Pantheon 2025: Live coverage from ServiceTitan

That's a wrap for Pantheon 2025! If you missed anything, check out our recaps below!

• ServiceTitan co-founder and CEO Ara Mahdessian's opening keynote

• ServiceTitan co-founder Vahe Kuzoyan introduces "Atlas"

• The Commercial Blueprint: Commercial Service & Construction Keynote

• Mastering Roofing Estimates: The Foundation of Profitable Projects

• Scaling for Success: Insights from leading Commercial Contractors

Looking forward to seeing you all at Pantheon 2026 — Oct. 5-7, 2026 in Orlando, Fla.!

Prometheus Award winners

On Thursday, ServiceTitan announced this year’s Prometheus Award winners at Pantheon, recognizing two companies who drive progress and inspire positive change in their communities. 

Vines Heating & Air, Plumbing, Restoration in Conway, SC, won the Prometheus Torchbearer award, which recognizes large-scale organizations for giving back. 

During the March 2025 wildfire in Carolina Forest, Vines partnered with Carolina Forest Community Church to create a 24/7 first responder rehab station. This site became a hub that supplied first responders with hot meals, hydration, hygiene products, socks, eye drops, and anything else they needed.

During this time, Vines’ social media outreach led to carloads of donations, meals from local restaurants, and volunteers from every corner of Horry County stepping up. To honor the first responders’ courage, Vines also co-sponsored a tribute event with the local minor league baseball team, where all proceeds went to South Carolina Mental Health for Heroes.

Above and Beyond Service Company in Edmond, OK, won the Prometheus Flamekeeper award, recognizing the contributions of smaller-scale companies.

Above and Beyond, with locations in Edmond and Oklahoma City, donates $5 from every membership they sell to the local Humane Society. This year, the company also played a key role in helping bring Poochella, one of the Humane Society’s biggest community events, to life.

The finalists, all of whom were chosen for their community work, included:

Flamekeepers: True Pros Heating & Air (Layton, UT), Haley Comfort Systems (Rochester, MN) and Above and Beyond.

Torchbearers: Premium Service Brands (Charlottesville, VA), Quality Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electrical (Knoxville, TN) and Vines Heating & Air, Plumbing, Restoration.

-Brendan Meyer

Use science-backed insights to unlock peak performance and boost longevity

What if the key to unlocking all-day energy and focus wasn't found in your morning coffee, but in the first rays of sunlight? 

During the "Unlocking Peak Performance" session at Pantheon, neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman revealed a powerful, yet simple, framework for optimizing your day: Manage your cortisol.

“Cortisol is not a stress hormone,” Huberman says. “Cortisol is a hormone that's deployed to cause release of energy for the brain and body to use.” 

The goal is to time how cortisol affects you. A healthy rhythm involves a high spike in the morning for energy and focus, Huberman says, followed by a steady decline to allow for rest and sleep at night.

For business owners and service professionals, mastering this rhythm can be a game-changer.

Huberman, a Stanford professor, host of the Huberman Lab podcast, and author of an upcoming book " Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body," and Dr. Peter Attia, founder of Early Medical, host of The Drive podcast, and author of "Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity," spoke at Pantheon. The session was moderated by Keith Mercurio, senior director of industry and executive success for ServiceTitan.

Huberman and Attia offered steps service professionals and others can take to enhance physical, emotional, and mental health.

Anchor your day for physical health

Both experts agreed that sleep is the foundation of performance. Attia noted that without adequate sleep, “nothing else matters.” Severe sleep deprivation can lead to insulin resistance, increased food cravings, and a lack of motivation to exercise.

To improve your sleep and daily energy, Huberman recommends anchoring your circadian rhythm.

• Morning light: Get bright light, ideally sunlight, in your eyes within the first hour of waking. This can amplify your morning cortisol peak by up to 50%, he says, setting you up for sustained energy and buffering you against afternoon stress.

• Morning movement: Exercise early in the day can further boost morning cortisol. Even jumping jacks can make a difference.

• Evening dimness: Limit bright light in the last two hours of your day. This allows cortisol levels to drop, which is a necessary signal for melatonin to rise and prepare your body for sleep.

Regulate your nervous system for emotional health

Emotional health is crucial for longevity and quality of life. 

Attia explained that individuals who are not emotionally healthy have a difficult time engaging in the self-care needed to be physically healthy. A simple-yet-powerful tool for managing emotional state in real-time is breathwork.

Huberman shared a technique called the "physiological sigh" as a way to gain calmness. Here’s how to do it:

Take two sharp inhales through your nose to fully inflate your lungs, then a long, complete exhale through your mouth. Repeating this one to three times, he says, can immediately lower your stress level.

Find your focus for emotional health

For leaders juggling constant demands, maintaining mental clarity is paramount. 

Huberman stressed that the most unhealthy habit for mental health is looking at your phone first thing in the morning while you’re still in bed. The light isn't bright enough to trigger a healthy cortisol spike, but the content can derail your focus before the day even begins.

Instead, start your day with intention by prioritizing that morning sunlight and movement. 

“If you get your circadian rhythm right," he says, "the rest is buoyed.”

-Eddie Wooten

Net Worth of Self-Worth

At Pantheon’s closing keynote, Keith Mercurio, Sr. Director, Industry & Executive Success at ServiceTitan, spoke to a crowd of contractors looking to explore the space between external success and internal fulfillment. Mercurio had a simple goal: to help the audience recognize the net worth of self-worth. But to get there, he took the crowd through an interactive keynote which became an incredible journey of self discovery.

From Writing It Down to Doing It—Together

Mercurio began with a simple challenge: write three goals—one for your business, one for your leadership, one for your life. 

“You’re already 43% more likely to accomplish those goals by simply having written them down.”

Once the pens and pencils went down, he challenged the crowd to share their goals with someone around them. Strangers paired up and shared, followed quickly by Mercurio calling on individuals to share. 

From quitting smoking, to being healthier, to becoming more focused, the audience gave a wide variety of goals they had set forth for themselves. 

Be, Do, Have: Identity Over Outcomes

Mercurio’s next move was to shift the focus from tactics to identity. He asked attendees to list 10 positive attributes, choose three, and turn them into “I am” statements—then install those statements with a simple physiology exercise: high-fives and a call-and-response, “I am…” “Yes, you are.”

“If you brought this version of you more often—day in and day out—everything changes”

Four(ish) Lessons and How to Apply Them

The room quieted as Mercurio shared his father’s battle with Alzheimer’s, and the lessons it taught him about leadership, resilience, and his own life.

• Issues Are in the Tissues

  • Walk: “Thirty minutes changes everything” 

  • Talk: “Everyone wants to help. No one wants to be helped.” 

  • Breathe: Use the breath to regulate state, often, not just in crises.

• We Remember and We Forget

  • “We remember who we are and then we forget.” He emphasized the benefit of building habits that help you remember faster.

• Fill Your Bucket

  • Create daily self-validation. Don’t outsource your worth.

In Conclusion

Pantheon is an event where, once a year, contractors from around the world gather in one place to share ideas, techniques, skills, solutions, and advice. 

But Mercurio’s keynote goes beyond that. 

“Go get your net worth but please, not on the belief that something else or someone else is ever gonna make you feel like enough.”  

A reminder that no matter what we learn here, what we experience, and who we connect with  — at the end of this day, it’s up to us to find the winner in ourselves. To be the leaders we say we will become.

“Winners in this life are the ones who start being the person they always dreamed of being.” 

—Keith Mercurio

The sale process: Insights from Pantheon's private equity panel

The process of selling a business to private equity can be mystifying. At Pantheon, a panel of M&A experts offered contractors a clear roadmap from initial consideration to post-sale life. 

Hosted by Dan Long, vice president for corporate development at ServiceTitan, the session provided key insights for every stage of the journey. The panelists:

• A.J. Rooney, senior vice president for partnership development, Apex Service Partners.

• Jonathan O'Connor, chief financial officer, OGD Overhead Garage Door.

• Spyros Skouras, vice president for corporate development, TurnPoint Services.

• Jillian Colquitt, vice president of corporate development, Flint Group.

Deciding when and how to sell

Before entering any process, panelists urged owners to engage in deep self-reflection. Key advice included:

• Take control: Proactively plan your exit instead of being forced into a sale by health or family issues.

• Define your future: Decide what role you want to play, if any, in the business post-sale.

• Identify priorities: Know what matters most to you in a partner, whether it's preserving your legacy, protecting your team, or hitting a specific financial number.

"Find a partner who's going to facilitate your dreams and visions about your role,” Colquitt says.

Preparing for a sale 

Once committed to selling, owners must turn to diligent preparation. The panel’s recommendations included:

• Establish financial clarity: Ensure your financial statements are organized and accurate. Know your EBITDA and be able to justify any add-backs—that is, one-time or non-recurring expenses—to present a true picture of profitability.

• Assemble a capable team: Engage professionals with merger and acquisition experience, specifically an accountant and an attorney familiar with the process. As one panelist noted, “A good advisor will provide an honest, balanced opinion—don't just rely on long-standing relationships if those advisors lack transaction experience.”

• Understand and present your story: Prepare to articulate the unique differentiators of your business, as well as key operational metrics and organizational structure, to show why your company is a strong investment.

Navigating the diligence process

Diligence is one of the most demanding phases. Owners should be ready to provide thorough financials, explain revenue streams, and demonstrate the strength of their management team.

Skouras highlighted transparency, advising sellers to be forthright.

“The more transparent you are, you’re probably going to get the same amount of transparency from the platform that might buy you and the value that they might bring to your business,” he says.

From LOI to closing

After accepting a Letter of Intent (LOI), the process increases in intensity. The panel outlined several key components:

• Expect in-depth requests: Prepare to respond to requests for detailed financial and operational information.

• Understand holdbacks and legal agreements: Recognize that some sale proceeds may be held in escrow to address potential working capital adjustments or indemnity claims.

• Plan communication: Know when and how to bring key team members into the process while maintaining confidentiality until the right moment.

Choosing the right partner

Given the competitive market, business owners may receive multiple offers. The group strongly recommended focusing beyond headline price:

• Assess values and culture: Ensure alignment on values and approach—how will potential partners treat your employees and legacy?

• Examine deal structure and certainty: Is the consideration all cash, or are there equity or earn-out components? How reliable is the buyer’s track record for actually closing deals at agreed terms?

• Interview references: Speak with other owners who have worked with prospective buyers to vet their reputation and follow-through.

Life after the sale

The panel dispelled common private equity myths, underscoring their commitment to growth and partnership rather than cost-cutting or loss of autonomy. With the right partner, sellers can expect ongoing support, investment in their brand, and opportunities for leadership continuity or retirement, tailored to their goals.

As O'Connor observed, private equity buyers want to see successful operators continue to propel the business: the relationship becomes collaborative, empowering owners to strengthen their legacy with expanded resources and expertise.

By approaching the sale process with transparency, preparation, and a clear sense of priorities,

AI-Powered Precision: Transforming ServiceTitan Support for Speed + Accuracy

ServiceTitan’s support has been rebuilt for better outcomes: faster resolutions and fewer handoffs. VP Chris Slaugh and Product Director Mitul Bhat walked through the shift to specialization and the growing role of Atlas in routing, knowledge, and in-product help.

From Slow Queues to Specialization

Customer feedback pointed to familiar pain points:

• Front-line agents who sometimes knew less than power users

• Slow response across phone, chat, and email

• Knowledge content that was “stale or out of date”

• Accuracy issues, measured by cases needing to be reopened

Slaugh anchored the turnaround on a simple standard. “If we provide you speed and accuracy, you’re going to be a happy customer.”

The Shift: Specialization + Atlas

In August, the team moved from a generalist queue to specialization. Training ramps in weeks, not months, and handoffs drop.

They also expanded a popular perk: ServiceTitan Certified Administrators get priority routing. “Our STCAs get a ‘skip the line’ approach… you’re going straight to a senior specialist,” Slaugh said.

On the AI front, Atlas now reads inbound emails, detects topic and intent, and routes to the right specialty. It also accelerates knowledge creation. “You’ll keep hearing me speak to the theme of speed and accuracy,” Slaugh said. “Quicker resolutions is what we’re all about.”

What’s Next

Since flipping to specialization, CSAT nudged from the high-70s to 80% band toward 90%, and accuracy stabilized around 89%, meaning cases rarely reopen. “We are not spiking the football,” Slaugh said. “The goal truly is 100% satisfaction.”

Bhat outlined the road ahead. Atlas is becoming the connective tissue across the support journey:

• Precision routing: match issues to agents with recent, relevant experience in your trade, size, or feature set.

• Support Hub (in pilot): a unified workspace that surfaces screenshots, your Atlas conversation, recent product usage, and past cases, so agents don’t waste time “stitching” context.

• Agent enablement: AI-assisted coaching to level up quality and consistency across teams.

• Field-ready help: “Next year, we plan to introduce a tailored version of the Help Center for technicians,” Bhat said, giving techs on-the-go answers without a call back to the office.

The vision: fewer tabs, fewer handoffs, more in-product help, right when teams need it. “Our goal is to get to a place where you can get instant answers in the product,” Bhat said.

 Blueprint for scaling: Metrics, reviews, and performance pay in action

When it comes to performance, reviews, and alignment of employee behavior with business goals, Ismael Valdez offered a most poignant example.

Himself. 

To be the best role model at the company he founded, NexGen Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing, he would need to change his behavior first.

"I used to drink a lot, about eight years ago, nine years ago. I was an alcoholic," Valdez says. "And I grew NexGen half of the time being drunk. 

"The day that I got sober, my team started coming up to me and said, 'Hey, Ismael, if you can do it, you know I'm going to do it.' And once it started being a year, two years, three years, to Ara's point, the way you conduct yourself inside the business has a lot to do with how the business outcomes are. So make sure you are conducting yourself respectfully. Make sure that whatever you want your people to do, you mirror yourself."

Role-modeling is one of ServiceTitan co-founder and Ara Mahdessian's key R's, business levers used to influence behavior and outcomes apart from pay. And Valdez, seated next to Mahdessian during the panel discussion "Scaling Your Business with Metrics, Review Cadences, and Performance Pay," was ready with his own personal story.

Valdez and Mahdessian were joined by panel host Tom Howard, vice president of customer experience for ServiceTitan, and Lance Bachmann, founder of LB Capital. 

The four panelists went beyond surface-level advice to deliver actionable strategies for scaling a service business.

From data to decisions

Data, of course, should drive decision-making. While many contractors track metrics, the panel emphasized focusing on the right ones. 

Bachmann shared his core five KPIs: required revenue, number of salespeople needed, daily lead generation targets, call booking rate, sales close rate, and average ticket. 

"If you can master those five, then the business side comes in with gross profit and everything else,” he says.

Howard stressed that it's not just about the marketing metrics, but what happens with the leads. He pointed out that internal operations, like call booking rates, can dramatically impact growth without a single extra marketing dollar. 

“If you’ve got a 50% call booking rate and you change that call booking rate to 75%, your booked jobs are going to go up by 50% without spending a single extra dollar on marketing,” Howard says. 

The power of performance pay

The transformative impact of performance-based pay, especially for customer service representatives (CSRs), formed one theme.

Valdez shared his strategy of incentivizing CSRs based on the revenue they generated, which created a competitive and highly motivated team. 

"We started incentivizing it, and we made it a competition inside the CSR room, where I would come in at 2 p.m. with a bunch of checks," he said. 

This shift changed the dynamic from simply answering phones to actively driving revenue.

Bachmann echoed this, noting that he sees CSRs as a company's No. 1 salesperson.

"We pay our CSRs a percentage of every dollar they get in revenue," he says. 

Leadership sets the cadence

Ultimately, the panel agreed that scaling successfully comes down to leadership and accountability. 

Mahdessian explained the importance of clear ownership for every metric. 

"Every metric should have a name next to it, and that’s the person that owns that metric," he says.

This creates direct responsibility for monitoring, adjusting, and improving performance.

From daily marketing huddles to weekly P&L reviews, the right cadence for reviewing metrics depends on a company’s ability to make a meaningful impact. 

Valdez personalized just one of the R's off Mahdessian's list, tools that go beyond pay and its importance. The remainder and what they can mean for your business:

• Rewards: Incentivizing employees for achieving desired outcomes.

• Reprimands: Implementing penalties or consequences for not meeting expectations.

• Recognition: Acknowledging and celebrating employees' achievements.

• Role modeling: Leaders setting an example through their own behavior.

• Rituals: Consistent, structured practices or routines.

• Reminders: Establishing consistent practices and cues to reinforce desired behaviors.

"First you should define: What are the outcomes I want, and what are the behaviors I want?" he says. "Then for all of the R's, design all seven of those things for the behaviors and outcomes they want."

Navigating the Future of Home Services

ServiceTitan’s Connor Theilmann moderated a CEO summit with Frank DiMarco of Champions Group and Rob Millock of Legacy Service Partners on PE-backed growth in home services—from roll-up realities to AI, regional strategy, and leadership at scale.

From a Rush of Capital to Fewer Quality Assets

Five or six years ago, private equity was still earning trust in home services. “Contractors are a lot smarter nowadays, and so are buyers, so they’re digging into things way more than before,” DiMarco said. The number of quality assets, he added, is thinner.

Millock traced the inflection point to the pandemic. HVAC, in particular, was “positively impacted by Covid,” drawing outside investors and accelerating the formation of more platforms. 

Standardization vs. Autonomy

Both CEOs argued that durable growth comes from smart standardization paired with real decision rights in the field. Millock’s teams use best-practice playbooks and shared data analytics to align HR, policy, and performance reporting, but resist one-size-fits-all marketing from the center. Strong general managers still drive the daily business.

DiMarco was explicit about what keeps operators engaged: “Entrepreneurial spirit has to be #1.” His team positions corporate functions as support, not command. “If you start to tell people you’re not in control, then they won’t come working for me.” 

AI, Scope, and Disciplined Growth

On AI, both CEOs urged careful adoption. “Let’s evaluate, I don’t want to throw solutions at things,” DiMarco said. 

When it comes to adding service lines, each leader argued for excellence before expansion. DiMarco’s team is residential-only by design. “Be the best you are, do not go to the next business line unless you mastered the first one,” he said. He cited KPI discipline, moving close rate by 5%, a higher-return priority than chasing another trade. 

Millock echoed the focus, favoring adjacent work that keeps technicians busy over expansion to new trades.

Betting on People Over Markets

Expansion strategy followed the same theme. Millock bets on operators over ZIP codes, partnering with owners who stay invested and hungry, even in markets that aren’t the fastest growing. DiMarco continues to favor major metros for long-term growth, while aligning with the people-first thesis.

Both closed with a leadership lens: sustainable pace over constant push. Millock urged leaders to “show up well” and build companies where people can thrive for 15 years, not 5 months. DiMarco underscored personal responsibility amid high stakes: “You better be in good physical and mental shape, it’s paramount.”

Building Recurring Revenue That Actually Works with Commercial Service Agreements

"Thank you all for choosing the best session, in my opinion," Evan Smith, Group Product Manager at ServiceTitan, opened with characteristic confidence at Pantheon 2025. But this wasn't going to be another theoretical discussion about recurring revenue. Smith, joined by David Helms, Controls Operations Manager at Edd Helms Group, was ready to pull back the curtain on what actually works—and what doesn't—in service agreements.

"I don't bring a mask to work, David doesn't either," Smith declared. "We think it's important to put it all on the table and talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly."

The Reality Check: Where Service Agreements Stand Today

Before diving into features and functionality, Smith polled the room to gauge attendees' understanding of service agreements. The results painted a familiar picture: a mix of companies not using them at all, others getting started with challenges, and those running them as core business components but still facing obstacles.

This diverse adoption landscape reflects a fundamental truth about recurring revenue in the trades: while everyone understands the value proposition, implementation remains complex and often inconsistent across organizations.

The Persistent Challenge of Sales Team Adoption

David Helms brought refreshing honesty to the discussion about internal adoption challenges. 

"Unfortunately, we still have some folks who just really like their Excel spreadsheets. They are more resistant to change."

Helms, who works in both sales and service delivery, sees the resistance from multiple angles. The solution his company implemented? Structure first, adoption second.

"For agreements to be activated once it sells, we are asking the salesperson, if you don't want to use the tool, fine, but we need that structure in your agreement," Helms explained. "Because sometimes they just throw hours in there. They throw a line item of things. They don't associate hours with things."

This approach forces organization into the sales process while accommodating individual preferences—a pragmatic middle ground that many companies struggle to find.

The Critical Question: Pull-Through Revenue Visibility

Smith posed a challenge that revealed a significant gap in most attendees' operations: "For every dollar of maintenance revenue, how many pull-through work dollars are you generating?  How many of you here could answer that question?"

Only a few hands went up—a statistic that Smith found both concerning and opportunistic. "Next year, we want every single hand raised, and help your teams truly, holistically evaluate the profitability of a customer relationship."

This gap highlights a fundamental flaw in how many companies approach service agreements: viewing them as standalone revenue streams rather than relationship-building tools that generate additional business opportunities.

The Sales-to-Operations Handoff: Where Theory Meets Reality

One of ServiceTitan's core value propositions centers on eliminating duplicate data entry between sales and operations. Smith emphasized the technical elegance of their approach: "The proposal––when an agreement's in that draft state––in database terms, it's the exact same data. Once it’s sold, it's the simplest flipping of status."

But Helms provided the ground-level perspective: many sales team members still resist using the integrated estimating tools, preferring familiar Excel workflows. The solution requires patience and strategic implementation.

"You have to have your champions," Helms noted. "Don't ask them to do extra things. You have to make sure that if I'm going to implement a new process, you have to make sure it takes them the same or less time than what they're doing now."

Bulk Booking vs. Individual Touch

The session revealed an interesting split in how companies handle maintenance scheduling. While ServiceTitan offers bulk booking tools that allow managers to select and schedule all upcoming monthly maintenance visits at once, many companies—particularly those serving commercial clients—prefer individual customer touchpoints.

"Commercial customers just require a little bit of extra love and care," Helms explained. His company, with a couple of hundred service agreements, still maintains personal engagement through phone calls and emails for each scheduling instance.

This preference highlights a critical consideration: efficiency tools work best when they align with existing customer relationship strategies rather than forcing companies to abandon successful engagement models.

Visit Templates: Simplifying Repetitive Work

For businesses with standardized service procedures, visit templates offer significant time savings. Smith highlighted a commercial lighting customer who performs "night drives"—literally driving around properties at night to check exterior lighting.

"Every time they budget one hour, the visit's always the same, regardless of the size of the property," Smith explained. "They've set that up as a visit template, the night drive visit. And now when they're building out their agreements, all they can do is basically pick the frequency."

Helms confirmed the practical value: "I use visit templates to get started. A template is just that; you can go in and you can edit it. It just saves you time when you're building your estimate."

Recurring Visits: Learning from Calendar Apps

ServiceTitan's recurring visits feature borrows familiar functionality from calendar applications, offering three editing options: edit this instance, edit this one and everything in the future, or edit all instances, including retroactively.

The feature addresses a significant pain point for businesses with regular service schedules. Before its introduction, companies needed to create individual visits for each service occurrence—potentially 52 separate entries for weekly services.

But implementation isn't without challenges. Helms identified a quirky issue with visit windows and calendar mathematics: "Months are different lengths, and so there's a little bit of confusion there." His solution? Setting visit windows to 27-28 days to ensure a clean calendar presentation.

Per-Visit Pricing: Flexibility for Complex Customers

The per-visit pricing feature addresses two distinct business needs. First, it enables billing flexibility for customers who prefer to pay per service rather than annually. Second, it provides better revenue recognition control for companies dealing with accounting complexities.

"Some contractors don't want to actually put the total agreement price in the document that they send to the customer. That number is too big," Smith explained. "If you are leveraging per-visit pricing, what you can do is entirely remove that total agreement price from your document, your contract entirely, and instead only show the visit schedule and the price per visit."

This approach reduces sticker shock while maintaining revenue predictability—a balance many service businesses struggle to achieve.

Revenue Recognition and Accounting Integration

While Smith jokingly tried to avoid accounting discussions, the topic proved unavoidable when addressing per-visit pricing benefits. The feature solves a common complaint about ServiceTitan's default revenue recognition calculations.

Previously, the system used proportional calculations based on visit costs relative to overall agreement value to determine revenue recognition timing.

Per-visit pricing allows companies to prescribe exactly how much revenue each visit generates, giving finance teams greater control over recognition timing and amounts.

The Bottom Line: Honest Assessment Over Hype

What made this session valuable wasn't the feature demonstrations—it was the honest discussion of implementation realities. Smith and Helms acknowledged that software alone doesn't solve organizational challenges, and successful recurring revenue programs require patience, flexibility, and strategic change management.

For companies considering or struggling with service agreement implementation, their advice is clear: start with organizational structure, identify champions, minimize disruption to existing workflows, and focus on long-term relationship value rather than just recurring revenue numbers.

The path to successful recurring revenue isn't about perfect tool adoption—it's about creating systematic approaches that align with your team's capabilities and your customers' expectations while building toward more sophisticated operations over time.

How fintech and AI drive growth and efficiency

Smarter payment systems and AI-driven tools offer transformative potential to unlock new revenue streams and operational efficiencies in service industries. 

During a session at Pantheon, ServiceTitan’s Rahul Hampole emphasized the importance of foundational digital payment systems, such as ServiceTitan’s Tap to Pay, as a gateway to broader AI adoption. 

Hampole, Vice President of Product and General Manager for Fintech, hosted a fireside chat with Joe Schmidt, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, in a session titled "Fintech in the Trades: Unlocking Revenue Through Smarter Payments and AI."

He noted that trades businesses historically lag in adopting digital payments, but the shift is accelerating. Schmidt supported this with data, pointing out that check usage in the United States has dropped by 50% in the last decade, signaling a clear consumer preference for digital solutions.

The conversation delved into AI’s role in automating workflows, from after-hours virtual agents handling payments to AI-driven dispatch systems optimizing technician assignments. Schmidt highlighted the dual opportunity AI presents: quick wins such as virtual agents and long-term transformations such as fully automated back-office processes. 

Both speakers underscored the importance of execution. Hampole advised businesses to start small, experiment, and lean on ServiceTitan’s ecosystem of tools and partners. 

Schmidt said one person should be designated to lead AI implementation and change management.

"People need to figure out who is the directly responsible individual in your company and how to equip them to have success," Schmidt says. "The change management aspect of rolling all these new solutions out on your small business, or even your large business—that's the most important thing right now because the software is going to work if you just execute. That's going to unlock everything else they want to do."

Take flight with the Field Mobile app

David Erickson's colleagues in the technology industry who have similar jobs to his, as a mobile product manager, are trying to keep more eyes on their apps for longer periods of time.

"My job is funny because it's actually the complete opposite," Erickson says, "because I need to make it so easy that you don't even need to use your phone. 

"Because if your technician's using the phone, it means they're not turning the wrench. That means they're not having a conversation with the homeowner. It means they're not making money and being efficient and growing their own prosperity."

Growing prosperity for technicians and the companies that employ them drove ServiceTitan's efforts to rebuild its field app and introduce Field Mobile in 2025. ServiceTitan customers at Pantheon packed a ballroom at the Anaheim Convention Center in California to see a demo and raise questions in a session "Blast Off with the Field Mobile App" that Erickson hosted with Rachel Kozlovich, Director of Product Management. 

"The ability for the techs to be efficient is No. 1," Kozlovich says. 

And Field Mobile is earning positive reviews. Industry veteran Shaun Hoskinson, a service manager at Carolina Heating Service in Greenville, SC, offered one after the session.

"I thought it was great," he said after seeing a demo. "Looks like fantastic features that the techs are going to love. Save us a lot of time."

Erickson, a principal product manager, highlighted five game-changing updates that will empower technicians and streamline their workflows.

OCR for equipment labels

What it is: Technicians can now use their device's camera to scan an equipment plate. The app uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to automatically pull the make, model, and serial number and log it directly into ServiceTitan.

Why it matters: Equipment data is the foundation for future work and business growth. This feature eliminates manual data entry, reduces errors, and ensures clean, accurate equipment records, making it easier to manage customer history and identify service opportunities.

Native phone form factor

What it is: The new app is purpose-built for the phone. While the legacy app was designed for tablets, this version offers a native, intuitive experience on the device more than 60% of technicians prefer to use.

Why it matters: By optimizing the app for the phone, technicians can work more efficiently from the device they already have in their pocket. This removes the friction of using a clunky interface and makes navigating jobs, updating information, and communicating with the office seamless.

Spanish language support

What it is: The app now includes Spanish language support, allowing technicians to navigate workflows in their preferred language.

Why it matters: With a significant number of Spanish-speaking technicians in the trades, this feature fosters familiarity and confidence. It makes the app more accessible, reduces the learning curve, and empowers every member of the team to perform their job with precision.

AI-powered invoice summary

What it is: Using TitanIntelligence (TI), the app automatically generates a professional, customer-facing summary of the work performed.

Why it matters: This saves technicians valuable time they would otherwise spend writing summaries. It also ensures consistency and professionalism in all customer communications.

Enhanced media management

What it is: The new app simplifies capturing and organizing photos and videos. Technicians can easily add, update, manage, and select multiple media files at once.

Why it matters: Whether for showing a homeowner a necessary repair or documenting work for the office, improved media management allows technicians to communicate more effectively and build a detailed visual history of every job.

– Eddie Wooten

Uplevel Tech Financing Skills To Accelerate Growth

“Financing has been a big part of our growth,” said Chad Peterman, CEO of Peterman Brothers. “If you want to use financing and sell more jobs, it has to be embedded in the culture.” On stage at Pantheon with Logan Landis, Principal Product Manager at ServiceTitan, he showed how making financing the default, not a last resort, turns leads into wins.

The Mindset Shift: Make Financing the Default

The demand is there. 41% of major-purchase shoppers always look for financing, yet ServiceTitan data shows only 3.5% of booked jobs include financing on estimates, leaving money on the table. Peterman’s team treats monthly payments like the norm, not a fallback, and promotes pre-approval before the truck rolls.

ServiceTitan is building that motion into the funnel. Prequalifications in Customer Notification and Marketing Pro (beta in October) will be available for contractors to prompt customers to explore financing before the visit. 

Keep Plans Simple and Train Relentlessly

“For any training, consistency is your friend,” Peterman said. He groups techs by performance for weekly workshops where they role-play financing conversations, compare what’s working, and build options around a customer’s monthly budget.

Practical moves teams can implement:

• Limit to 3 core plans and script plain-language explanations.

• Build options around “as-low-as” monthly payments tied to the customer’s budget.

• Use financing as a sales lever. Premium options can pair with more attractive plans.

• Partner with lenders for training, and assign an internal financing point person.

“You can win jobs because your financing plan is better than competitors,” Peterman added.

Monitor Approval Rates and Steer with Data

Approval friction is costly—50% of first-look declines turn into lost jobs. ServiceTitan’s Single Application Waterfall submits one application across multiple lenders, and the integrated Second Look Waterfall has boosted approvals by 20% in observed outcomes. 

In the field, ServiceTitan’s mobile experience is adding more financing control, so techs don’t bounce between portals and can track application status after the invoice goes in.

Back at the office, the Financing Dashboard centralizes the KPIs that matter:

• Decline rate

• Plan mix by trade and performance of promotional offers

• Technician performance in terms of close rate and financing rate 

Peterman’s team also maps declines by ZIP code to shift marketing spend accordingly. As he put it, “You can try to bring your decline rate down by marketing to the right customers.” 

Application Management within ServiceTitan Financing gives office teams a desktop view to track status, request missing info, and keep deals moving to funding.

The takeaway: lead with financing, keep plans tight, train every week, and let data guide your next move.

Surface. Track. Close: Inside ServiceTitan’s Push to a Build a Refined CRM Experience

Jordan Neiman, Principal Product Manager at ServiceTitan, took the stage for “Fueling Commercial Growth: Strategic Opportunity and Sales Management With ServiceTitan's CRM & Sales Pipeline” to talk about a hot topic among contractors throughout the industry: CRMs. Neiman, who’s led ServiceTitan projects from Reserve with Google to scheduling products, mentioned how his new task is based around solving the issues between CRMs, contractors, and their customers. 

“We want to surface every deal. We want you to be able to track every deal. And we want you to be able to close everything.” 

Opinionated simplicity, built for action

Neiman’s guiding principles were clear: build a CRM that helps users close what they quote, doesn’t leave dollars behind, and gets more out of their best customers. “We wanted to make a CRM that was not just simple but opinionated on how you should work your sales pipeline,” he said.

In the live demo, he went through a new page aptly titled “Opportunity” and easily navigated through different jobs in different levels of the pipeline all with a matter of clicks. During this demo, he was able to create a new "Opportunity" to quickly advance it from “New” to “Qualify,” auto‑generated tasks, built an estimate, and watched the stage flip to “Propose”—all from within the CRM. A single click closed the deal. “Hit the big blue button and the confetti falls. We have a close won opportunity right in CRM.”

Other highlights from his chat included:

• Displaying the latest pipeline management and real‑time staging abilities. 

• Showed how automated task management solutions help save time. 

• Shared the insights and reporting you can view on one screen such as close rate, days to close, pipeline health, team activity, and personal performance.

• Mentioned the Convex integration to push leads and create opportunities with a few clicks.

What’s next for CRM solutions?

The roadmap of what’s in the planning phase for ServiceTitan had people snapping quick photos: projects pipeline, improved reporting, and customizable staging are on the near horizon. Neiman also previewed “Plays”—short, targeted workflows that turn findings into opportunities and use AI to mine summaries and notes for hidden deals. “We should be able to scrape all that information, see if there’s a deal hiding in there, and pop an opportunity into CRM for you.”

Any Questions?

During an open Q&A question, the audience asked every question from curiosities about technical configurations, to potential ideas, and what future plans ServiceTitan had in store for their CRM functionality. Neiman took time to answer every question and confirmed many things including various customizable options coming alongside the new CRM experience, priority filters for findings, and the target to launch many new functionalities within the next year. The main mission however hasn’t changed, “Right now, we are laser focused on building out that Commercial Opportunity workflow.”

The win here is simple — a CRM designed for the trades, inside the platform contractors already trust, built to surface, track, and close every deal.

Championing Women in Leadership: Authenticity, Allyship, and Real Paths Forward in the Trades

A few years into a globe-trotting executive role, Miriam Warren found herself crying on a long-haul flight. The Chief Culture Officer at Yelp had spent seven-plus years launching operations across three continents. But, she wanted to start a family—and she wanted her work to focus on building the community inside the company, not just outside. “Turns out that there really wasn’t anyone,” she recalled thinking. “Maybe that person should be me.”

That candid moment anchored a frank, forward-looking conversation at Pantheon’s “Elevate: Championing Women in Leadership,” featuring Warren; Meghann McNally, Chief Marketing Officer at Wrench Group; Fanaye Taye SVP HR Home & Auto at Synchrony; and Anna Anderson, CEO and owner of Art Unlimited marketing agency and leader with National Women in Roofing. Together, they explored what it takes to thrive—and to build space for others to thrive—in the trades.

The Challenge: Be the Only, and Still Be Seen

Representation gaps persist, and the panel didn’t gloss over the emotional labor that comes with being “the only” in the room. “I only speak for myself. I don’t speak on behalf of everyone,” Warren said. “If you want to know what all women think you’re gonna have to go talk to a lot of women.” Her antidote to isolation: a personal board of directors—a trusted circle she leans on for perspective, courage, and accountability.

Anderson underscored the inner work. “What’s your identity statement?” she asked. “Know it inside and out.” Clarity about who you are, she said, is what steadies you in rooms where your voice isn’t yet expected. It also fuels how you show up for others. “With great leadership is when you reflect the picture of possibility to those around you,” she said.

Strategies That Travel: Authenticity, Honesty, and Hands-On Credibility

For McNally, authentic leadership starts with rigorous self-awareness—and plain speech. “Say what you mean and mean what you say,” she said. “Being honest, especially when it’s hard,” is how teams learn to trust you when decisions get complex.

Credibility matters, too. Early in her career, McNally spent a sweltering July week in Waxahachie, Texas, learning to install the very building products she was selling. The next week, she faced a room full of veteran buyers. This time, she had an edge. “Yeah, I know how this product works. I’ve done it before.” It’s a playbook she still uses—know the work, not just the numbers.

Taye emphasized it’s not just about hiring women but nurturing their growth. “Ongoing development is really critical,” she said.  “You may have hired someone for the job they’re doing today. How are we also helping them prepare for the job tomorrow? Do they see a career path where they could be five years from now?”

Warren added a practical lesson she learned from a mentor that changed her career trajectory: “Everything is negotiable… What’s the worst that could happen if you ask?” It’s advice she now shares widely with women navigating compensation, promotion, and scope.

Build the Pipeline—and Keep It

The panel’s blueprint for attracting and retaining more women in the trades was clear and actionable:

• Spotlight real career paths: Use marketing to project possibilities—field, office, sales, leadership—and make those examples visible.

• Invest in development: McNally’s team stood up a university to add leadership, communication, and sales training alongside technical tracks.

• Support pivotal life moments: Warren cited programs that show up for employees during births, promotions, and hard times—moments people remember for years.

• Practice everyday allyship: Create the conditions for voices to be heard, invite participation, and amplify contributions in the room.

• Normalize asking: From scheduling flexibility to scope expansion to pay, encourage people to advocate for themselves.

The panel closed on an optimistic note about what they want to see going forward. “More women,” said Taye simply. 

Then a vision from Warren, “I can’t wait to hear young people talking as much about the different trades they might be going into as much as we hear about where they might be going to college.”

— Deborah Goldman

Voice Agents Are Here to Stay. Here's How to Deploy Them Right.

Alice lasted for only a year in her role as a customer service representative for Bonfe.

And when the company sent her packing, customers were thrilled.

"Oh, they were so happy we fired her," says Jessy Karolevitz, call center director at Bonfe Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, Electrical, & Sewer in St. Paul, MN.

Meanwhile, at Bonney Plumbing, Electrical, Heating & Air in Rancho Cordova, CA, Sarah's experience in a CSR role has been much different. Customers like Sarah, and she has earned the respect of the Bonney team as well.

"Did you hear what Sarah did today?" a team member will say.

"It's been really fun to tell stories like that," says Angela Kump, Bonney's system administrator.

Alice and Sarah are AI-powered call center virtual assistants. Bonfe began with Alice about two and a half years ago but will switch to a new voice agent after beginning to use ServiceTitan's Contact Center Pro, while Bonney and her team's first use of a voice agent came with the adoption of Contact Center Pro in March. 

Kump and Karolevitz, both members of ServiceTitan’s Torch Network, joined Angie Snow, an industry advisor for the company, for a discussion at Pantheon, "How to Deploy AI Voice Agents that Actually Work."

“I don’t think it’s if you will,” Snow says of businesses using voice agents. “It’s when you will.”

In a session packed with insight, do’s, and don’ts, these three takeaways from Kump, Karolevitz, and Snow are crucial:

Be Transparent with Employees

Companies should provide full transparency with everyone on a team when implementing AI. That begins with the management team, since any resistance in that group could lead to resistance from other team members.

And company leaders should ensure their teams about AI's role.

"AI is not going away. It's only going to get bigger and better," Karolevitz says. "It's just making sure we can utilize it in the best way that works for us. Helping your teams understand that it's not there to take their jobs, it's there to help them do them better. It's there to help them focus on the things that really matter, whether it's Contact Center Pro or Virtual Agent or Dispatch Pro. It's helping them understand where this is a benefit to them. A benefit to the CSRs. A benefit to the managers and the technicians. But also a benefit to the customers. It's there to enhance the customer experience, not take it away."

Don’t Do It All at Once

A phased approach is best when employing a call center voice agent.

The panel suggested beginning by using the voice agent for follow-ups before moving on to job booking. The AI can also be used for overflow calls during regular hours and for after-hours calls.

Give Customers a Choice

Customers should be given the option to choose whether they want to interact with a virtual agent or a human agent. 

When customers have a choice, the panelists agreed, they are often fine with using the voice agent.

Pro Products — Next-Generation AI Automation for the Trades

ServiceTitan unveiled a suite of powerful AI-powered innovations for its Pro products during a keynote address hosted by SVP & GM of Product, Vincent Payen. The announcements signal a significant leap towards end-to-end automation, promising to transform business operations and drive unprecedented efficiency and revenue growth for contractors.

SVP & GM of Product, Vincent Payen kicked off the keynote by highlighting the long-held dream of comprehensive AI automation, emphasizing its potential to revolutionize businesses.

A Seamless AI Ecosystem

Historically, Payen said, ServiceTitan's Pro products have been powerful but disconnected. 

Payen announced a new era where these products will work together as a seamless AI ecosystem to predict, optimize, and fully automate entire business functions.

He stressed that the true differentiator for virtual agents will be their booking rate, automation coverage, answer quality, and decision speed based on real-time data, all of which are enhanced by ServiceTitan's native integration and access to comprehensive ST data. Payen boldly predicted that AI automation could elevate top businesses from 20% EBITDA to 30% or even 40%.

Demand Generation Reimagined with Atlas

Atul Kalantri, Senior Director, Product Management, took the stage to discuss advancements in demand generation. He highlighted the success of Marketing Pro and Scheduling Pro, noting that contractors using these products are growing twice as fast and seeing revenue climb one and a half times faster, respectively. New capabilities include:

• Meta Ads Integration and Multi-Touch Attribution: To optimize digital campaigns and efficiently capture leads.

• Digital Ads Autopilot (Upcoming): To further elevate digital advertising.

• Enhanced Scheduling Pro: Now with payment capture, Adaptive Capacity integration, and membership sign-ups, turning every booking into a revenue-maximizing moment.

• Nuve Integration: Deepening integrations with smart home devices like Nuve thermostats for real-time alerts and direct appointment booking with Scheduling Pro.

• Introducing Atlas: An AI assistant designed to drive demand by launching campaigns in seconds, adjusting spend in real-time, and keeping technicians busy year-round. A prototype demonstrated Atlas's ability to proactively recommend and launch SMS campaigns, optimize ad budgets, and facilitate seamless customer bookings via text.

AI Voice Agents and Fleet Pro Advancements

Henry Cheng, Director, Pro Product Strategy, then presented the evolution of Contact Center Pro and Fleet Pro. He shared results for Contact Center Pro, including a 10% increase in booking rates and a 15% drop in abandoned calls.

AI Voice Agents are now available as an add-on to all customers, starting today. These native ServiceTitan voice agents offer a drag-and-drop workflow builder, instant hand-off to live agents, real-time performance tracking, Adaptive Capacity integration, and accurate marketing campaign attribution.

For Fleet Pro, Henry announced a direct integration with Ford Pro, eliminating the need for additional hardware for fleet tracking. This unified solution allows businesses to track and control their fleet from anywhere, sync vehicle maintenance to dispatch boards, and connect seamlessly with Ford Pro’s mobile service for fast vehicle servicing.

Field Pro: The Next Generation AI for the Field

Austin Haller, Senior Director, Pro Products, introduced Field Pro, the evolution of Sales Pro, designed to empower sales reps and service technicians. While Sales Pro saw a 20% increase in average tickets, Field Pro aims to support field teams at every step, including diagnosis. Key features include:

• Bluon Partnership: Integration with Bluon to equip HVAC and plumbing technicians with confident diagnostic capabilities, enhanced by Atlas.

• Pre-job Briefs and In-job Guidance: Technicians receive all necessary information before a job and guidance from Atlas during troubleshooting.

• Automated Daily Recaps: Providing technicians with KPI trends, strengths, and areas for improvement.

• Manager Insights Summary Page: Offering managers a focused view of recordings, AI summaries, and insights to improve bottom-line performance.

-Scott Goldman

Rising Stars in the Trades: How Flint Group and Redwood Are Rewriting the Playbook

Onstage in Anaheim, two of the fastest-moving operators in residential services walked through how they’re scaling — without losing the people-first DNA that got them there.

Trevor Flannigan, who co-founded Flint Group with Colin Hathaway in 2019, traced an unlikely arc from a Craigslist office-manager gig at a Kansas City plumbing company to a $400 million platform spanning 15 locations — all residential, no new construction. 

Richard Lewis, founder of Memphis-based Redwood Services, recounted leaving Wall Street, spending 12 years inside ServiceMaster, and starting Redwood in 2020 to “do the opposite of corporate America.” Today, Redwood counts 19 partner locations, roughly $600 million in revenue, and 2,400 teammates. 

“So what we do at Redwood is we find the absolute best contractors in the country,” Lewis said. “We invest alongside them, into the business. We don’t rebrand, put our own people in, drop our culture onto the business, or centralize the back office to save a couple dollars. We just hire really awesome people. Find really amazing contractors — and then combine the two.”

Differentiation: play long, build capabilities

In a crowded field of 60-70 investor-backed groups, both leaders emphasized discipline.

• Proprietary sourcing over auctions: “Not a single one [of our 19 deals] came from a broker,” Lewis said. “It is hard to differentiate yourself other than price” in brokered processes.

• Operator-first platforms: Flanagan argued that traditional best-practice groups no longer attract the best talent. Flint’s answer is a “Flint Business System” — a detailed operating playbook — and its own technician training across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and sewer. “We don’t do a single tuck-in. We actually organically grow every part of the business.”

• Pure-play residential focus: Both leaders avoid commercial, new construction, and home warranty work that complicate margins and predictability.

Lewis offered practical guidance for contractors eyeing an exit:

• Bigger isn’t automatically better.

• Complexity (commercial, new construction, big box, warranty) dilutes value.

• Overreliance on the owner depresses multiples; a built-out management team raises them.

— Deborah Goldman

Pantheon 2025 Opening Night

The biggest Pantheon ever started Wednesday with more than 4,000 contractors and industry experts in attendance for ServiceTitan’s three-day user conference. More than 115 exhibitors are here in the massive Anaheim Convention Center Expo Hall.