Thrasher Foundation Repair is a family-owned foundation repair, waterproofing, and concrete leveling company based in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded over 50 years ago, the business grew from a single location into a 10-location, 600-person operation after the owners’ sons, Dan and Dave, took the helm. Francesca Peterson and Angela Salts have been at the center of Thrasher’s EOS adoption since the company started running on the system around 2018. Together, they helped drive the rollout of EOS from the leadership team all the way down to the front lines — and when their previous software platform started falling short, they led the migration to Strety.
Table of Contents
- Tell us about Thrasher and how the company has grown.
- When did EOS come into the picture?
- What were things like before EOS?
- You’ve grown from one location to ten in about a decade. How has running on EOS helped with that kind of expansion?
- How do you structure EOS across all of those locations?
- A lot of companies keep EOS at the leadership level and don’t push it to the front lines. Why was it important for you to roll it out company-wide?
- What does that look like in practice for the people closer to the front lines?
- You started on Traction Tools, which became Bloom Growth. What led you to start looking at other options?
- How did Strety end up on your radar?
- What was your first impression of Strety?
- Switching platforms at your scale is a big decision. How did the actual migration go?
- How did you get the broader team up to speed?
- How was the experience working with the Strety success team during the transition?
- Now that you’ve been using Strety for a while, what stands out compared to how you were running things before?
- What advice would you give to a business that’s considering running on EOS?
- And what about someone who’s already on EOS but considering Strety specifically?
Tell us about Thrasher and how the company has grown.
We’ve been around for over 50 years — it’s a family-owned company. For about 30 of those years, it was a small, local operation reaching into western Nebraska. But when Dan and Dave, the owners’ sons, came on board, they really took it to another level. Now we have 10 locations and about 600 employees. We do foundation repair, waterproofing, and concrete leveling.
When did EOS come into the picture?
That was around 2018. I honestly forget who first introduced us — it might have been through reading Traction or something like that. But that started our EOS journey. The leadership team started it, we got a consultant, and we’ve been doing it now for about eight years. It’s throughout the company — from the leadership team down to the front lines — and it really has changed our meeting structure and how we operate.
What were things like before EOS?
Our meetings weren’t streamlined at all. We didn’t have To Dos in front of us. We didn’t come to meetings prepared with Headlines and Issues to discuss in depth. We might meander even if we had an agenda — it just wasn’t as organized. We didn’t have Rocks. And we didn’t really have a Scorecard we could look at week to week to see if we were on track or off track. EOS gave us a path in our meetings.
You’ve grown from one location to ten in about a decade. How has running on EOS helped with that kind of expansion?
I think it did contribute to our growth. It helps us keep aligned through all the locations. A regional manager in one city can speak with another because they have L10s, but they’re also tracking things the same way and doing things the same way. It just makes a cohesive balance despite the fact that we aren’t all operating out of one building anymore.
How do you structure EOS across all of those locations?
Each region and location has basically the same structure. Bigger locations might have two sales managers instead of one, but the bones are the same. We have an executive leadership team here in Omaha — that’s the team that started it originally. Then each of their direct reports has L10s with their direct reports, and so on. It goes all the way down the line. At each location, you’ll have the sales managers, service managers, and production managers each running their own L10s. Almost every employee has an L10.
A lot of companies keep EOS at the leadership level and don’t push it to the front lines. Why was it important for you to roll it out company-wide?
We found that it was so much more efficient, and the tools packaged everything so nicely, that it was hard to say, “We’re doing this and it’s working well for us, but you guys kind of keep doing your own thing and scrambling around.” By sharing it down the line, everybody feels more efficient. Everybody’s doing the same thing. It just seemed logical to us that we wouldn’t want to keep it only at our level.
What does that look like in practice for the people closer to the front lines?
In the office, almost everyone is a user — they can log in and track their To-Dos, get pieces of Rocks, and see milestones in their managers’ Rocks. For the front-line field teams, they don’t necessarily need full tool access, but we do want them to be a part of the meetings and get summaries. [Note: Strety’s brand-new observer license allows you to do just that with your front line people – for free!]
You started on Traction Tools, which became Bloom Growth. What led you to start looking at other options?
Bloom worked fine for a while — it was what we knew. But they did an upgrade and there were things that stopped working for us. We were finding a lot of glitches and technical difficulties, and their communication with us wasn’t great. We’d be in the middle of an EOS meeting and hit technology issues. That was the biggest frustration.
How did Strety end up on your radar?
Our EOS Implementer, Jonathan Nielsen, has clients on various platforms, and he told us Strety was the best solution he’d found. So Angela reached out, we weighed the pros and cons, and decided to make the move. The integrations with Teams and Outlook were a big draw, and the Scorecard worked better for us — the one in Bloom was more limited. Boy, are we glad that we made the move.
What was your first impression of Strety?
The first time I got the tutorial, I was really impressed. I came back to my desk and said, “We need to go with this company.” It’s so seamless and easy to use. Whether you’re on the front line or the leadership team, everybody can understand it. It’s easy to follow.
Switching platforms at your scale is a big decision. How did the actual migration go?
I was way more nervous than I needed to be. With all of these people and all of these meetings, I thought it would be a nightmare. But it really was so seamless — I was shocked at how easily it went. We timed it to end one quarter with Bloom so all the quarterly data was clean, and then start a new quarter with Strety. The whole thing was a few weeks, and honestly, the migration was a good exercise because we could clean out a lot of stuff that didn’t need to be there anymore.
How did you get the broader team up to speed?
We did a couple of virtual calls where managers could join, kind of a train-the-trainer approach. We recorded those sessions so anyone who missed them could watch later. Since everyone was already on EOS, it was really just learning a new platform — not a new system. Once people saw it in a meeting, they could figure it out pretty quickly.
How was the experience working with the Strety success team during the transition?
They were great. Anything we had questions on, they were right there to respond right away. They helped upload data for us and helped us get the program built out to work for our company. I continue to exchange emails with Derek every other week or so, and he’s just great. It’s been a good transition overall.
Now that you’ve been using Strety for a while, what stands out compared to how you were running things before?
The integrations with Teams and Outlook are huge. I primarily use the Teams integration to create To-Dos and Issues out of other conversations I’m having. Things come through at night and I can just create the To-Do right there. And because we all have Teams on our phones, checking Strety is just like any other app — easy and quick. Several people on our team have also started using Projects and really love that.
What advice would you give to a business that’s considering running on EOS?
I would encourage them to explore it and give it a try. It really is such an efficient system. We’ve been nothing but thrilled with it since we started, and it will make a difference. Once you see how it structures your meetings, your Rocks, your Scorecard — you won’t want to go back to the way things were before.
And what about someone who’s already on EOS but considering Strety specifically?
Our sister company, Supportworks, was on yet a different system and they also went to Strety — Jonathan is their implementer too. So we have experience with two other systems outside of Strety, and we all love it. We find it intuitive, it looks good, and it does a great job of tracking everything. It gives us the basics in those L10s but also has ways to add to our organization and efficiency. If you’re new to EOS, this is a great program. And if you’re using another program, I’d suggest trying it out — this one is just better than the others we’ve experienced.
Thanks, Francesca and Angela! If you’re a team who wants to make the move from Bloom to Strety, book time with our team to walk through the product and migration process. Too excited to wait? Jump into our free trial to check out the product for yourself.
Looking for award-winning home repair contractors in the Midwest? Check out Thrasher’s services and locations at gothrasher.com.