Intro.
Bits and pieces of this story have been swirling in my head for a while. I’ve wanted to document my journey with A Plus ever since our former CEO, Jeremy Tibbets, suddenly passed away.
If I went into every crazy scenario, I could write a book. But I’ll settle with a blog post.
But first, a bit of context. Step into my world of tree care. It’s actually quite fascinating...
Trees 'n things.
Arboriculture is the fancy word for the study and management of trees. Hence, an Arborist. The services we provide are things like tree pruning, removals, planting, and pest & disease management. We do this primarily in the urban landscape.
Urban tree care is different from forestry and landscaping. It’s a $9 Billion dollar industry and also listed as the #1 most dangerous job in the US. And so, the most expensive workers comp across all industries.
To help provide further perspective, and because I love numbers: There are currently 83,000 active tree companies nationwide (compare that to 33,000 coffee shops). The average business employs just 2 people. More than half have an annual income of less than $500k. Only 5% gross more than $2.5M annually.
This means, it’s very easy to enter the market and make a buck. But not so easy to become super successful.
Success, in our company and with the clientele we have, is closely related to safety and a high standard of professionalism. Our field operators must be incredibly skilled and perform under stringent safety & compliance regulations, with near zero defect.
Sometimes it can be scary as hell. Most of the time it’s hard as hell. But talk to some of our treeple (get it), and they love what they do. The work, the thrill, the risk, the reward.
Today, I can say I have total confidence in our operations. Our execution is exceptional. You can find our beautiful equipment running up and down the West Coast and in Utah.
But. This hasn’t always been the case.
It started out just for fun.
Rewind to 2002.
I met Jeremy when I was 16 years old. He was 18.
Every Friday, my family used to host dinner and open fellowship in our home to anyone who would come. Jeremy was invited to come, through a co-worker who lived with us. He came for the free food.
The following week he brought his girlfriend. A year later, they got married, and soon after had their first child (of 4).
Jeremy didn't grow up with much and was a hustler. At 19, he worked at 24-Hour Fitness, was the youngest district manager, and making six figures with room to grow. Most may feel like they made it, but with a desire to make a mark and leave a legacy, he wanted to build something of his own.
He heard tree work had great profit margins. So with no background or experience in trees (or climbing, or chainsaws), he quit his job and ventured into the tree business. A Plus was born.
Over the years, our families became good friends, he did his tree thing, and we rarely spoke of it.
Fast forward to 2010. I was 2 years out of college, working 2 part-time, semi-fulfilling jobs. And I knew nothing about trees.
I don’t remember why, or where, or anything about the setting, but Jeremy pitched me: “Hey, you’re not doing much with your life. And you’re creative. I’m doing a sales presentation next week. Make it fun and I’ll pay ya”.
So I planned the meeting. I made it fun (obvi). And he paid me (barely).
Then I did another one.
Then a one month “trial” period. I thought it might be a waste of time, so I kept my other jobs.
A Plus was doing well for a small business. Revenue was just shy of $600k. Jeremy employed 10 people: 8 in the field, his dad (the book keeper slash mechanic slash whatever else Jeremy needed), and a part-time high school student to answer the phones.
But, as he does, he got bored. He was doing both sales and tree work and was itching to do something new and innovative.
His company tagline then was, “Not your Average Tree Service”. So, in his cold, little garage in Vallejo, we racked our brains for ideas on how we could make A Plus be anything but average.
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| The cold little garage in Vallejo. |
There isn't an app for that.
He had been dreaming of a way to make his company high tech. So, before iPad’s and uber’s even existed, he came up with a software idea that he thought would solve all his problems. He called it ArborPlus.
Through serendipitous events, we landed a meeting with a huge client, completely out of our league.
We pitched them Jeremy’s software idea. We would map every tree in their portfolio (21,000 trees across 70 properties), with photos, health assessments, detailed service recommendations on a 5 year plan, budget projects — all accessible through our online portal. They would have a dynamic tree inventory, updated real-time so that information would be more accurate over time.
It sounds crazy that this was revolutionary, but it was. Everything on the market was clunky and old. Data wasn’t valued like it is today. There was nothing else like it on the market.
And it made sense to them. The money they spent on their tree maintenance was FULL of unknowns. What was their average spend per tree? What species of trees did they have? How could they forecast what they will spend over the long run? What condition are the trees in?
They could see that ArborPlus would provide data to make their lives easier and allow for smarter decisions.
At first, the “ArborPlus” we presented was a creative mix of google maps & excel spreadsheets, beautifully held together with photoshop. We actually didn’t have anything yet!
They said yes. Notorious for setting impossible deadlines, Jeremy agreed to have it ready in 6 months.
My “one-month” trial period ended. It was time to get to work.
The contract they signed was big enough to bootstrap development. I recruited a couple students from UC Berkeley, trained them on trees (while still learning myself), inventoried and photographed all 21,000 of them, sketched the flow of the software, designed the interface, hired a programmer (who later, sabotaged the software and disappeared with Jeremy’s dog), and delivered. Exactly. On. Time.
That was the beginning. And that’s when we knew we had something special.
Time for growth.
ArborPlus allowed us to manage our clients in a way that was previously not possible. It launched us into the commercial, multi-family and housing management market— where improperly maintained trees become a huge liability. We pulled every yellow-page ad and stopped marketing to residential.
Jeremy began building a sales team, starting with his good friend from the gym, Phil.
ArborPlus got our foot into a lot of doors, but the real money maker was all the new tree work. More of it, and lots of it.
Our commercial client base went from 10% to 60% within 2 years.
Revenue doubled.
For the first few years of growth it was just the 3 of us — Jeremy, Phil and I.
We were quite the team. Energy was an understatement. Jeremy was the visionary and light years ahead of us. Phil networked and made A Plus fans everywhere we went. And I (tried to) deliver on the wild promises they made to clients.
Most of the time we saw eye to eye. When we didn’t, it was a battle of wills between Phil and I. Jeremy, the tie breaker. We offended each other all the time. Nobody held a grudge, we moved on.
I usually got mad at them for selling services we didn’t yet have. But that was the business: Sell first, figure it out later.
And then the crews. Wow. “Specialize in the Ridiculous” became our unofficial tagline.
We threw them on the craziest jobs. Jobs where giant dead trees were on hillsides, between houses, and over environmentally protected streams that couldn't be disturbed. Jobs where each cut piece had to be carefully lowered using complex pulley and rigging systems. Or jobs where we had to drop 10 trees in 2 hours because it was severely underbid.
Our guys had to get creative, calculate swings and loads on the fly, run to the nearest hardware store to buy additional supplies, anything to do to get the job done. One of our best and brightest climbers emerged during this time. We used to call him “Wreck-it Rob”, he earned the new name, “Treesus”.
Revenue doubled again.
We moved out of the garage, expanded our auction-bought fleet, hired a bookkeeper, and contracted a CFO.
We were under $4M at that point, so the work was still manageable with our small team.
We moved out of the garage, expanded our auction-bought fleet, hired a bookkeeper, and contracted a CFO.
We were under $4M at that point, so the work was still manageable with our small team.
Minor setback.
Remember that programmer I mentioned that sabotaged our software and stole Jeremy’s dog?
That happened, in 2013. He locked us out of all our data and disappeared. To this day I don’t know what really happened. (Although, there was a lot of weird, “addictive“ behavior leading up to it.)
But it became a blessing in disguise. It gave us a chance to re-build, throw out old code, and redesign the entire thing exactly how we wanted it.
Jeremy approached my brother, Tim, to be the lead programmer. They were good friends already. Tim had also designed the original A Plus logo, built our first website and was a crane operator on some of the jobs early on. He didn't mind the small projects, but had generally refused to work for Jeremy for longer periods. (He likes his freedom.)
Reluctantly, he agreed. Because 1) We were desperate. And 2) Jeremy got screwed and finally understood the value of a great coder.
(At some point he tried to hire my other 2 siblings...so he can “Collect all 4 Hon’s”)
Tim signed a 2-year contract. ArborPlus 2.0 emerged 8 months later.
It was beautiful and amazing and provided the foundation to make it everything we dreamed.
It would become the new engine to run A Plus. From client facing sales, to back-end operations— a powerful command center. (We’ve been building on it ever since, and what it’s become is pretty remarkable.)
In 2014 and 2015, two key players joined the sales team. Both women. This was also very counter-culture in our male-dominated tree industry.
I also met Shobab during this time. I was 30, he was 31. We met and married within 10 months (when ya know, ya know).
It wasn’t until Shobab, that I felt I could double down in my work. Ironic, I know. But it was no longer a question of where I might go or who I might end up with. We had a foundation to build upon.
He took over many of our “adult” responsibilities like paying bills, filing taxes, scheduling dental appts and car tune-ups. It afforded me more freedom and focus in my work. He sacrificed his own ambitions (for the time being) to support mine, and pushed me to be great.
Then, we went through the most insane 3 years of A Plus’s life. We doubled consecutively, year over year, over year.
During this period we also expanded into 6 more locations, began urban wood milling operations (turning trees we removed into benches & tables), completely rebranded, sold every old truck and piece of equipment we had, and rolled out the sweetest looking fleet eveerrrrr.
Seriously, our trucks are stunning.
Oh, and I had a baby at some point. It was a blur.
That happened, in 2013. He locked us out of all our data and disappeared. To this day I don’t know what really happened. (Although, there was a lot of weird, “addictive“ behavior leading up to it.)
But it became a blessing in disguise. It gave us a chance to re-build, throw out old code, and redesign the entire thing exactly how we wanted it.
Jeremy approached my brother, Tim, to be the lead programmer. They were good friends already. Tim had also designed the original A Plus logo, built our first website and was a crane operator on some of the jobs early on. He didn't mind the small projects, but had generally refused to work for Jeremy for longer periods. (He likes his freedom.)
Reluctantly, he agreed. Because 1) We were desperate. And 2) Jeremy got screwed and finally understood the value of a great coder.
(At some point he tried to hire my other 2 siblings...so he can “Collect all 4 Hon’s”)
Tim signed a 2-year contract. ArborPlus 2.0 emerged 8 months later.
It was beautiful and amazing and provided the foundation to make it everything we dreamed.
It would become the new engine to run A Plus. From client facing sales, to back-end operations— a powerful command center. (We’ve been building on it ever since, and what it’s become is pretty remarkable.)
Monumental markers.
In 2014 and 2015, two key players joined the sales team. Both women. This was also very counter-culture in our male-dominated tree industry.
I also met Shobab during this time. I was 30, he was 31. We met and married within 10 months (when ya know, ya know).
It wasn’t until Shobab, that I felt I could double down in my work. Ironic, I know. But it was no longer a question of where I might go or who I might end up with. We had a foundation to build upon.
He took over many of our “adult” responsibilities like paying bills, filing taxes, scheduling dental appts and car tune-ups. It afforded me more freedom and focus in my work. He sacrificed his own ambitions (for the time being) to support mine, and pushed me to be great.
Then, we went through the most insane 3 years of A Plus’s life. We doubled consecutively, year over year, over year.
During this period we also expanded into 6 more locations, began urban wood milling operations (turning trees we removed into benches & tables), completely rebranded, sold every old truck and piece of equipment we had, and rolled out the sweetest looking fleet eveerrrrr.
Seriously, our trucks are stunning.
Oh, and I had a baby at some point. It was a blur.
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| Out with the old white bland as sand fleet. |
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| In with black ops urban forest elite. |
We went big.
We stopped calling ourselves a tree company. We were a tech company that did tree work. And we strived for that kind of Facebook/Google culture, fancy parties and all.
My position evolved and transformed. No performance reviews, no formal offers. I grew with the company, took on greater work loads, did what had to get done and tried to execute Jeremy’s next big idea.
But it was insane. We were racing at full speed while still building the engine.
Everything was an emergency. Everything was anxiety.
I was afraid to wake up to those dreadful calls. “Sorry sarah, the branch bounced and went through the window.” “Sorry Sarah, I didn’t calculate the swing right and the limb took out the fence.” “Sorry Sarah, the crane lost its grip and a log crushed a car.”
It was endless. Constantly putting out fires. I avoided going into the office. I didn’t want to get drowned in whatever shit storm Jeremy was in the middle of.
But, there was always the laughter. Never a shortage of jokes. Some meetings may well have been comedy hour. Laughing to the point of tears.
And the wins. Always the wins. The celebrations when we pulled it off, however short-lived.
I hated and loved it. We threw out crazy goals and somehow, miraculously (but also not so miraculously because we all worked such ridiculous hours), would hit them.
By the end of 2016, I was focused on marketing, the sales team had grown to 7. Expectations were tremendous. Sales meetings were high intensity, high pressure.
Every spare moment went to work. I remember the day Shobab called me and said, “Babe! We got the keys to our new house!” I hadn’t even seen it, only in photos. Who had time to shop for a house?
It was an ongoing joke of how much one person accomplished before the other person woke up. I’d be in a deep sleep at 7am and answer my phone bright & peppy liked I’d been up for hours. Jeremy never bought it.
I was also careful to keep work life separate from my personal life. Most friends & family didn't know much about what I did (other than something with trees). I preferred it that way. As much time as I spent in A Plus world, I also learned how to turn it off (mostly).
Over it.
Going into 2017, I was exhausted. I didn’t see an end to it and I began to detach. I planned my next pregnancy, just for the maternity leave.
It was hard to care about growth when the stress overcame the enthusiasm. I had lost sight of my own goals. Did I even have any?
I began to resent Jeremy and all the annoying pressure. He felt it too, my resentment. I wasn’t ever good at concealing my feelings. And after 8 years of working together, it didn’t take very long for him to ask, “Why do you hate me? What do you want to do? What’s going to make you happy?”
Actually, this was a pattern that happened every year. At some point I would start to get unsettled, and then frustrated. It was like some internal re-calibration, a reminder of my purpose. Find it again.
But we were at a tipping point. Maybe even past it.
In an industry where safety is everything, training is a huge deal. We would host awesome training days— Fly experts in, BBQs with live music and bounce houses, relay races on our equipment (which definitely was not safe), and chainsaw competitions.
But it wasn’t enough. Our teams needed systems implementation, regular audits, more processes in place to ensure good safety practices.
We were simply too big to operate as we always had.
Over 120 employees on payroll, and no HR. We were adding a new person every week, sometimes without paperwork or on-boarding. Jeremy made handshake deals and verbal promises.
Our invoices went out late and money came in slow. Clients owed us boatloads of money, but we didn’t have the personnel to collect it.
We had class actions suits against us based on technicalities. We put trucks on the road before they were registered. DOT was on our ass. The list goes on. We couldn’t keep up.
Found one. Lost one.
We were missing one crucial role: a head of operations. Jeremy was jumping back and forth to both sides of the business: Sales, hit the numbers. Operations, get it done.
We would need outside experience, someone who came from something much bigger than what we were. Someone to take us to where we wanted to go.
Jeremy hired a recruiter to scour the nation for that perfect Chief Operating Officer (COO) to be his right hand. To streamline the backend so he could stay focused on the company vision and culture. To fix all the operations and people problems.
He interviewed people over months and months.
He found his guy.
On Monday, October 9th, 2017, our new COO, Cyrus DeVere, started his first day.
Five days later, on Saturday morning, October 14th, I got the call. “Jeremy Tibbets died”.
“I’m sorry. What? That’s not possible."
I was in shock, but it was true. Jeremy had a massive heart attack. He was 37 years old.
I was 6 months pregnant with my 2nd girl. Shobab rushed home and got Yaelle. Checked on me and then gave me space.
Within the hour, I’m on a call with the 3 other remaining executives. After a few moments of consolation, it’s straight to business. Step #1: Take care of his family. #2: Take care of the company.
We sent out communication: Mandatory conference call. Three hours later, the 4 of us addressed the entire organization. We were breaking the news.
Stay calm, voice assertive and steady... "We are devastated. But A Plus must carry on and we will get through this. Work still starts Monday. Memorial services will be announced." I managed to keep it together.
Some had been with Jeremy since the beginning. 15 years. The company was his life and everyone felt it, knew it, and many were there because of it. The passion he brought was infectious. He was loved.
Jeremy was the founder, CEO, and owner. No investors, no outside capitol. A Plus now belonged to his wife.
The next day we met in the conference room: Me, Phil (VP at the time), Cyrus (new COO), our business consultant David (who had been a significant driver in A Plus' growth), and my father as the facilitator and acting in Jeremy’s family’s best interest (they were really close).
We looked at each other in disbelief. In extreme grief. We cried.
Then somebody (probably my dad) said an inappropriate joke about Jeremy’s death. Too soon. But still funny, Jeremy would have laughed. Probably would have said it himself.
So. Who’s going to run the company.
Picking up the pieces.
For being with A Plus only a week, it was a surprisingly easy call for us to ask Cyrus to take the lead. We unanimously agreed to it in that meeting.
Cyrus came from 5.11 Tactical, a $330M company, as the SVP and GM. He has a proven track record to build teams and scale companies. Trust is everything to him, you learn that quick.
He quietly led A Plus for the first few months, through it’s most difficult time. Both in the sensitive nature, and in keeping A Plus alive.
If you can imagine the founder of a 15 year company suddenly passing away with no preparation of ANYTHING, you can imagine how absolutely nuts it was to separate personal from business. Everything was convoluted.
There were things we wouldn’t have expected. Couldn’t have expected.
It seemed like one thing after another threatened our existence. As if Jeremy, and his bigger than life personality, was holding back the floodgates when he was here. And it all came rushing in, wave after wave.
Our 2018 consisted of getting healthy and strong. That was our war cry. Our focus was on "fixing" the hundreds of things we overlooked during our previous rapid growth years. We heavily invested into our people and infrastructure.
We still grew, and expanded into 2 new markets.
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| Hanging on the "Founder" wall in our Main Office. |
Jeremy used to say to me, “I wonder what A Plus will look like when it grows up.” I think of our Jeremy-years as the crazy teenage years. Dramatic and exciting, overnight growth spurts and possibly reckless decisions. Through tragedy and hardship, we were forced to mature. “Corporatize” ourselves in many ways, while being careful to maintain the culture.
Cyrus has done a remarkable job of guiding us through our post-Jeremy era and leading us into the next. His style is different, of course. Jeremy found someone to compliment him, not to be him. He leads with passion in the same vision Jeremy shared with him early on, protecting the legacy of A Plus, while making it his own.
And now, in 2019, it’s back to the races. With an infrastructure that’s stronger than ever, a highly capable leadership team, and very key roles now in place, we’re poised to grow in a more controllable way.
We’re breaking company records on a monthly basis and have been coined an “elite kind of tree company” for how smooth we run operations.
We also launched our A Plus CARES initiative that provides our teams with regular volunteer opportunities to give-back to the community. And, we’re releasing a new app into the marketplace for the benefit of all tree care companies.
A Plus is still my home.
Jeremy was a significant loss in my and my family’s life. I miss the work we did together and the excitement that came from our accomplishments. He was a big kid that wanted to do big things.
When he was here, he talked of transforming the industry, of being large enough to make an impact. He was a guy with a big heart and a dream that was bigger than all the equipment he loved to buy.
People thought he was really crazy, or really smart, or both. But the industry knew he was a guy to watch, with a company to look out for.
It’s so sad to me how suddenly a dream can end.
From day one, Cyrus and I extended trust to each other. As the new CEO, he supports and reinforces my “voice” in the organization as I continue to what I love in A Plus. Pushing forward with many of the big ideas that Jeremy and I had, but wouldn't see come to life.
We’re still on the path he started. A path with a mission to improve the lives of the people who work for us and with us. To inspire the industry and make tree work a career to thrive in and to be proud of.
My weeks still begin with a bit of thrill and excitement. I currently work directly with the CEO, enjoying my role as Executive Director of Business Development, leading the strategy and execution of several initiatives that correlate with the growth and expansion of A Plus.
I look forward to experiencing this new era in A Plus life, to charge onward with all the amazing people in this company.
Jeremy would often text encouraging verses to his employees. This was one of the last ones he texted me, '"Now the God of all hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit" Romans 15:13
Tree End ;)
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Watch A Plus is action: the "Movie Trailer" we played at our Annual Wood Awards, two months after Jeremy passed.
More about me.
B.S. in Environment Science from UC Berkeley, Certified Arborist for 8 years, Registered Consulting Arborist, and I hold Pesticide Applicators Licenses in all states we operate in (for tree pest & disease treatments).
