PIERRE MIDDLETON-BAEZ: NEW FOUND GROWTH CORPORATION
on making good money and didn’ t let others get under my skin. I also learned to take into account that when someone is acting out or flying off the handle, you never know what they are going through in their personal life.”
It still required a lot of personal fortitude to make it through the five-year apprenticeship. At one point, when he was a journeyman, Pierre was working on a job where a foreman who ordered him to just“ Mickey Mouse” a plumbing connection because they did not have the materials on site to do it correctly. Knowing that would be a safety violation, Pierre refused, saying he’ d rather be“ Goofy” than“ Mickey Mouse” anything. He was fired and put on 6-month probation the next day.
“ These types of experiences just ignited the flame to go out on my own because I thought if that guy can have his own company and not care about doing things right, I can have my own company and do things the right way. I didn’ t want anyone to have the ability to fire me for wanting to do something the right way. So, I knew from the moment that I graduated from the apprenticeship that I would someday start my own company.”
After working as a union employee for 10 years to get vested, Pierre launched his own business in 2021, with business partner Billy Gao. He chose the name New Found Growth Corporation( NFGC) to put a positive spin on his past experiences. As he explains,“ Having something getting tagged‘ NFG’ on a job means that it’ s‘ No F’ ing Good’ and I felt that I had been mislabeled just for wanting to do things the right way, so I decided to turn that label into a positive. I was starting from nothing, growing from the ground up, and when everyone was into botany during COVID, I noticed that my little money tree was growing new shoots, so I decided on a name that represents the first thing you see when a plant breaks through the soil-‘ New Found Growth.’ That seems to have been a good call, because my positive reputation has been growing since I launched.”
Pierre started out in plumbing and pipefitting, then expanded to carpentry, general contracting and HVAC systems. He holds a class B and is currently working on his class A general contractor license.
During his first year in business, Pierre had many thoughts of giving up and is grateful for the friends and family members who remained encouraging when others – particularly former co-workers – were saying“ I told you so” and that he should just go back to being an employee.“ Even though I had my share of anxiety, depression and wondering‘ what was I thinking?,’ I also knew deep down inside that everything was going to be okay.”
Although he’ s very glad that he stuck it out, NFGC’ s first contract almost didn’ t happen because Pierre thought he was being hoaxed.“ A call came in on my business line, which normally only got spam and telemarketers trying to sell me construction insurance, so when I saw an unfamiliar
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