Ep157 From Tech Executive to Multi-Territory Plumbing Business | Mitch Gross

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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