The Two Maids & A Mop rags to riches story was recently chronicled by CNBC. The network interviewed our CEO & Founder to talk about his early days prior to starting the business and then goes on to detail the company’s new direction in franchising.

Working at the lab from 1997 to 2003, not only did Holt dream of running his own business, he also set his sights on the field he’d go into: home cleaning.

That industry had three key features that Holt believed would lead to success. First, it had the prospect of recurring revenue — a stable inflow of cash from happy customers. Second, it was a field that didn’t embrace technology, creating opportunity outside the tech-laden start-up field. Finally, how many entrepreneurs can genuinely be excited about scrubbing grout and taking out the trash? I really wanted to be in an industry that no one else wanted to be in,” he said. “Silicon Valley isn’t really chasing us because at the end of the day you got to clean dirty toilets.”

Still, Holt had plenty of competition. Large cleaning service franchises include Merry Maids, Molly Maid and MaidPro. Small mom-and-pop operations fought for customers on the local level.

In order to seed his new business, Holt put away $150,000 over seven years. He spent his days working at the lab, but would moonlight flipping burgers, cleaning for friends and installing “for sale” signs for real estate agents to drum up extra cash.

Holt also shrunk his expenses, subsisting on fish sticks and rice every night. The upside was that he had no real social life, so he saved money that way, too.

“I was in my mid-20s,” he said. “Eating fish sticks and rice wasn’t very cool.”

Once Holt scraped up enough money, he bought a small one-man cleaning service in Pensacola, Florida, on April 1, 2003. That was Two Maids & A Mop’s first location.

We love our brand’s story and are so excited that the world is now discovering the unique evolution from our mom & pop heritage into today’s version of a nationally recognized brand.

To read the story and watch the interview, please click here: CNBC Talks To Two Maids