Nexstar chair on splitting with private equity, the year ahead

This past fall, Nexstar Network, the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical-focused coaching group, cut ties with its private equity-backed members, a decision that slashed 50 percent of its revenue. Meanwhile, between a new administration, pricing pressures, and volatility in consumer confidence, 2025 left contractors navigating choppy waters. 

What’s happening: Homepros caught up with Claire Ferrara, president of Minnesota-based Standard Heating & Air Conditioning, who’s kicked off her term as Nexstar’s 2026 chairwoman, for a candid conversation about the organization’s PE split — and today’s market.

This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity.

We’re gonna start with the elephant in the room: I get Nexstar’s basic logic for booting private equity (recalibrating focus on smaller contractors), which also garnered some public support, and that’s fine. But was there any internal pushback in the process?

Yeah, for sure. I think some people said, ‘Hey, we’re learning stuff from these members.’ Or ‘They’re a lot bigger, and who are we going to learn from if we don’t see bigger companies other than them?’

So I think people were nervous about that. Additionally, there are people who want to grow their businesses and sell them to private equity. And so they initially had questions. But Nexstar’s goal is to help people grow and have a good business, and if they want to sell it, great. We’re not gonna stop serving them just because they want to someday be with private equity. 

It allowed us to help people understand that there are some very significant members within our membership — 40, 50, 100 million dollar businesses — so they don’t actually have to look elsewhere.

I understand that those PE-backed members equated to 50 percent of Nexstar’s revenue. Taking a 10 or 20 percent hit is one thing, but 50 percent? How do you make that work?

So Nexstar was already bringing in new members and had already started preparing to refill that pipeline, and we’re strong from a cash position. We operate as a business, too, and that’s something we’ve taken very seriously: If we’re going to run this business responsibly, we have to make sure that our reserves are full. The decision was made with all of that in mind, not just: ‘Hey, we gotta cut PE out.’

How much did cash position play into the timing — why now versus a year ago or next year?

Yeah, cash and interest. We’ve had a waiting list of interest, so we knew we could balance those things out.

A lot of the conversation around PE in the space is simply about whether it’s ‘good or bad.’ But can you give me a more nuanced perspective?

I think there’s actually a lot to be learned from PE. In my experience, my competition is what makes me better — it’s not the only thing, but it’s part of it. And private equity, they’re some of our toughest competitors, because they’re smart people. They’re well-funded, and they’re focused on improving profitability (which, by the way, being independent is not an excuse to not be profitable). 

So I look at it and go, ‘You can be independent and pay as much as private equity.’ You don’t need them to meet wage thresholds or professionalize your organization. But competing against them will make you look at those things. And that’s what I love about it. So love them or hate them, it’s not even about that. 

Also, two things can be true at once. They’re excellent at many things, but not a fit for every business. So good-bad is relative. I think context matters, and that’s what gets left out of this conversation a lot.

Let’s pivot. How was 2025 for Standard, performance-wise?

It was an unusual year for us. We had probably the five best years in company history, the last five years. [2025] started very weak; I was very concerned. But by Q2, those issues resolved, and now at year-end [this conversation took place in December 2025], I’d tell you we’re having a good year. Not the best we’ve ever had, but we’re feeling really good, coming into next year strong.

There’s been a lot happening at the macro level, so what are you paying attention to — or what are you hearing from other contractors — regarding 2026?

I’m watching to see if the ‘middle consumer’ is really getting squeezed the way it appears they might be, because I think it’s going to move people into two buyer types more significantly than I’ve seen: This payment-driven, risk-averse group, and then this comfort, convenience, ‘just handle it for me’ buyer. And that mid-range, rational buyer is shrinking.  

I also think consumers are becoming more skeptical. They have good reason to be, but they want more transparency, more information, more data, more clarity. So I think the burden is on us to deliver that to them. If businesses don’t, I think it’ll be forced upon us anyway — and it’s not just transparency around cost; it’s, ‘Who are you, and how do you do business?’

We think we’re coming into some uncertain times, and I think people are going to lean more into values-based organizations. So those things I’m watching, and then economically, it’s the volatility between rates, energy costs, regulation, consumer confidence, etcetera, which really means that we need to be flexible and able to pivot.

Is there a trend or belief in the industry right now that you think is just total BS?

I hear this idea that it’s all going to be repair. ‘The world’s falling apart, and everyone’s going to go to repair.’ And I think that is complete crap. Repair interest is real. People do review their options, but, my God, think of the age of systems in the country. And there’s this 12 to 15-year window now, not 20+ anymore. Plus, financing options often make replacement the default decision for people. Pricing pressure is real, but I think that it’s total crapola that the sky is falling in that way.

Alright, to close, a serious question: What are you doing when you’re not in the office?

Well, a lot of my life right now is consumed by my 10-month-old. If I had extra time, I’d be at my cabin, or my husband and I would probably be traveling to some remote part of the world, going on some outdoor adventure.

So where would that be if I gave you a free plane ticket?

I’d probably go to South America.

Nice.