Luis Reyes: Building a Fire Safety Roll-Up in Spain
Discover how Luis Reyes built a €8M EBITDA fire safety roll-up in Spain through 24+ acquisitions, leveraging AI and operational excellence in a regulated industry.


Before launching his Spanish fire safety roll-up, Luis Reyes had a broad career, ranging from SaaS founder to consulting at McKinsey & Bain (where he specialized on post-merger integration work). Bain relocated him from the US to Spain, where Luis later spotted another opportunity for entrepreneurship, in the overlooked SMB landscape.

While still working full-time, Luis and two partners hired an analyst to explore fragmented sectors not yet overcrowded by PE. Fire safety was identified as a prime industry: highly recurring revenue, limited competition from PE, small unsophisticated operators, and regulated service requirements that make customer churn unlikely. Their first acquisition, based in Ibiza, had gross margins over 80% and a surprisingly well-oiled operating model, which became their foundation for expansion.

Two years later, they have executed 24+ acquisitions ranging in size from €150K to €8m in revenue. All of them are in Spain, often clustered regionally for operational leverage. The combined group now generates €8m in EBITDA. Luis credits their speed and efficiency to a few non-negotiables: high revenue-per-technician benchmarks, lean back offices, and aggressive use of AI (e.g., routing, call center automation). The result is a highly integrated, modernized take on a legacy industry

Capital isn't always abundant (at least outside the US!). Luis raised roughly €1m from friends & family to launch the platform, then went on to raise €20m from Spanish family offices, most of whom were new to backing this kind of operator-led, small-cap consolidation.
More recent episodes

Grew EV 10x in 5 Years
Ben Rudman knew he wanted to work in food before he knew what investment banking was. His first independent sponsor deal, Western Smokehouse Partners, started with ~60 employees in 2018. By the time it sold 4.5 years later, it had almost 700 employees across 4 facilities and enterprise value had grown ~10x.

On the Ground at McGuireWoods 2026
Recorded from McGuireWoods in Dallas after Day 1, Niklas, Max & Will compare notes from the conference floor. Last year had ~2,000 attendees and this year felt bigger. The Minds team had ~30-40 meetings, found 3-5 qualified deal leads & ~6 prospective podcast guests. The day before, Minds hosted its annual Investor Day with 70+ RSVPs from 142 LPs and 8 portfolio sponsors attending.

32x MOIC After 100 Investors Said No
Since Kevin Ramsier's last appearance on this podcast, his firm, Sier Capital, has closed a new infrastructure platform (where Minds Capital is an investor) and exited another business that generated a 32x MOIC over a 7-year hold. The same business started with 95% customer concentration and nearly 100 investors said no.