The Brothers Who Just Do Gutters is one of four concepts under Evive Brands.
When Ryan Parsons accepted the head role at home care company Evive Brands, his brother called him a sucker.
"What he said was, 'Sucker!'" said Parsons, laughing. "What we were able to do with Brothers, we don't necessarily have to work anymore and it was a big role that I was taking on."
Parsons’ brother, Ken, formed The Brothers Who Just Do Gutters in 1999, which The Riverside Company’s Evive bought last year. Then, it was called Waterfall Seamless Gutters. In 2002, Ryan Parsons joined the team and, in 2009, Waterfall rebranded to its current name. Ken Parsons is a board member for Evive.
Evive Brands is a portfolio company with a focus on home care. Its four brands include Executive Home Care, Assisted Living Locators and Grasons Estate Sales.
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Brothers began franchising in 2015. After years of success, the Parsons looked for a private equity firm to bring the brand to the next level, but Parsons was adamant about being a part of the process.
Ryan Parsons is the new CEO of Evive Brands.
“Given where I was in my career and my brother, we weren’t ready to be done,” said Parsons. “We still have this passion for Brothers and franchising in general.”
Brothers had grown to a point where the Parsons weren’t as hands-on as they used to be, and Ryan Parsons was looking for the chance to get back to working with franchisees directly.
“It was really neat that this was the opportunity given to me and I just loved it,” said Parsons. “I would still be overseeing Brothers and have my hand in it.”
That’s not to say it wasn’t an adjustment. Brothers was “my life’s work,” he said, so suddenly having three other brands challenging. The nagging issue was where Brothers was going to fit in with the three home care concepts.
Then it clicked for Parsons: Evive can be part of the entire life of a homebuyer, from when they sign to when they need to leave. That idea is also how he plans to find more brands for Evive as growth and acquisitions continue, Parsons said.
Right now, Parsons is focusing on integrating the brands into one solid unit. Namely, he’s upgrading the tech stack and operations so when brands eventually cross over, it’s easier for everyone involved.
“We’re trying to unify the tech stack across all brands where it makes sense,” said Parsons. “Silly things, like one is using Google and needs to go to Google Enterprise and one’s using Microsoft, so how do we get all this tech consolidated?”
Data consolidation is also in the works, especially to help marketing efforts as Evive continues to grow across the United States. Knowing what makes the brands successful between new and legacy owners is what Parsons hopes to do while keeping things easy.
To help with all of this, he’s making the effort to hire key executives to Evive to oversee these plans. One of the more recent hires was Evive’s first vice president of marketing, Chelle Watson, and there will be more to come in the following months.
“I’m getting back to doing and building something again like we were doing for many, many years,” said Parsons. “I really like that.”