home-improvement
(20)
The $10 Billion Hardware Giant Owned by the People Behind the Counter
Ace Hardware became a retail heavyweight by turning the chain-store hierarchy upside down. Its shopkeepers own the corporation, share its buying power and keep the neighborhood judgment that big boxes struggle to copy.
MadeiraMadeira Is Building the Operating System for Brazil’s Most Awkward Purchase
A sofa is easy to click and hard to move. MadeiraMadeira built a marketplace, a showroom network, a bulky-goods logistics arm and an assembly service around that inconvenient truth.
The Old Name on the Can Just Went Independent
A 150-year-old paint name got its independence back in a $550 million deal. Now the company behind Glidden, Olympic and Liquid Nails has to prove a heritage brand can move fast.
HANSONS
The Michigan remodeler turned a phone number, a jingle and a lifetime promise into a multi-state home-improvement machine. Now its real product is not just windows or roofs - it is certainty for homeowners who would rather make one call.
Andersen Corporation
Andersen spent 123 years turning the humble window into a system of materials, channels and service. Its next opening may be the part most manufacturers leave to someone else: installation.
A1 Garage Door Service
A1 Garage Door Service built a national home-services platform around the moment a 200-pound moving wall refuses to move. Its real product is not the spring or the opener - it is a repeatable system for turning household panic into a scheduled, trained and warrantied repair.
The Home Depot
The orange warehouse taught America to do it itself. Now Home Depot is building a second act around the pros, the supply chain and a deceptively ambitious idea: sell the whole project, not just the parts.
Philip Odelfelt
He walked away from hedge fund money to help old-line manufacturers see what is really happening on the shelf. Now Philip Odelfelt is turning messy retail data into a $27 million bet on the building materials industry.
Fleet Farm
Fleet Farm is a Midwestern big-box retail chain founded in 1955 that sells farm and ranch supplies, hunting and fishing gear, automotive parts, hardware, lawn and garden, pet supplies, clothing, footwear, toys and groceries under one roof. Headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin, it runs roughly 50 stores across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North and South Dakota - most paired with an auto service center, gas mart and car wash - plus a growing e-commerce operation. Known for its orange-roofed silo storefronts and the tagline 'Built for real life,' the company serves rural and outdoor customers who want everyday-value one-stop shopping.
Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supply
Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supply is a family-founded Western-living retailer that has grown from a single Bozeman, Montana store in 1994 into a roughly 40-store chain across the Mountain West and, more recently, Texas. It sells farm and ranch essentials, tools and hardware, livestock feed, pet supplies, power equipment, work and Western apparel, and lawn-and-garden goods - carrying more than 100 brands such as Carhartt, Ariat, STIHL and Traeger - through its stores and murdochs.com, backed by roughly 2,200 team members and about $500 million in annual revenue.
Datavations
Datavations is a New York-based, AI-powered market intelligence platform built exclusively for manufacturers and distributors in the building materials and home improvement industries. It aggregates granular, store-level and SKU-level retail data across thousands of stores to give suppliers the cross-retailer visibility they otherwise lack - helping them optimize pricing, inventory, and product assortment, and walk into merchant meetings armed with data their retail partners don't have. Founded in 2020 by Philip Odelfelt, the company raised a $17M Series A in July 2025 led by Forestay Capital.
Houzz
Houzz is an online platform for home remodeling and design that connects homeowners with millions of design photos, products, and vetted professionals - and sells business-management software (Houzz Pro) to the contractors, architects and designers on the other side of the marketplace. Founded in 2009 by Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen after their own frustrating remodel, it grew into a two-sided business spanning inspiration, e-commerce, and AI-powered tools for running a renovation business.
Ronbow Corp
Ronbow Corp is a California-based cabinetry company that turns custom kitchen, bath, and closet cabinets from a months-long luxury project into a made-to-order product delivered in weeks. Founded in 2002 by Jason Chen and reinvented as a direct-to-consumer, tech-driven manufacturer, Ronbow pairs proprietary design software with an automated Livermore factory to cut delivery time by up to 90% and cost by up to 40% versus traditional custom shops. Backed by a $10.5M Series A led by Celtic House Asia Partners, it sells through a growing network of Bay Area showrooms and an online design platform.
MotionOps
MotionOps is a Utah-based vertical SaaS platform that gives home service and home improvement contractors a single system to run their business - CRM, proposals, scheduling, invoicing, payments, timesheets, materials tracking, payroll prep and HR. Founded in 2021 by service-industry operator Trevor Maddux and software veteran Nikola Cvetkovic, it aims to replace the four or five disconnected tools that plumbers, electricians, remodelers, landscapers and cleaners typically stitch together.
California Closets
California Closets invented the custom closet category in 1978 and remains its most recognizable name. The company designs, manufactures, and installs personalized storage systems - walk-in closets, garages, home offices, pantries, and more - through a network of franchised and company-owned showrooms across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. A subsidiary of FirstService Brands since 1998, it pairs in-home and virtual design consultations with 3D modeling and local manufacturing to turn cluttered rooms into organized space.
Barry Friedman
Barry Friedman is the President and CEO of Friedman's Home Improvement, a third-generation family-owned hardware and home improvement retailer based in Petaluma, California. Named CEO in 2013 by his father Bill Friedman, Barry has led the company through digital transformation, e-commerce expansion, and a new 72,000-square-foot distribution center, all while steering the business toward its 80th anniversary in 2026. Under his leadership, Friedman's operates four locations across Sonoma County with approximately 600 employees, and remains deeply embedded in the North Bay community through philanthropy and civic engagement.
Hover
Hover is a San Francisco-based AI and computer vision company that turns smartphone photos into accurate, interactive 3D models of properties — complete with measurements, material takeoffs, and design visualization. Serving 300,000+ construction and insurance professionals, and trusted by 9 of the top 10 U.S. insurance carriers, Hover has digitally reconstructed over 22 billion square feet of property. Its platform compresses what used to be hours of manual estimation into minutes, enabling faster insurance claims, more accurate contractor bids, and immersive homeowner design experiences.
AJ Altman
AJ Altman is the founder and CEO of Hover, a San Francisco-based proptech company that turns smartphone photos into precise 3D models of homes - used by contractors, insurers, and homeowners to measure, design, and estimate renovation projects. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and computer engineer by training, Altman left Intel at 29 to serve as an infantry officer before channeling military-grade geospatial mapping technology into a commercial platform that has raised over $146M and reached a $490M post-money valuation. Hover's platform now replaces five separate contractor apps and is backed by some of the country's largest insurance carriers.
Ergeon
Ergeon is a technology-enabled outdoor home improvement company that uses video calls, satellite imagery, and proprietary software to deliver fences, decks, artificial turf, and concrete installations with transparent pricing and an all-remote workforce.
Freemodel
Freemodel is a presale home renovation company that designs, manages, and pays for renovations before a homeowner sells - then collects from escrow at closing. Local project directors run the job; the homeowner sells for more.