Rand Larsen

I build peer groups for business owners and sharing our community’s insights here. Hosting SMB/ETA Meetups all around North America

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

Algorithm updates, Rand update, time for a reintroduction!

Howdy, I’m Rand Larsen

CEO and owner of @joinscalepath, a peer community of business owners. We’re sitting at ~100 members, ~70% of our community are successful acquisition entrepreneurs, we organize owners into peer groups of owners who share similar revenue sizes, business models, and personalities (Ambitious, wholesome, helpful, smart, and fun). We have peer groups in plumbing/HVAC, B2B local services, home services, holdco owners, manufacturing, and professional services.

A quick timeline:

2019: started a business making documentaries about seniors to preserve life stories and legacy for future generations of people’s families. My grandparents all passed away when I was very young and I thought “how amazing would it be if I had a professional documentary made just for them I could watch and learn about who they were.” I made a documentary for both of my parents and then started making them for others.

2020: Covid crushed that business. So I got a landscaping job while I figured out what I was going to do next.

2021: I started learning about “the Silver Tsunami” and explored buying a business as a means to build wealth. Shortly afterwards I met and started working with @wilsoncompanies as an Entrepreneur in Residence, helped him acquire/operate businesses for ~1.5 years in a plumbing/HVAC trades rollup.

2022: I meet a business owner going through massive distress after buying a $20M HVAC business. He had no else to talk to about the challenges of business ownership (can’t talk to employees, W2 friends just don’t “get it”, etc.). So I started building peer groups to solve the loneliness problem so many business owners experience. Did this for free for over a year.

Also started a ghostwriting agency, got it to $100,000+ in annual revenue.

2023: I start monetizing the peer groups and building more of them, working on it part time while the agency was my full time job. In October that switched and I went full time building more peer groups and started winding down the agency.

2024: Went on my first “SMB Road Show” or “Rand Run” for those of you who remember. I visited ~15 major cities in the Northeast and Midwest, hosted SMB/ETA meetups in each city, I met hundreds of people doing this and it all happened in ~5 weeks traveling full time. Twice I hosted 3 events in a single week. Tuesday in Detroit, Wednesday in Chicago, Thursday in Grand Rapids.

In July I bought a campervan so I could travel more and experience van life. In total I’ve hosted nearly 50 events with >1,000 people attending across the country and met some amazing people and friends.

2025: Acquired Scalepath from @girdley and rebranded the business around their branding. In our community primarily made up of holdco owners and successful ETAers, I finally did my first acquisition!

Also fun this year, we started making entrepreneur trading cards. These are fun gifts meant to celebrate entrepreneurs the same way we do sports stars. People love these things!

Also, I was featured in the New York Times, which made my parents super proud of me.

2026: We’re still only halfway through, but I’m having a ton of fun, we’re making more entrepreneur trading cards, planning more events, building more peer groups, working with amazing people. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows but there’s certainly a lot of it.

Follow me here for:

- Anonymized stories of what business owners actually go through
- Tactics and strategies I hear about that are genuinely great but never talked about publicly
- Patterns I notice across hundreds of peer group conversations

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@bot @bot review this and recommend what we can do with it

[Blueprintsmb @blueprintsmb22]

Yup small business is hard. From @RandBusiness recent newsletter

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

By the way, if you’re a business owner in NYC or Dallas we’re hosting a couple events in both cities very soon!

DM me for info

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

Mark shows up with the sauce every conversation we have, in his group or just catching up

If you want to go fast, go alone

If you want to go far, go together

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

Mark shows up with the sauce every conversation we have, in his group or just catching up

If you want to go fast, go alone

If you want to go far, go together

[Mark Edler, CPA @markedlercpa]

Heavily recommend joining a peer group if you’re not in one

I got a ton of amazing feedback last week from one of my groups in @joinScalepath @RandBusiness

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@KHendersonCo @ryanraysr @SupremeWrapsDFW @DemoDaysFest I’ll hand you my keys and make that a mean $1.505M 😤

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@rossiadam See now this is what I want my headshot to look like. Your wife is an excellent photographer.

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@PavelBosovik We’re having a NYC business owner meetup soon there

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@BPD1776 😂

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

“Have your AI talk to my AI” is going to be an increasingly common phrase in the coming years

Needs a better word than “AI” though

Agent? Bot? Need something easier to say

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@SMB_Attorney The world just keeps getting crazier and crazier

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@RobertMSterling I’m so sorry to hear this man. Rest in peace to your father. Be well

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@dholmes94 Haha thanks for the shout out dude!

I always figured that other people would start doing these entrepreneur trading cards. I'm just happy I get to make them for my friends and Scalepath members.

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

I experienced the same frustration as well. Seems like a no-brainer for them to allow searching through the context of the chats, not just the title, because who actually remembers that.

FWIW, you can get around this by just opening a new Claude chat, telling it about the conversation that you're looking for, and it will link it

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

Never ever ever take on MCAs

Ever

[Mark Edler, CPA @markedlercpa]

If you are considering or recently took MCA money I will do a free 90 minute call w you to find an alternative strategy.

Josh is 1000% correct these are destructive

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@JerimiahLee Looking good Holmes

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@Rebelbanker @joinScalepath @tonybgoode @girdley @tonybgoode take notes!

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@Rebelbanker @joinScalepath @tonybgoode @girdley This is better than the cards that we make ha ha

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

@BrockHBriggs @girdley The AI thing, I understand, schools are slow to adopt new curriculum.

But excel?

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

That was a joke when I asked for $30 by the way. Apparently far too reasonable of a number

[Rand Larsen @RandBusiness]

Just returned a sweater to Old Navy, it was too small

Friendly girl at the counter is giving me a refund, $26.68

She says “anything else I can do for you?”

I say “can you make it $30.”

She says yes and starts giving me more money to my card.

I say “no please stop.” Honestly I was really surprised. There was literally no good reason for me to ask for extra money.

Should’ve asked for $1,000,000.