprepared team. Former Blue Sky CEO Drew Bisping unpacks his journey taking the restoration company to a billion-dollar valuation through calculated M&A. Scaling requires an operational shift. Bisping details absorbing an eight-location competitor and the mechanics behind adjusting EBITDA when an anomalous $120 million project hits the books right before a sale. Taking the top seat of a massive enterprise demands tradin...
Scaling a construction business from $10 million to over $1 billion demands ruthless operational discipline. Drew Bisping joined Blue Sky as employee 20 or 21 and worked his way to CEO, steering the restoration giant through massive organic growth and four private equity buyouts. We break down the blueprint for successful greenfield expansion and why launching bare-bones satellite offices causes failure. Drew explains the necessity of replicating a fully staffed business model, establishing l...
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