Growing up, DFW native Josh Cahill didn’t necessarily see himself picking up poop for a living. However, through determination and a lot of puns, he and his business partner have managed to take a small local operation to one that has its eyes on locations in each state.
“To look back and see how I ended up as a professional poop scooper is a little interesting,” said Cahill, president and co-founder of Scooper Soldiers. “It wasn’t what I wanted to do but I ended up here nonetheless and it’s been an exciting and awesome journey.”
McKinney-based Scooper Soldiers, an on-demand pet waste removal service company, started out as a lawncare business. Cahill met with his business partner, who ran a lawn service company, during a series of events at church. After Cahill left the ministry, he joined the lawn care business.
However, as they were talking shop outside their storage unit one day, they noticed another pet waste removal business. At first, it was more of a joke. But when that company showed up later with a new truck, the team saw it as a natural extension of their lawn service, especially with employees complaining about how pet waste would get in their equipment if not picked up.
“At first we kind of chuckled and thought it was an interesting idea, but we didn’t know if that was something that was going to grow and be successful,” Cahill said. “Then they added another truck and we though 'well that’s a good sign… we should get into this.' We thought it was just going to be a breeze to get everyone who had a dog on that service.”
It didn’t turn out that way. In 2010, when Scooper Soldiers launched, they landed their first client through the lawn care business. Cahill said he personally went out and picked up by-hand (with gloves, of course) the pet waste for that first client. However, despite the personal service, by the end of the first year, Scooper Soldiers had only amassed about 30 clients.
“The first year we were excited about the business but were we kind of banging our heads against the wall trying to figure out how to get more clients,” Cahill said. “We just knew, even back then, even with a disappointing first year, that there was a market and we just had to figure out how to get out there.”
The business was started with only $44,000, Cahill said. But because they believed in their business, they continued to invest any profits back into the company. It took another two years, before they were able to hire their first technician.
Then, around 2014, things began to take off. That year Scooper Soldiers expanded from McKinney to the entire DFW area. The next year, the company expanded into Houston, Austin and San Antonio.
“This a people business, that’s what this really is… people who are taking care of our clients, both our four-legged ones and the people,” Cahill said. “When it comes down to it, the job is pretty simple, but the safety of pets, the sanitation of tools, those things are things that just have to be perfect 100% of the time.”
"This a people business… people who are taking care of our clients, both our four-legged ones and the people."
He said that taking care of customers is one of the main priorities of the company and they do that through constant communication with clients via its app, as well as sending photos of locked gates and dogs playing in the yard during and after service. And in keeping with that, when Scooper Soldiers first expanded in Texas, Cahill said he put more than 20,000 miles during six months driving from DFW to Austin to Houston making sure he was responsible for the first few clients in each city.
However, as business grew, that didn’t last long. In 2016, Scooper Soldiers entered the Oklahoma City and Tulsa markets. Between 2017 and 2019, it opened services in Arizona, Georgia and Colorado. Now the Scooper Soldiers team is made up of about 65.
Cahill said that one of the things that separates them from others operating in the same space is not only its dedication to quality, which it ensures by employee spot-checkers and constant feedback from clients, but also by offering growth opportunities within the company to make an impact on employees’ lives. Scooper Soldiers also employs what it calls “paratroopers,” who go to different locations to hire and train staff, as well as fill in when employees are sick or on vacation.
“Scooping poop is not like a prestigious job, some people get a little embarrassed about it, but we take it seriously and the guys we had working for us, we quickly realized we’ve got to give them upward mobility in our company if we want to keep them. We decided the only way to really give our people this opportunity is to go big and try to grow this company as big as we can,” Cahill said. “Our growth has really allowed us to operationally execute a lot more than our competition.”
Now, the company is looking to go nationwide and is changing its business model to do so. With planned expansions into Florida, Illinois, D.C and Washington state later this year, Scooper Soldiers is beginning to franchise some of its areas of service. However, unlike traditional franchise models, where businesses use franchisees to open locations where to company does not yet exist, Scooper Soldiers plans to franchise locations that it has already built out. Cahill said this will not only help ensure the success of franchise locations, but also allow the company to accelerate its focus of growing into new markets.
So far, since offering franchising about 60 days ago, they have already franchised four locations, with a combined 14 franchisee-operated trucks, including in Frisco and Allen.
“Essentially, we corporately go in build out an area, get the clientele… and then we basically re-map a large market into smaller territories and offer those for franchising,” Cahill said. “Our overall goal is to impact people… the bigger we get, the more we're able to take care of them and that’s the point where I’m at, it’s about doing this together and making an impact for all the people who have worked so hard for us.”
