One warm day in 2010, Bob Misita’s air conditioner died. There’s no way he could have known it then, but his attempt to get it fixed would go on to generate more than 4 million service calls across North America in the next 15 years.

“My neighbor owned an HVAC company. When he got to the house, he mentioned that he was struggling with his ads,” remembers Bob. “I don’t know if I was trying to get a few dollars off the service call or just being neighborly, but I told him that I could help him.”

With the campaign turned around, the neighbor insisted on paying for the service. Bob phoned longtime colleague Mark Sherwin. “We had been looking for something we could do together. Immediately, we both realized this was it.”

At the time, Bob had a role he considered cushy, but unfulfilling. “The company’s goal was ‘always get more money from advertisers’; my goal was ‘give them more value’—that misalignment was the push we needed to go out on our own.”

Mark recalls, “We took our severance checks and dove headfirst into creating a marketing company. With a newborn at home, I had no choice but to make this work.”

“Our first trade-show booth was just a black tablecloth, but we had a line around the corner waiting to talk to us.” — Mark Sherwin

Present: Loyalty Brings Success

Working from a spare bedroom, the pair, researching new tech separately, stumbled onto Nearby Now—a promising new platform that pinned reviews to real service locations. Bob loved the review angle; Mark saw its SEO power. Those complementary takes let both founders know that they had found the right partner.

“When we combine our perspectives, it’s magnitudes better than either of us could ever do alone,” adds Bob.

The new company focused only on contractors and wrapped every success into a repeatable package: hyper-local reviews, clean on-site SEO, and web pages built to convert. “Every time we landed a new client we rang a bell I had in my office,” Bob says.

It was the acquisition of one client specifically in 2012 that let them know that the company had really arrived: a late-night email ping from a name he’d never seen before—TE Certified in Atlanta.

“We’d built a little e-commerce checkout on our site that nobody ever used,” Mark says. “Then one day the inbox dings, and I hear Bob down the hall yell, ‘Holy ****, we didn’t even do anything!’ Someone had just set up a monthly subscription for an incredible amount of money without a single sales call.”

The new client had discovered LeadsNearby through another customer, whose review-driven growth in the same market spoke louder than any ad campaign.

“That self-serve signup proved our package could sell itself and that word-of-mouth was compounding,” Mark adds, “so we rang the office bell, jumped around like kids, and got back to work knowing the model would scale.”

They eventually brought on two more co-owners: Jack Moore as COO, and Joseph Garcia as CTO. By 2021, LeadsNearby’s clients had booked 3.6 million service calls.

The sun rises over a one-story brick building with red LeadsNearby sign. Pine trees line the back of the building. Out front, a black SUV parked. — *Moving into a dedicated office space was a fulfilling confirmation that the strategy was working.*

Future: What Do The Next 15 Years Look Like?

The home office is gone, and the team is bigger, but the core values haven’t changed one bit. “We’re still excited to celebrate every single client win,” Bob beams.

Mark agrees. “We’re going to keep offering the most efficient, effective marketing our clients deserve—no matter what the future holds. Our focus on reputation, location, and conversion will guide us through the next 15 years.”

A future that is truly unwritten as technology continues to leap forward faster and faster every day. The one constant that clients can look forward to is a group of dedicated visionaries that will keep their marketing ahead of the ever-changing curve.

“It’s what we’ve been doing since we brought on that first client in 2010. The ways we keep you ahead have changed tremendously, but not the outcome,” adds Mark.

Real-world tips any home-service company can swipe today!

FOUND — Drive More First-Time Visibility

Claim & fully optimise your Google Business Profile.
Pre-seed your GBP Q&A section with the top five homeowner questions.
Make sure you are ready for Zero-Click posts.
Ask every customer for a review before the truck leaves.
Earn local backlinks.

SELECTED — Convert Visitors into Booked Jobs

Embed FAQ schema on top-traffic service pages.
Real-time online scheduling appeals to customers. Make sure you have it.
Bundle your most-requested add-ons into a single flat-rate offer.
Swap stock images for 30-second technician intro videos.
Offer an interactive pricing guide to pre-qualify leads.

REMEMBERED — Turn Customers into Lifetime Fans

Automate a review-request SMS the moment the invoice closes.
Pursue season-specific involvement to stay involved in customers’ day-to-day life.
Publish how-to blog posts and invite customers back for tips.
Showcase user-generated photos on social to celebrate happy clients.
Send “Thank-You” videos from the technician post-job.

Happy Anniversary to every teammate and client who made the last decade-plus possible. Contact us to be part of the next 15 years!

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