A garage in Richmond, 2013.
Ellis and Marcus met as service techs at the biggest HVAC chain in Richmond. Both of them loved the work and hated the way customers got treated — the upsells, the surprise charges, the technicians pushed to close instead of solve. So they quit, bought one used van between them, and started Bellwether out of Ellis's garage in Northside Richmond.
The first year was one used van and a lot of late nights. By 2018 we had four trucks. By 2022 we'd outgrown the original garage and moved into our current shop off Hermitage Road. We've run on ServiceTitan since 2019 — dispatch, invoicing, customer history all in one system, so techs in the field see what the office sees. Today there are 8 trucks on the road and 18 of us total — one office, one phone, one team.
We've kept it simple: one shop, one phone number, one team. No plumbing, no electrical — just HVAC, done right.