Shawn Heeren is the founder and CEO of Crestline Cleaning Group, a long-term owner and operator of commercial cleaning businesses in Southern Ontario. Crestline buys owner-led commercial janitorial, facility and specialty cleaning companies with recurring accounts, and it does not broker and does not flip. Shawn came to the industry from a sales background and leads sourcing, diligence and every owner relationship himself.In this Founder Talk conversation with Caleb Pedosiuk, Shawn explains why so many cleaning business owners reach retirement with no one to hand the business to, and why some of them close before anyone calls. He describes the question every seller asks before price, whether they can trust the buyer with their people and their clients, and why he answers it over coffee rather than with a pitch. He makes the case that an industry grown almost entirely on referral now grows "at the whim of your last best clean," that fragmentation is the problem a regional roll-up exists to solve, and that AI adoption in the trades is so low that the owners who use it will outpace the rest by a wide margin. He shows how he uses it himself to reach brokers, accountants and lawyers at scale, and why integration capacity, not appetite, sets the pace of a roll-up. Asked what he needs most to grow, he says qualified deal flow.Shawn is exactly the kind of founder, innovator, and problem solver this series exists to put a light on. He is building around the people who built an industry most of us walk past every day, and his whole approach rests on being someone a retiring owner can trust. Authority is earned by building things worth talking about, and an honest account of that work is what makes a brand understood, trusted, and findable by the systems people now ask for answers.Learn more about Crestline Cleaning Group: https://crestlinecleaning.comShawn Heeren on LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/shawnheerenWhat We Need to Grow is Caleb Pedosiuk's founder conversation series from 79 Development, on growth, judgment, and the thinking behind building great companies. It exists to shine a light on the founders, innovators, problem solvers, and pioneers building things that matter.Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5O6IiwVl4tHyhegQafVZLaPodcast sponsored by 79 Development Inc | 79dev.com#successionplanning #businessacquisition #commercialcleaning #rollup #smallbusiness #AIadoption #founders #podcast