David Royce, a serial entrepreneur (Aptive Environmental) recounts his journey from a broke college door-to-door rookie to scaling a pest-control startup into a $500 million national leader—and why he’s now taking a well-earned sabbatical.Key Discussion PointsThe Rookie Summer: How a disastrous first week of door-to-door sales prompted David’s self-education marathon in sales books.Systems Over Spark: Building replicable training, manuals, and processes that delivered 2× results and launched him into leadership.Scaling Pains: Why hyper-growth nearly bankrupted his first venture and how he raised capital to keep pace.Leveling Up: Swapping his original exec team for seasoned billion-dollar operators to navigate the jump from regional to national scale.Entrepreneurial Highs & Lows: The dopamine rush of the early years, the burnout of success, and the intentional one-year pause to rediscover purpose.Investor IQ: Why proven operators attract funding, and the difference between a slick pitch deck and a battle-tested team.Sabbatical Mindset: Lessons on stepping back, letting others lead, and treating entrepreneurship like a lifelong sport you can pause and replay.Key TakeawaysMaster your craft first: hands-on experience de-risks your startup journey.Build playbooks, not personalities: systems scale; individuals stall.Growth capital is a double-edged sword—raise just enough to stay nimble.Only the paranoid survive: swap in fresh talent as your needs evolve.Sabbaticals can reboot your passion—sometimes stepping off the gas is the smartest move.Closing Thoughts Tune in to learn how David Royce became an accidental CEO, why he sold his own dream once (and why he’ll do it again), and how even the fastest-growing entrepreneurs need time off to stay in the game.Our Sponsors:* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Northwest Registered Agent and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://northwestregisteredagent.com* Check out Plus500: https://plus500.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com
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Less $800 trade-in or promo credit applied over 36 months. 0% APR. Trade-in must be from Apple, Google, or Samsung. Trade-in and additional terms apply. Hey everyone, welcome back to Founder Story. Today we have a special guest because it's the first time that this person is entrepreneur or serial entrepreneur on sabbatical. David Royce, I mean, you've done incredible things.
Building a company with $500 million in revenue, fastest company in America many times, buying companies, exit companies, and now you're on sabbatical as an entrepreneur, which I think it's almost the dream of everyone. I think every entrepreneur dreams of one day doing that and you've achieved it. So I can't wait to dive into every learning, every experience you've had.
But first, David, what was the spark for entrepreneurship and then why that specific industry?
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