A few weeks ago when Antoni and I were talking, he asked me to visualize what a day in the life would look like once I had started $COMPANY and we had been at it for a few years, it was a powerful exercise. I felt warmth and happiness when I was thinking about the type of impact we could possibly have on people's lives, on our employee's lives, and on the community around them.
It's amazing to think about, and dream about, what could come next, what the possibilities are, and then work backwards from there. When I was visualizing where the company could be in the future, I placed the flag at 8 years from today. Why? Because I gave myself 3-5 years to first dollar and I wanted to be out further from that to allow time for growth.
The exercise only lasted a few minutes during our session, but it has been on-going in my mind for a few weeks now. It has helped inform company values, my thoughts on future offered benefits to employees, and how we will interface with customers and their communities.
I thought it might be fun to write a bit of this out to see where we actually do end up by April 5th, 2030.
A Day In The Life
My morning would start with some self-care, a workout, some meditation, and then start our morning routine with the family. I would check my calendar and see what customer calls I had that day. Then it's time to load up the car with the equipment needed for the day (air quality testing equipment, installation gear, etc) and head out to the first call of the day.
My role would remain customer facing as long as possible, but it is my intention to train additional employees on the science and method that we have developed.
I would arrive at a customer site (usually with an employee training in our process) and sit down with them at their kitchen table and discuss their concerns, health issues, and talk through our methodology on solving issues. I would take plenty of time to address any concerns that they have, ensure that they feel heard, take plenty of notes, and then ask permission to survey the home for potential areas of concern.
I would use a Lidar mapping solution on my phone to generate a 3D rendering of their home, each floor, each room. Ideally this software would enable me to mark points of interest for later review. I would use some handheld sensors to get some baseline air quality readings in each room.
Once a survey is complete, we would sit back down and talk through my initial recommendations. Usually this would include a more thorough survey using leave behind equipment, which would be deployed in each room. Assuming they want to continue the engagement, I would schedule my deployment team to follow up and deploy the leave behind sensors.
I would forward my recommendations and all of the data to the back-office so they can build the initial proposal and plan of action. Further remedies would be identified once a more thorough survey takes place. These surveys usually will gather data for 2-4 weeks, which should give us a more thorough picture of the air quality patterns in the home.
Ideally I would only have two in person customer calls per day, allowing me time to go to the office to work on reports, research, R&D, check in on on-going projects, or meet with lawmakers to help write legislation to improve the building code to help protect people's health.
In the office, I would love to have someone in charge of finances and billing, another in charge of customer engagements, someone running contractor relations, and a R&D team that work on developing technology and sensors.
My day would then proceed from there as necessary. I want to have empowered employees who are very comfortable and understand the bounds in which they can make decisions on behalf of the business. I never want to be an impediment to progress.
Employee Benefits
It is my intention to build a business around ensuring that my employee's lives are enriched, not just the owners. I want to build a happy and healthy environment that helps us attract empathetic and passionate individuals to work with us. Our benefits will rival tech companies in the ways that count:
- 100% Healthcare (Mental Health, Dental, Vision too)
- Profit Sharing
- Company Electric Vehicle with personal use
- CSA membership for them and their family
- Adoption/Infertility Assistance
- Education Assistance
- Gender Affirming Assistance
- Access to Accountant and Tax Services
- Mortgage Assistance
- Donation Matching
- 401k w/ full match to IRS limit
- Business class travel
This all will cost a lot, I'm not blind to this. But, this is my dream and I can use it as a goal to help structure my $COMPANY in such a way that will hopefully allow for these things to eventually happen.
In addition to this, we will have an open culture that is upfront about our compensation. We will have a publicly posted formula for each role that removes the negotiation phase and ensures that everyone is able to be open about their compensation without fear of retribution, including the owners. We will perform annual assessments to identify going rates for each role, then ensure that we pay at the very top of that range (sometimes beyond). In event of a global event that directly affects inflation, we will immediately re-assess compensation and adjust upwards as necessary. There will be a company minimum wage that ensures that every employee can afford a nicely appointed home in the communities that they serve.
If we identify a market that we'd like to break into, we would give opportunities for our employees to start a new franchise with a path to ownership. We would finance the franchise, offer mentorship and training, and then recoup investment over 5 years through profits. Handing over (70%-80%) ownership of a franchise to employees that have grown is our goal, with the core company retaining the remaining ownership percentage.
Visualization
I'm putting these things out in the world because I want them to become real. I want to build a company that can support this vision, one that focuses on the people instead of the company. Our employees should be supported, given opportunities to grow, and even leave without fear of openly talking about their dreams.
It's time to build a new model for companies, one that focuses on employees over profit - although I believe you can have both.