Rachel Wells’ Post

Transcript

About. OK, So your work at Leave Home so I could every second. You joined as CEO this year, I think it was in March. Tell me more about what Leetham is and what you do. What's your, what's your vision for Leetham? Yeah. So first of all, it's interesting because it's more connected to the way I look at our world than not. And and I think you know people who know me and now that we brought up the book, I can connect these dots. I actually believe there's tremendous friction with the whole idea of home ownership. And if you look at what makes Leaf. So unique today it's that happens to have products with great market fit that allowed it to expand in 80% of zip codes in the United States. And so when you think about the landscape in the US, we cover it. And what's really interesting about that model is that we cover it with our own people and and and so we really rely on people who can not only go out and tell the story about our products, but can actually install. And when you look at complexity of homes, the fact that homes are getting older, the fact that people have. Less discretionary spend to go out and do improvements on their home. This is the real friction point and leaf is at this interesting point because it has the footprint and as we introduce new products and services we're really able to not only help homeowners in the short term, but we fundamentally believe in this long term vision that we can make homeownership easier and and less friction. And so I'm really I'm excited about the platform but it also by the way as you can imagine. As it relates to skills and trades, we are beholden to people who can actually do the work and what what many people don't realize the complexity of home ownership. And we joked about AI, but I'm right now sitting in a home that's over 100 years old. Really and and and by the way, the complexity of that is that my neighbor is also living in a house that's 100 years old, but this house has had significant changes to its infrastructure. The one next door has them. And so the challenge when you start thinking about understanding what really is going on with the home, it's much more technical, much more difficult than simply assessing something with a digital tool and saying, hey, these homes live next to each other, therefore they deal with the same. And so home ownership is very, very complex and it really does rely on people. And at least what we say all the time is that we truly are powered by our people. We absolutely use technology. But it's just like you're using AI to help you. It's you. That's the brain behind how this story comes to life. It's just like with our work, we use technology. But ultimately when you get into a situation and you observe either a bathroom that needs to be renovated or in some cases if someone's in a two-story. Home and they cannot access. Store floor one to floor 2, because of a disability, our product can actually move you up and we can set that situation. And so look, our flagship product was a product built to move rain away from the home which is is. It it, you know, it's it's a gutter protection product and it ironically is a product that a lot of people need because when you think about home ownership, water is one of the biggest issues you face, whether it's coming down or coming up. And so I, you know, look, I'm very proud of the platform we've built, but also I recognize the complexity of making sure that we've got a pipeline of talent to deliver on the promise not only like in three years but in 10 years. So just have curiosity just branching off. Planning to ask this Do you find that there's more of a demand for that particular product when it comes to taking rain away in areas where there's lots of tornadoes or hurricanes, like Florida and southern states? So it's really, it's fascinating. And you know, if you look at macro trends, as an example, take California, there's typically not a lot of rain out in California, but with debris that collects in your gutters, there's tremendous risk of fire. And so if you look at a lot of local municipalities, they will communicate to homeowners to really make sure they not only remove debris from the exterior of the dwelling, but they're also keeping the roof line including their gutters. Clean. And so that's an example of our product in that scenario provides a benefit that's a little bit different than take to your point Florida, which experiences A tremendous amount of rain. Even where I live in New Orleans, we've got a beautiful oak tree in the back. While it's beautiful, it drops a lot quite a year. And so before we had Lee Filter and this isn't, this is just reality where we had Lee Filter, we had someone who came out twice a year and it wasn't cheap and now. Of course, now now you know. Luckily, we've got a product that keeps our our. Gutters flowing and so you know look it that that is what drove the expansion of the company. But it is interesting because again when you look at products with unique market fit, they do. They kind of appeal to different markets in different ways. Yeah, exactly. That's fantastic. So now you're talking about the talent pipeline now. Yeah, how you finding it currently? Are you currently struggling when it comes to talent pipeline to fulfill those needs like and what kind of time are are we talking about here? Yeah, and look, I mean what what's really interesting about it is there's such a conundrum with trades and there's been such a negative perception of trades over time. It's and and I hear it from a lot of people that I know or or potential companies that we look at and you hear from the owner and owner. Making up an example, but the owner of a plumbing company, this is my kids have zero interest in being a plumber taking over the business and there's this shift away from trade. If you look at Leap Home as an example, we have demand of 10,000 trades people over the next year. So. So when you when you think about these macro trends of a younger generation who is more interested in potentially creating a PowerPoint or creating an Excel spreadsheet versus actually going out and doing something that. You can see the result of your physical work. There's been a big shift. And so part of our thesis is not only do we need to inspire people to be interested in the trades, but we also need to help people develop those skill sets and also support either schools or programs that teach people the trades. It's critically important for our society to have people who understand the trades and and candidly, the issue of aging out is a problem. And and and we need a next generation to be inspired to do it and I think there are a lot of like really positive reasons as to why you would want to participate in the trades. So before we get into those reasons, do you feel that digitalization has it has a huge is a huge factor as to why people are kind of moving away from not being so interested in actual manual labour and physical trades and and are more focused on you know things like consulting or or more less manual things do you think? Utilization and even the reason I've been of AI has a huge impact on that. I I I think you know, I I think everything is informed by what consumers are exposed to and you know if you look at the educational system today and if you look at a lot of the macro influences. They are more digitally focused. And so a lot of the work that you're exposed to and I've got young kids and so I look at it through that lens. There's a lot of exposure to things like engineering, a lot of exposure to the core learning like math, and that is wonderful. It's absolutely needed and it's critical for the development. But here's the challenge when you get to a certain age and when you start thinking about career development most. Students are pushed to really consider going to college. Once you're in college, it's not really set up to inspire you to be in trades. If you look at the career tracks, they're really built around. Jobs that are more kind of, I would argue, white collar than not. And so you know, there's this real cycle issue that we have of what you're exposed to.