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ON THE SHOULDERS OF
Giants C
onsultation, design, installation, maintenance: For residential landscapes, Grow & Co. Landscaping in Houston, Texas, does it all. The results are both stunningly beautiful and sustainable. For that, owners Kyle and Susannah Cahill thank the highly skilled team they assembled through unconventional means. The story of Grow & Co. began at a turning point in Kyle’s life. After nearly 10 years of learning and developing alongside the first landscaping company to employ him post-graduation from Texas A&M, Southern Botanical, Kyle decided to listen to the little voice inside telling him to give entrepreneurship a try.
Kyle Cahill
www.synkd.io
Inside Grow & Co.
Kyle Cahill Recounts Growing a Business Through Acquisition
At some point, I said, ‘You know what, it’s now or never.’ “My wife was very supportive, and we did it. Like most stories you hear, it was a very low-budget situation, just getting out there and doing it, hiring one person at a time, buying the first truck and trailer. For a long time, I never would have thought of myself as an entrepreneur. I was more of an intrapreneur: someone able to find satisfaction and fulfillment under someone else’s leadership. Once I had a taste of it though, I knew business ownership was for me,” Kyle explains. Overnight, Kyle went from leading a company division bringing in roughly $15 million in revenue to patching together a
business out of his own home. Undeterred by his shoestring budget, Kyle went door to door, and 18 months in, he raked in $300,000—an impressive number for what was more or less a one-man show. As his business germinated, the neighbors, initially eager to back Kyle’s endeavors, grew tired of waking to the sound of diesel trucks early in the morning. It was time for a change. Kyle asked his nursery contact if they knew of anyone with a piece of land to rent. At the time, he was merely looking for a cheap parking spot, but he was given the contact information for two men, Danny McNair and Robert Glauser, looking to retire and sell their company after decades of work in the area. “I just did not see how that was going to be feasible financially for me to make this happen,” Kyle recalls. “They were substantially bigger, and I didn’t think it would work out. But, after a little bit more encouragement from my neighbors to get
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