
School of Hard Knocks Podcast Tommy Mello | From Garage Doors to a $300M/Year Empire, The Billionaire Who Got Rich From A Normal Job
Dec 5, 2025
Tommy Mello, founder of A1 Garage Door, transformed his business into a $300M powerhouse through strategic leadership and a focus on talent acquisition. He shares insights on hiring for integrity and the tough decision to let go of top performers who harm team culture. Tommy discusses scaling from technician to leader, emphasizing discipline and mentorship for continuous growth. He also highlights the importance of a strong branding strategy and encourages young technicians to consider trades for financial freedom. His personal journey reflects gratitude and legacy, aiming to be remembered for reliability and generosity.
57:49
Profit Over Vanity Revenue
- Tommy Mello scaled A1 Garage Door to just north of $300M by focusing on profit, not revenue.
- He insists on maintaining over 20% margins and treating revenue as vanity without profit discipline.
Surviving Early Chaos
- Tommy recounts multiple early failures: writing checks from an equity line and hiring family to do payroll.
- He says 'if it could happen, it did happen' and the lesson was to wake up and fix it the next day.
Focus Deeply On One Niche
- Go all-in on one specialty for at least three years instead of hustling across many bets.
- Systemize and hire specialists so you can delegate and scale top-down.
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Intro
00:00 • 1min
Scaling A1 Garage Door to $300M
01:03 • 2min
From Garage Jobs to a Big Vision
02:41 • 2min
Niche Focus vs. Hustling
04:17 • 2min
Hiring: Integrity and Coachability
06:17 • 5min
Firing Top Performers Who Harm Culture
11:16 • 2min
Transitioning From Technician to Leader
13:30 • 3min
Unscalable Founder Touch: Training and Appreciation
16:58 • 4min
Staying Grounded and Disciplined
21:12 • 5min
Recommended Books and Repetition
26:25 • 6min
Ad break
32:47 • 1min
Equity Mindset and Incentives
33:55 • 4min
Visionary vs. Integrator: Building Systems
37:29 • 3min
Branding: Pay For Peace Of Mind
40:59 • 3min
Home Services: A Strong Career Path
43:51 • 3min
Why Companies Stall at $3–6M
46:22 • 2min
Advice to Younger Self: Circles and Mentors
48:25 • 2min
Faith, Family Moments, and Gratitude
50:36 • 5min
Legacy: How Tommy Wants Remembered
55:45 • 1min
Outro
56:51 • 57sec

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Tommy Mello, founder of A1 Garage Door, scaled his home-service company to more than $300M in annual revenue and over 1,100 employees. His journey spans two decades of failures, rebuilding, systemizing, and mastering leadership. In this episode, he breaks down talent acquisition, firing top performers, building an owner-mindset workforce, and the philosophy that helped him 10x EBITDA in under two years.A grounded, tactical conversation on scaling, discipline, mentorship, and the mindset required to build a dominant organization.
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