P.E. & angel investor who provides strategic planning and growth capital to businesses and awesome entrepreneurs

Michael Kaplan is a private equity and angel investor who was part owner and president of the wildly successful carpet cleaning franchise called Zerorez. (Note that it’s spelled the same backward as it is forward. A classic palindrome!) He is now associated with Red Hook Investments and is actively finding new ways to help small service companies grow.

Michael grew up in Minneapolis, moved to Maine (undergrad) then to Atlanta (for barbeque and bourbon) then to Boston (pondering a Jimmy John’s franchise) then to Minneapolis (law school) and stayed to help turnaround a troubled carpet cleaning business in 2009.

Started working with turnarounds as a private equity investor in 2006, where partners and I bought a 2 employee carpet cleaning company in MN doing about $310,000 in annual revenue.  Success in this carpet cleaning business had me "in operations" until 2017.  This business, which I recently sold last year, was in 6 states, about 200 employees and about 18 million in revenue.  Over the last few years, I've been focused on investing in small home service companies.  Not taking over the business, but providing capital and expertise to turbocharge the success of the business founder by buying a minority interest in their company.  I also buy into distressed or "stuck" companies, within the home service space as well as other industries, working to right the ship and unlock value.

Listen to his podcast interview here:  https://homeserviceexpert.com/podcast/michael-kaplan