A key private equity risk: leadership turnover

Thank you to our Sponsors!

Basic Capital: https://basiccapital.com/tothepoint

Chiirp: https://chiirp.com/

Contractor Commerce: https://www.contractorcommerce.com/ryno/

Bluon: https://www.bluon.com/get-demo?referral_code=ToThePoint

Avoca.ai: https://avoca.ai/r/tothepoint

Welcome to a milestone moment Episode 300 of To The Point Home Services! 🎉

In this special episode, Chris sits down with someone who has been part of RYNO since day one (and who originally didn’t even want this podcast to exist): Anna Yano.

This isn’t your typical industry interview. Instead, Chris and Anna open up about the real journey behind building, growing, and transforming RYNO Strategic Solutions including the hard lessons learned through private equity, mergers, leadership challenges, cultural shifts, and rebuilding a company after major change.

Whether you're a contractor, entrepreneur, or leader navigating growth, uncertainty, or organizational change, this episode is full of honest, applicable takeaways.

🎧 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• The truth behind RYNO’s private equity partnership and what they wish they knew before the deal
• How the Blue Corona merger actually unfolde the good, the bad, and the chaotic
• Where integrations go wrong and how to avoid cultural collapse
• Why 2026 is shaping up to be a massive opportunity for contractors
• The role of AI in CSR, operational efficiency, and marketing evolution
• How leadership has changed internally and how Anna stepped into a whole new level of influence
• The turning point where the RYNO culture began to rebuild
• Personal reflections on partnership, stress, resilience, and rising to new challenges

This is one of the most honest and insightful episodes we’ve ever recorded.

⏱️ Timecodes

00:00 — Intro & Episode 300 Celebration

01:00 — Why Anna is the guest (finally)

01:40 — What this episode will really be about

02:00 — Shared journey & business lessons from marriage + entrepreneurship

03:00 — Private equity, leadership, and systems: how it all changed

04:20 — RYNO’s performance today vs. what it took to get here

05:00 — Contractor outlook for 2026

06:00 — Operational efficiency & reporting breakthroughs

07:00 — AI in CSR and why contractors should pay attention

08:00 — Working with Avoca & the future of booking

09:00 — Lead aggregation, filling call boards & new opportunities

10:30 — Why brand, trust, and OTT matter in low-demand economies

12:00 — The merge with Blue Corona: expectations vs. reality

14:00 — Process breakdowns, finger-pointing, and fixing integration mistakes

16:00 — Culture collapse & negative NPS: the turning point

18:00 — Private equity lessons no one talks about

21:00 — What Anna would do differently in a sale

22:30 — Why not everything was in their control

25:00 — Taking back leadership of the company

27:00 — Rebuilding teams, expectations & processes

30:00 — Change fatigue and how to lead through it

33:00 — Is RYNO “back”? What the future looks like

35:00 — How the journey changed Anna as a leader

38:00 — What Chris learned about himself

40:00 — Partnership growth: what changed & what stayed true

43:00 — Closing thoughts

(If you want these timecodes refined after you upload the full audio, I can match them precisely.)

🔗 Resources & Mentions

• Avoca AI — RYNO’s recommended partner for AI call booking
• Mountain OTT — Streaming-based brand-building & trackable advertising
• ServiceTitan — The operational platform referenced

💬 Join the Conversation

If this episode resonated with you, especially the raw and honest parts about leadership, challenge, and rebuilding drop a comment below.

We’d love to hear your story.

👍 Enjoying the Podcast? Support Us!

Subscribe, like, and share to help us reach even more contractors looking to grow the right way.

New episodes every week!