Buy box: Specialty HVAC and mechanical contractors · Richmond MSA first, then VA + nearby NC corridor · roughly 15–80 employees · prefer owner-operated / family-held · public data only.
Package: 19 primary names in targets.csv · 3 borderline / screen-outs in borderline-screenouts.csv · sources in SOURCES.md · this memo.
| Criterion | How we applied it |
| Geography | Richmond–Petersburg MSA core, then Fredericksburg, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Roanoke Valley, and NC Triangle (Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill) |
| Specialty | HVAC / mechanical primary or co-primary (plumbing/electrical multi-trade OK if HVAC is real) |
| Size | Public proxies only: About-page headcount, fleet/truck counts, directory employee estimates, review/ops footprint. All size bands labeled estimates |
| Ownership | Prefer named founders, family succession, or “owner/president” on company About, BBB principal fields, or news — not invented |
Explicitly screened out / deprioritized: James River Air Conditioning (Richmond) — company history page cites 200+ employees and 120+ trucks, above the 80-employee ceiling. Large PE-backed or national franchise platforms were not pursued for this sample.
1. Company websites — About / Our Story / Team pages for ownership narrative, fleet mentions, service mix, published license numbers, and public main contact paths.
2. BBB business profiles — legal-style names, entity type, principal/management names, and board license numbers as reported by BBB (always re-check on the board).
3. Virginia DPOR / Board for Contractors — license numbers captured from company sites and BBB; interactive License Lookup used as the verify-back portal (see Gaps).
4. North Carolina State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating & Fire Sprinkler Contractors — license verify portal noted for NC names; BuildZoom/BBB secondary citations for Streamline.
5. Virginia SCC Clerk’s Information System (CIS) — entity-search portal identified; not fully usable in this automated pass (see Gaps).
6. Public directories / maps / trade press — LinkedIn public company pages, BuildZoom, chamber/directory listings, and one dated trade profile (Kelleher fleet/headcount) as size proxies only.
No paid databases, no login-walled scrapes, no invented emails or mobile numbers. Contact path = company website contact and/or published main business line on the company site.
- Exact legal names & officers: VA SCC CIS and many board lookups are interactive / JS forms. This pass often has trade names and BBB-style legal names, not stamped SCC officer lists. Diligence step one for any live engagement is CIS + DPOR (VA) or SOS + nclicensing.org (NC).
- True headcount: Almost no firm publishes a current W-2 count. Bands are estimates from directories, truck counts, or older press. Several Richmond names may sit under 15 (Fresh Air, Americool, Snyder, River City, Taylor, Jones) — flagged in CSV.
- Ownership equity: “President,” “founder,” and “family-owned” on marketing pages are signals, not cap tables. Midlothian Mechanical’s parent/dba story (Consolitech) needs SCC confirmation. Assured Climate’s owner names come mainly from secondary directories; the company site was thin.
- License currency: Numbers cited from sites/BBB were not live-revalidated in the board UI this pass — treat as leads to verify, not as current status certificates.
- PE / quiet sale risk: Public web rarely discloses recent ownership changes. Call-first conversations should ask “still family-owned?” early.
These gaps are intentional in a Shortlist sample: the desk shows what public web can and cannot resolve in a few days.
| Rank | Company | Why first |
| 1 | Davis & Green (Richmond) | Clear family succession (founders → next-gen leadership in 2024), multi-trade with HVAC, size estimate inside band (~50–80), Richmond MSA. |
| 2 | Automatic Climate, Inc. (Richmond) | Long local tenure (since 1983), named BBB principal (Alan R. Purser), size estimate mid-band, license number published for easy DPOR check. |
| 3 | Dominion Service Company (Richmond) | Explicit Tunnell family founding story; current President named in public directories; commercial + residential mix; size estimate ~15–25. |
| 4 | Kelleher Corp. / Kelleher HVAC (Richmond) | Multi-generation family brand since 1968; historical ~38-employee / fleet signal; deep Richmond roots; confirm current headcount (figure may be dated). |
| 5 | Midlothian Mechanical (North Chesterfield) | Mechanical commercial + residential; named President (Kevin C. Kirsh); published Class A-style license; ownership/parent entity needs SCC clarity — still a strong ops conversation. |
Strong corridor alternates (not ranked in top five): Loving Air Inc. (Fredericksburg — founder Shane Loving, 13-truck proxy); Wisler (Rocky Mount/Roanoke — brother co-owners); Allen Kelly & Co. (Raleigh — About-page 65+ headcount near band ceiling); Streamline Services and Boer Brothers (Triangle family shops).
Moved out of the primary list so the main sheet stays inside the buy box:
| Name | Why appendix |
| Jones Heating Air (Charlottesville) | Public size signals suggest under ~15 employees. |
| Assured Climate (Chesterfield) | Thin official site; ownership/size mostly secondary directories — low confidence. |
| Taylor Heating & Air (North Chesterfield) | Soft ownership signal; size opaque — low confidence. |
Full rows (same columns as the primary sheet) live in borderline-screenouts.csv. A live engagement can promote any of these after a phone screen.
Primary CSV columns include confidence (high/med/low), screening notes, and blank call_first_rank outside the top five. Missing owner or contact fields are left blank or soft-labeled rather than filled with guesses — that honesty is part of the deliverable.
Same format, your buy box, $2,000, five business days.