Steve Lugo is Founder & CEO of Verified and a licensed general contractor who already runs, at scale, the exact work this firm is built on — construction management, estimating, subcontractor networks, and licensing. That breadth is what makes him the right operator for a complete, self-performing building firm: five licensed divisions — Construction (KB-1 GC), Electric, Plumbing, HVAC, and Civil (A engineering) — rolled out one at a time on the same back office, Electric and Construction first. Early on he is also the hands-on integration engine — he personally installs The Verified System into the first firms he acquires, then hands repeatable deployment to an Integration Manager under him and runs cleanly as CEO. His Icarus KB-1 and A contracting licenses are the legal enabler for the whole venture (a routine ~$2,260 reinstatement brings them current), and today he is Director of Construction at McCully Construction ($250k + 5% of net profit), overseeing roughly 20 active projects and operating a professional, systematized back office most small shops can't match. He isn't learning this business to run it; he's already doing the adjacent version of it every day — and he transitions out of McCully in stages as Verified proves out.
Steve holds two ROC licenses through Icarus — KB-1 Dual Building Contractor (general building, residential + commercial) and A General Engineering (site, infrastructure, underground utility) — the harder of which normally takes years of experience and two exams to earn. On top of that he brings deep, hands-on estimating and construction-management expertise: he prices, bids, and delivers whole projects, not single trades. Captive demand: his own McCully remodels need reliable electrical and trade work — a pipeline the roll-up can feed from day one. And the commercial tenant-improvement (TI) and whole-project work Steve surfaces flows to David's own construction company as captive business.
Most small shops compete on the truck and the tools. Steve already competes on systems — an AI-driven operation that turns bids, proposals, and disputes into a real advantage. These aren't concepts; they're wins already on the board:
The licenses that make the venture legal — Steve's Icarus KB-1 building and A general-engineering ROC licenses (Steve as QP) are the legal key that lets the firm — and David's capital — self-perform building, engineering, and (with the division leads' QPs) the excluded trades (electrical, plumbing, HVAC). David's HoldCo cannot lawfully perform any of this work without them.
The operating systems & AI back office — estimating, proposals, dispatch, and dispute resolution, already built and proven on live jobs.
The trade relationships — a ~500-sub network and captive McCully demand.
Sole day-to-day operation — Steve runs it, and as QP for both Construction (KB-1) and Civil (A) he personally runs those two divisions himself — no separate director of construction needed. David's capital stays passive.
He's already doing the adjacent work. Construction management, estimating, subcontractor networks, and brand-building are his day job — not a new skill to acquire.
He holds the licenses — and they are the key to the door. Without Steve's KB-1, A, and (via Adrian) electrical qualifications, David's HoldCo cannot legally perform this work at all; with them, the platform arrives with dual-scope contracting capability in hand, no waiting or buying.
He has the systems that make a roll-up work. The same AI back office that closed these deals is what lets acquired shops integrate and scale — the operational lift on top of multiple arbitrage.
Steve's salary is deliberately weighted to carry, not cash, and it steps up on objective triggers tied to his real McCully transition (written into his Employment Agreement, not annual discretion): a token $30k in the prove phase while he still draws full McCully pay; $150k once the first firm is acquired — the point at which he notifies McCully and reduces his role there; and $250k only when he has fully departed McCully and gone full-time, matching the base he's leaving — scaling toward $350k at full platform scale (~$1.6M cumulative over the hold). His real upside is a 45% carry (~$11.5M in the base case) that pays only after David's capital is returned with a 10% preferred return, so he wins when David wins. The salary is a senior operating expense that sits inside the ~12% firm margin — honest EBITDA, no hidden costs. Sourcing is rewarded firm-wide by a flat $1,000 referral fee per company that joins (anyone in the network, Steve and David included). Sarah, running the central Ops Desk, is at $60k base + $10k per live division. Lean fixed cost, heavy back-end alignment.
This roll-up needs an operator who can estimate, license, manage construction, and professionalize small shops — and who already runs a systematized operation at scale. Steve does all four today, with the licenses, the subcontractor network, the captive pipeline, and a proven AI-driven back office already contributed to the deal. He is not the risk in this plan; he is the reason it executes.