How Victor Rancour Turned $10k and a Craigslist Ad Into $60 Million

What if you could grow your contracting business from zero to $60 million in just five years?

That’s exactly what today’s guest, Victor Rancour, did with Absolute Airflow. Starting with no HVAC background and just a few thousand dollars, Victor scrapped his way to $5M in his first year, scaled into the tens of millions, sold the company, and is now helping other contractors do the same through Profit Rocket and the Rocket Group.

In this episode, Victor pulls back the curtain on:

- The $5M First-Year Playbook: how he launched Absolute Airflow with guerrilla marketing, personal branding, and daily training.

- Why every HVAC or home service company is really a sales and marketing business first and what that means for your growth strategy.

- How to recruit and keep top talent when everyone else is struggling to hire.

- His hard-learned lesson: “Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity” and how to price and plan for profit at every stage of growth.

- Real-world use of AI in the trades from call analysis to in-home sales coaching and why companies that don’t adopt will get left behind.

- The good, the bad, and the ugly of selling a business, including why Victor regrets his first exit and how he’s now helping contractors scale toward life-changing exits of their own.

Whether you’re a $2M contractor trying to hit $10M, or you just want to finally build a company that runs without you, Victor’s story and strategies will give you the roadmap to scale faster, smarter, and more profitably.

Key Takeaways:

- Your HVAC/contracting company is a marketing company first. The best techs don’t always win the best at sales and marketing do.

- Nail it before you scale it. Don’t pour money into ads until your phones, CSRs, and in-home sales process are ready to convert.

- The $5M Playbook: Start scrappy, text your contacts, knock on doors, use Yelp, Facebook, Nextdoor, and community groups. Focus on reviews and memberships to turn first-time customers into lifetime customers.

- Recruiting A-Players: Build the business they want to work for. Benefits, leads, culture, opportunity, and pay that rewards performance. A-players will make you 5–7X more than average hires.

- Culture Eats Strategy: Share the vision, celebrate wins, and pay your best people what they’re worth. Build an environment that feels fun, rewarding, and future-focused.

- Revenue ≠ Success. Profit margins are what matter. Aim for 20–25% net profit, price like the company you want to become, and know your KPIs (average ticket, booking %, close rates).

- AI is here now. From answering after-hours calls to analyzing sales conversations, AI is leveling the playing field between small shops and PE-backed giants. Contractors who don’t adapt will get left behind.

- Case Study: Victor partnered with a small contractor doing $2M — within 14 months, that company hit $18M by focusing on sales training, branding, and marketing execution.

- Automation = More Profit. Victor’s RP1 platform automates follow-up, lead recapture, and database marketing. Your old customer list might be your cheapest new lead source.

- Exit Lessons: Selling Absolute Airflow to the wrong buyer was painful — the brand collapsed. But it pushed Victor to pivot into acquisitions and coaching, helping other owners achieve life-changing exits.

- Legacy is better than Hustle. Hustle matters, but burnout isn’t a badge of honor. Build systems, invest in leadership, and create a business that serves your life — not the other way around.