I did not set out to sell WASFO. I set out to build something that worked.
When I acquired a struggling laundromat and started rebuilding it into what would become WASFO Laundry & Dry Cleaning Services, my goal was simple: take a broken operation and make it excellent. Build the systems. Hire the right people. Grow the revenue. Serve the customers better than anyone else in the market.
What I did not expect was that doing all of those things well would make the business attractive to an acquirer — and that the exit would teach me more about building businesses than the building itself did.
The thing about exits is that they reveal everything.
When you go through an acquisition process, every assumption you made about your business gets tested. The acquirer looks at your systems, your team, your customer relationships, your financials, your operations. They are not looking for perfection. They are looking for durability. They want to know: does this business work without the founder?
For WASFO, the answer was yes — and that was not an accident. I had spent years building systems that could run without me. Documented processes. A trained team. Technology infrastructure that automated the repetitive work. Customer relationships that were built on service quality, not personal relationships that would walk out the door when I did.
That is what made the exit possible. And it is the thing I would tell every entrepreneur who is building a business today: build it like you are going to sell it, even if you never do.
What I brought back to corporate life.
After the acquisition, I returned to Generac with a different mindset than the one I had when I left. I had spent years thinking like an owner — allocating resources, making decisions under uncertainty, building systems, managing cash, leading a team through hard moments. That experience does not leave you.
When I look at a market opportunity now, I do not just see a sales target. I see an ecosystem to build. I see the channel infrastructure, the service network, the compliance framework, the pricing architecture — all the pieces that need to be in place for the opportunity to become a sustainable business.
That is the entrepreneurial mindset applied to corporate business development. And it is, I believe, the most valuable thing I brought back from WASFO.
The lesson I keep coming back to.
Build systems, not dependencies. Hire people who are better than you at the things you are not good at. Document everything. Treat every customer relationship like it is the most important one you have. And always, always know what the business looks like without you — because that is the version that gets acquired, that gets scaled, and that outlasts you.
The exit was not the goal. But it was the proof.