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Sam Mahmood is the co-founder of Pave, a holding company rolling up businesses in one of the most overlooked, unsexy, yet wildly lucrative sectors in America - paving and line striping. In just 11 months, Sam and his team have scaled to three companies doing $66M in revenue and $7M in EBITDA.
But Sam didn’t start in asphalt. He began in medical devices, building a national distribution and manufacturing business from scratch in his 20s. After taking chips off the table and stepping back, he went searching for his next billion-dollar opportunity. What he found? Line striping.
In this episode, we cover:
00:00:00 - Intro to Sam Mahmood and Pave
00:01:41 - From medical devices to rollups
00:05:22 - Sponsor: ScalePath
00:05:55 - Why Sam chose the paving industry
00:10:07 - Framework for choosing the right industry
00:13:22 - How to build an all-star advisory board
00:13:58 - Sponsor: Spacebar Studios
00:17:15 - Raising $2.5M in 30 days from retail investors
00:23:01 - Assembling the core Pave team
00:24:26 - First acquisition: D&O Contractors
00:27:15 - The thought process behind walking away from a New York deal
00:32:30 - "Do the Work" mindset and company culture
00:34:57 - 15–20 paving companies and Sam’s creative “Pave Pod” for deal flow
00:41:05 - “Confidence is two inches wide and 10 feet deep. Fear is a mile wide and an inch deep.”
00:43:13 - Second acquisition and operational strategy
00:46:46 - Why Sam turned down a $150M private equity deal
00:51:53 - Where Pave is today and what’s next
00:53:42 - Sam's “to-WHO” list vs. traditional to-do lists
00:56:10 - Sam’s favorite book and final advice
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Subscribe on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6lr5bE3SNZF2uEE7Nb0DHh
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/holdco-builders/id1695713724
Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠⁠⁠
Sam on Twitter: https://x.com/TheSammahmood_
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.