Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Cochran.
Jeremy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was first approached by someone on the Editorial Team at VoyageHouston Magazine for an interview about up and coming local entrepreneurs, I was a bit hesitant. I initially responded with, “Why me? My story isn’t any different than the next person that decided to bet on themselves and take the leap as an entrepreneur.” Then I stopped, took a step back, and rethought my answer. The reality is that people are fascinated by stories. We look for hope through other people’s experiences and use that spark to push us forward as we pursue our own passions and dreams. I ultimately decided to try to explain my journey in a way that would let others know what they are capable of achieving if they set their mind to it and are truly passionate about what they hope to accomplish.
Why do any of us do what we do? Is it something that’s self-manifested, a path that was written for us by our maker before we were born, or some other series of random events that set us in motion on our career path? I can honestly say that I believe that where I’m at today is a culmination of all three of these.
Before we discuss the present, let’s rewind a few decades to what would ultimately shape my “drive” in life. I grew up in various locations scattered throughout the greater Houston area. Without getting too personal, my early childhood was nowhere near that of one resembling a wholesome family TV sitcom or a feel-good Hallmark movie. We moved around quite a bit, somewhere between 13-15 times before the 8th grade. These years, though tough, brought about the mental fortitude that I would harness down the road to push through the various low spots that come up from time to time throughout life. The mindset developed then would be the number one attribute that would allow me to continue to push forward when dealing with the physical and emotional toll that comes with starting a business from scratch.
Unlike a lot of the successful businessmen or women that I’ve read about, I have not always seen myself as an entrepreneur. I wasn’t hustling baseball cards or starting a thriving lawn business as a kid. In reality, I had originally set out on the course to become a Ag teacher after high school. I applied to Sam Houston State University in Huntsville my senior year, got accepted into their studies program, and was on my way to try to make a positive difference in the lives of hundreds of kids. After a little bit of research, I soon realized that the salary of a teacher, in comparison to what I was accumulating in student debt, did not make a ton of financial sense to me. Not one to dwell on a situation for too long, I made the tough decision to stop accruing any more debt, leave school, and enter the workforce. Although I had no clue what I was going to do for a career, I had no doubt that I was going to be successful at it.
As most of you reading this know, in a lot of instances, it’s who you know that gets you a job and what you know that allows you to keep it. That is how I entered the field of water and wastewater utility operations and what would ultimately lead me down the path to finding my passion and calling in life. In early 1997, I got a job working for a small Municipal Utility District in northeast Harris County. I literally started at the bottom of the industry and it is one thing that I absolutely would not change. It has allowed me the ability to fully learn what each various position does and what unique challenge each position along the hierarchy faces. When you work for a very small organization, it requires that you learn how to do everything. This is due to both limited budgets and minimal personnel. I became very familiar with the directive, “Do more with less.” I was fortunate enough to be provided with the opportunity to learn how to operate a surface water treatment plant that transformed the muddy waters from Lake Houston into potable drinking water. I also had the privilege of operating two groundwater wells, a wastewater treatment plant, and 5 collection system lift stations. As someone who didn’t pay a ton of attention in high school chemistry or biology, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony that both became front and center in my life. Additionally, I learned how to operate heavy equipment and make repairs to the distribution and collection systems. On numerous occasions, I had to not only dig the hole with a backhoe or shovel, I also had to jump in and make the repairs to the water or sewer mains. 20 years later, I can still vividly remember one repair on a force sewer main that could not be shut off. Needless to say, I was neck deep in raw sewage for roughly 6 hours. Let that sink in for a minute. I was literally neck deep in other people’s sh*t for 6 hours! A dozen showers and a few days later, the smell had finally subsided. That particular moment was the “very bottom of the industry” point I referred to earlier, but even days like those would become an integral building block in the foundation of my career. I was fortunate enough to become the Operations Manager for that utility district by the age of 20 and remained with them until I was 23.
Over the next several years, I continued to go to school and take the certification exams required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to advance in license classification levels. During this period, I changed employers and entered the private sector of utility operations. By the age of 27, I had obtained my Class A Water Operator’s license. That is the highest certification offered in the State of Texas to water operators. A couple of years later, I took the Class A Wastewater Operator’s exam and received that certification from the TCEQ as well. Both of those accomplishments were high points in my career and something that I am still very proud of today. I continued to work diligently and was eventually promoted to the position of COO. There had been numerous discussions with the founder for several years of becoming part owner upon their retirement. This promise was one that would ultimately not come to fruition. It turned out to be the age-old carrot and stick routine that went on for several years too long. I had been warned of this a few times by several other people who had experienced the same thing from their employers, but my naivety and trust got the best of me. In hindsight, it was the best thing that could have ever happened. There is a saying that goes, “If you don’t build your dreams, someone else will hire you to help build theirs.” On the night of September 10, 2015, I finally took that saying to heart and filled out the necessary paperwork to open my own business. H2OMC, LLC was officially born as a company. (H2OMC stands for Water Operations, Maintenance, and Consulting) I was taking the accumulated knowledge of a hands-on 19-year career, betting on myself, and finally stepping out into the unknown to build my own legacy. It was simultaneously the most exciting and scary moment of my life.
I had a vision of offering services to clients at a level that I felt was almost nonexistent. I took a step back and looked at the industry from a 10,000-foot view perspective, saw the areas where there was a major need for a qualified firm to step in and provide tangible solutions, and went to work creating a firm with the diversity to meet those needs. One thing about business, the market will ultimately decide whether or not your business plan is going to be a success. When I first opened H2OMC, the primary focus was going to be water and wastewater contract operations. This was an area that I felt was my comfort zone and something that I knew we would excel at. With any business plan, it’s very important to be fluid and we adapted quickly to what we were seeing in real-time from prospective clients. As it turns out, there was a serious need for a consultant to provide a bridge between City management personnel and Civil Engineers. With our background being in municipal operations and management, we have been able to provide tremendous assistance to Cities for a lot of the issues facing their Public Works and Finance Departments. We work closely with Civil Engineers, City Managers, Assistant City Managers, Public Works Directors, Chief Financial Officers, Municipal Attorneys, and Public Works employees to solve facility, construction, and financial issues they are facing. We also work closely with our clients to mentor their staff and provide them with the detailed instruction and guidance needed to excel in their positions.
Although we are still in the infancy stages of business, we have been very fortunate that the services we set out to provide have been very well received by the industry and our clients. We have received client referrals from local civil engineering firms, municipal clients, and private sector clients. Repeat business and word of mouth have been the solid foundation that has allowed us to experience our initial success. Both of which are a huge show of support for our firm and something we will continue to build upon as we move forward.
We are not the only water and wastewater operations and consulting firm in town, nor the oldest or the largest, but our mindset is such that we are only in competition with ourselves. I never set out to be the “Do you know company “X”, we’re kind of like them” type of company. I knew the mold and my goal was to break it. I wake up asking, “How can we serve our clients better than we did yesterday?” and “How can we find innovative solutions to advance our calling?” I had no intentions of building a company where the sole focus was profits. When money is not the driving factor of your business, it allows you to make decisions that truly are the best for your clients. This philosophy has allowed H2OMC, LLC to experience a growth level of 800% over the last year alone.
Ultimately, the goal is to give back to an industry that has allowed me to make a great life. I take every opportunity to mentor up and coming operators so that they can see the potential that this industry has to offer. I have long-term aspirations of opening a 501(c)(3) that provides potable drinking water to nations that are not afforded this basic necessity for life. I am a firm believer that readily available potable water sources are a critical component for the stability of any region.
Has it been a smooth road?
This entire journey has been one of tremendous growth, both personally and professionally. I don’t think that my “struggle” is any different from anyone else that has decided to go down the path of entrepreneurship. In the beginning, it is a rollercoaster, both physically and emotionally. Those days were filled with high highs and low lows. To combat that, you must believe in yourself, your overall vision, and enjoy the journey. Each success builds a little bit of momentum that will carry you to the next day, then the next week, then the next month, and so on.
Eventually you will find your groove and things will start to fall into place. This may sound a little cliché, but everything comes to you at the right time. Be patient and trust the process.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the H2OMC story. Tell us more about the business.
With our consulting division, our aim is to provide solutions for our clients that provide an immediate ROI.
Whether that is by optimizing operations in a way that generates budget savings or by providing input on the design of an engineering project to reduce unnecessary expenses, 100% of those savings are returned to the client. With a large pool of talented operators exiting the industry due to retirement or by being recruited into the oil and gas industry, we work diligently to bridge the gap left in their absence by conducting facility specific staff training for cities and other entities for their personnel. This allows the client to forgo outsourcing their operations and grooms their existing staff to make the transition of filling the position, all while continuing to meet the requirements of the TCEQ and other regulatory agencies. We work closely with various types of clients with both the design and construction of water and wastewater infrastructure. We also have an operations division that performs operations, maintenance, and compliance services for both municipal and private sector water and wastewater systems. Our maintenance division performs repairs to water and wastewater treatment plant infrastructure, conducts preventative maintenance to treatment facility equipment, and performs water and wastewater distribution and collection system repairs. Lastly, the OSSF division provides the services required by counties of the State to have a certified maintenance provider operate and maintain commercial and residential OSSF (On-Site Sewage Facilities) units. This includes conducting inspections, repairs, lab analysis, and agency reporting.
No matter what services we are performing for our clients, our primary focus is to provide each one of them with exceptional value and a wonderful experience with our firm.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see a massive shift coming in the industry over the next decade. The scarcity of water is obviously an issue that will be front and center in everyone’s life. We are going to have to be creative in how we look at water reuse and become more stringent on our water conservation efforts as a collective whole. The retirement of the Baby Boomer Generation, coupled with the lack of qualified industry personnel, is going to create a very real crisis issue for a lot of municipalities across the nation. The regulations on water and wastewater treatment are going to get much more stringent. This is a good thing, but it will ultimately add an additional financial and technical burden on organizations that are already stretched thin. We feel fortunate to be where we are as a company to provide the ability to aide with bridging the technical skills gap that is on the horizon.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.h2omc.com/
- Phone: 832-995-7470
- Email: jcochran@h2omc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/h2omcllc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/h2omcllc/
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
