Sweaty startups are blue-collar businesses, often in unglamorous or laborious fields like septic services, car washes, or lawn care. It's what your grandparents would've just called a small business, but it was a tongue-in-cheek answer to the Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurship being glorified in culture at that time. Still, some small businesses look to private equity to scale their businesses in different markets, even if that means overhauling operations in some cases. "Small businesses partner with private-equity firms because they provide access to capital and organizational support to help companies grow," Drew Maloney, the council's president and CEO, told BI. Alejandro FlorezBoth of his parents were janitors, and when he was a senior in high school he started a small cleaning company that he grew by knocking on doors and cold-calling.

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Persons: —, Patrick Hocker, Hocker, he'd, Nick Huber, would've, Huber, he's, Drew Maloney, Stan Chen, Chen, Alejandro Florez, Florez, Chris Salisbury, BuzzFeed — Salisbury, Salisbury Organizations: Service, Business, Bluebird Pest Solutions, Pest, Alpine Investors, American Investment Council, BlackRock, America Locations: Virginia, Pest, Boston, San Francisco, America, Bradenton , Florida, Jacksonville, Orlando, nuDoors, Brooklyn , New York