hvac-training
(3)The $4.5 Billion HVAC Empire Two Guys Named Johnson and Stone Never Saw Coming
It started as one refrigeration shop in Portland with a name stitched from its two founders. Seventy years later it moves heat pumps, compressors and thermostats through 450-plus branches - and the contractors who buy from it once owned the whole thing.
SkillCat
SkillCat is a mobile-first, simulation-based training platform that turns a smartphone into a trade school. For about $10/month it teaches HVAC, plumbing, electrical, appliance repair and maintenance skills, prepares learners for industry certifications like EPA 608 and OSHA-10, and connects them to skilled-trade jobs. More than 300,000 learners have used it to launch or advance a trade career.
Ruchir Shah
Ruchir Shah is the founder and CEO of SkillCat, a mobile-first training platform that has taught more than 300,000 people to enter skilled trades like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and appliance repair. A Rice-trained energy engineer with a Stanford MBA, he started building animated industrial simulations after researching the BP oil spill and concluding that bad training kills. His first company, LearnToDrill, trained 25,000 oil and gas workers for clients like Halliburton and BP. When COVID threw skilled workers out of jobs while contractors begged for help, Shah pivoted to SkillCat to bridge that gap with simulation-based, $10-a-month trade education. He also runs the GRIT Foundation to introduce trades careers to underserved youth, and once spent a summer doing stand-up comedy in New York.