Ep157 From Tech Executive to Multi-Territory Plumbing Business | Mitch Gross
From Franchise Everything by Glenn Walford
January 30, 2026 · 26 min · Episode 157
About this episode
Mitch Gross shares his journey from a tech executive to owning a multi-territory plumbing business, discussing challenges and strategies for success.
Mitch Gross didn’t come from a plumbing background. He came from Silicon Valley, startups, and senior roles at eBay and still ended up building a multi-territory plumbing business in Sydney with Plumbing Bros. e walks through the real transition from corporate life into business ownership, why he chose a franchise model, and what it actually took to survive starting a business during COVID. He also shares how winning a major government contract helped accelerate growth, what happens when you rely too heavily on one big client, and why diversification across customer segments became critical to the next phase of the business. You’ll also hear about leadership, delegation, building the right team, and what changes when you move from “doing everything yourself” to running a growing operation across multiple territories. 0:00 Introduction 0:49 What Plumbing Bros does 1:29 Mitch’s background before Plumbing 6:10 The decision to leave corporate and buy a business 8:22 Discovering Plumbing Bros as a Franchise Opportunity 10:40 Running a plumbing business without having a plumbing background 12:32 Starting the business during COVID and survival mode 13:31 Post-COVID growth and expanding…
People in this episode
Host: Glenn Walford
Guest: Mitch Gross
Topics covered
- business ownership
- franchise model
- COVID survival
- government contracts
- diversification
- leadership
- team building
Keywords
- plumbing business
- franchise
- business transition
- COVID impact
- government contract
- customer diversification
- leadership
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Plumbing Bros, eBay
Places: Silicon Valley, Sydney
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