In this episode of To The Point Home Services Podcast, Chris and Chad sit down with Tony Patino, President of Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical, to unpack one of the most impressive leadership journeys in the home services industry.
Tony joined Abacus in 2017 from outside home services. Fast-forward to today, and he’s helped scale the company from roughly $30M to over $100M+, while expanding service lines, redesigning systems, and building elite teams across multiple trades.
This conversation is loaded with practical insights for operators, leaders, GMs, and anyone looking to grow inside (or break into) the home services world.
⭐ What You’ll Learn
- How Tony transitioned from retail, Aramark, and moving services into plumbing/HVAC/electrical
- How to earn trust from seasoned technicians when you’re “not from the trades”
- The mindset that helped Tony scale Abacus through major transitions:
- new facility
- ServiceTitan rollout
- adding electrical
- building water treatment
- launching generators
- Why humility, curiosity, and solving simple technician pain points are core to leadership
- How Abacus built a unified sales process across trades
- Why cross-selling and a single “VIP Membership” structure transformed their business
- Lessons from working with industry legends like Alan O’Neill, Kevin Comerford, Darryl Bingham & others
- The biggest hiring mistakes—and the one sales hire that changed everything
- What contractors consistently overlook when building new verticals
Whether you’re at $3M or $300M, Tony breaks down the frameworks that actually move the needle.
⏱️ Timecodes
00:00 – Intro: gloomy weather, fat-face jokes, and basketball trash talk
01:16 – Introducing guest: Tony Patino
02:00 – Tony’s background: retail → Aramark → moving → recruited to Abacus
05:00 – Why being a “student of the game” matters
05:25 – Tony’s first podcast ever
06:00 – Early management lessons & leadership foundations
07:30 – Getting recruited… twice
09:23 – How Tony won over plumbers without being a plumber
12:00 – Misconceptions Tony had about the industry
14:00 – How he built trust with techs & managers
16:40 – Rolling out ServiceTitan and using tech to earn credibility
18:45 – Little changes that fix big technician pain points
20:00 – Growing electrical and learning multiple trades
24:00 – Mentorship from industry giants & learning from Wrench Group leaders
25:50 – Deep dive: building water treatment as a real vertical
27:30 – Launching generators the right way
28:50 – The biggest internal gap Tony identified: sales leadership
29:40 – Hiring the wrong sales leader—and fixing it fast
32:00 – Merging new and existing sales teams without destroying culture
36:00 – Cross-selling across trades: where contractors mess this up
38:00 – Building a unified VIP membership
41:00 – Why Abacus scaled fast—and what’s next
🔗 Resources & Mentions
• Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical — https://www.abacusplumbing.net/
• Wrench Group — https://www.wrenchgroup.com/
• ServiceTitan — https://www.servicetitan.com/
🙌 Connect With the Guest
• Tony Patino — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonypatino/
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To The Point - Home Services Podcast