Sam DeMaio taught himself construction from a $34.95 Home Depot book. He was working full-time as a correctional officer, then a police officer — and running a side hustle the entire time. Nobody knew. He didn't need them to.

Sam is the founder of Showcase Remodels out of New Jersey, a remodeling company he scaled to $17.6 million in gross revenue. He also owns 48 rental properties, has done 17+ house flips using a repeatable buy-for-30-sell-for-125 model, and just launched his own product line — Signature Reflections — after a national brand told him no. He joined Stu at a Startups with Stu retreat and covered the whole road: blue-collar upbringing, Army service, a decade in law enforcement, a divorce that lit a fire, and a business philosophy built on one simple rule: get it, give it.

What he covers:

→ Joining the Army at 17 as a cavalry scout — with a 13-second life expectancy on the battlefield

→ Getting charged $100/week rent by his dad on his 18th birthday, then going out and buying a duplex at 19

→ Running a construction side hustle, a flooring business, and rental properties — all while working full-time as a police officer

→ Learning construction from scratch using a $34.95 Home Depot book (no YouTube, no ChatGPT)

→ Leaving the police force with $20,000 to his name and $90K/year walking out the door

→ Buying a hoarder house in Glendora, NJ for $30,000 — poop stains, broken tools, the whole thing — and flipping it for $125K

→ Running his flip formula for two years straight: buy for $70K, put in $30K, sell for $170K — 17 houses

→ Building a portfolio of 48 rental properties that covers every bill he has, including the beach house

→ Scaling Showcase Remodels to $17.6 million in annual gross revenue

→ Buying a hotel in North Wildwood for $1 million, putting $700K into it in 12 weeks, converting it to condos, and selling for $3.2 million

→ Getting rejected by a national bathroom brand — then writing back to tell them they made the biggest mistake of their life, and launching his own competing product line

→ His employee who made $350,000 in his first year — and the people who used to cheer for him that are now hating

→ Giving a woman's entire kitchen to a woman who adopted 8 kids with special needs, which turned into a chain of other contractors donating materials for free

🔗 CONNECT WITH STU

Instagram: @stu

Website: https://startupswithstu.com

📌 CHAPTERS

00:00 – Introduction: Who is Sam DeMaio?

02:15 – Blue-collar roots: Chuck in a truck, Catholic school, Army at 17

05:30 – The $100 birthday bill and the duplex at 19

08:45 – Correctional officer by day, contractor by night

12:00 – The $34.95 Home Depot book that started it all

15:20 – Building the side hustle: flooring, flips, rentals

18:40 – Why he stayed in the police force for 10 years before going all in

21:30 – The divorce, the $20K, and the leap

24:15 – The hoarder house flip: $30K in, $125K out

27:00 – The flip formula: 17 houses, same model

30:10 – Scaling Showcase Remodels to $17.6M

33:45 – The hotel flip: $1M in, $3.2M out in 12 weeks

37:00 – Getting rejected by a national brand and starting Signature Reflections

40:20 – Culture over spreadsheets — and the employee making $350K

43:00 – The woman who adopted 8 kids and the kitchen that became a community

45:30 – What "taking your startup to the moon" means to Sam

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