Good Hope Advisors has worked with most of the HVAC platforms that dominate the space today. One of the clearest illustrations of how a founder-owned business becomes part of something much larger is an early Apex Service Partners add-on, from back when the platform was still an upstart.
In July 2020, Academy Air — a second-generation, family-owned residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical company serving greater St. Louis — partnered with Apex Service Partners, then a young but fast-growing platform of residential home-service brands. Founded by Terry Silverstein and led by his son Zachary Silverstein, Academy was one of the fastest-growing operators in its market. The Apex partnership was structured to keep Zachary in the seat as Owner/CEO while fueling the next stage of growth.
At the time, it was one add-on among many — a strong local business joining an emerging platform. What happened next is the part founders should pay attention to.
Apex kept acquiring. It expanded across Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and far beyond, investing in people, technology, and infrastructure behind its partner brands. The upstart platform Academy joined in 2020 has since grown into the largest residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services company in the country — valued at $10 billion in 2026.
That is the arc we see again and again: a founder builds a real business in a single market, partners with the right platform at the right time, and ends up part of a company worth orders of magnitude more than where it started. The founders who capture the most value are the ones who go in represented — with an advisor who knows the platforms, the buyers, and how these deals are actually structured.
That is the work Good Hope Advisors does. Start a confidential conversation.