The brief · published Mondays · est. 2023

Every brief we've published, in order.

47 briefs since launch. Each one a curated read of what moved across the operator universe that week — published Mondays at 7:00 AM ET, archived here on Tuesday.

47 briefs · 412 operators referenced
No. 47 24 May 2026 · Today's brief

412 operators worth knowing. Three fresh signals on Texas. Carolina Pest acquired.

Rentokil closed on Carolina Pest Co at a ~4.4× revenue multiple — in line with our 12-month median for $20M+ targets. SBA filing at Lone Star Termite signals an inbound acquisition; hiring spike at Gulf Coast Pest now >1σ above trailing-12. New EPA Vikane restrictions exposed three tracked Florida operators on our radar.

Read time8 min
Signals11
Operators referenced14
Deals1 close · 2 letters
No. 46 17 May 2026

The Carolinas wake up. Anticimex platform play in NC.

Anticimex confirmed a regional roll-up thesis in North Carolina with a third platform acquisition. Six tracked NC operators saw inbound LOIs in the past 30 days — three above $10M revenue.

Read7 min
Signals8
Ops12
No. 45 10 May 2026

Founder fatigue at scale: 18 succession events in 90 days.

A meaningful uptick in succession signals across the Sun Belt — most family-owned, most operators in the 15–40 truck band. We dig into the pattern: who's selling, who's holding, and what the multiples look like.

Read11 min
Signals18
Ops22
No. 44 03 May 2026

Termidor patent cliff. What it means for the termite half of the market.

BASF's Termidor SC entered generic competition this month. Three operators in our universe have signaled chemical-cost-driven margin expansion in the past 60 days. Implication for acquirers below.

Read9 min
Signals5
Ops9
No. 43 26 Apr 2026

FieldRoutes Series C. The vendor-side view of operator economics.

ServiceTitan led a $42M Series C in FieldRoutes, the FSM platform we see in ~38% of operators we cover. We break down what continued downward pressure on tooling pricing means for operator margins through 2027.

Read10 min
Signals4
Ops7
No. 42 19 Apr 2026

Why we added Georgia coverage this quarter.

GA is the fifth-most-fragmented operator market in the US by Herfindahl index. 612 new operators added to the universe — 312 above the six-truck threshold. What we learned from the first 30 days of data collection.

Read12 min
Signals22
Ops612
No. 41 12 Apr 2026

The first quarter of 2026, in 12 charts.

Q1 wrap-up: deal volume, average multiples, signal mix, ownership transitions, geography. Subscriber-only.

Read14 min
Charts12
Ops31
No. 40 05 Apr 2026

Rentokil's California problem (and why it's interesting).

Rentokil's CA platform has churned three locations in 18 months. We mapped the locations, ran the customer overlap, and talked to two former operators. Here's what we found.

Read15 min
Signals9
Ops14
No. 39 29 Mar 2026

The Anticimex roll-up, three years in.

A retrospective on the largest sponsor-driven roll-up in pest control: 14 platforms, 41 add-ons, ~$420M deployed. What worked, what didn't, and where attention is shifting now.

Read18 min
Charts9
Ops55
38 of 47 remaining
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