After winning Fox Business’s “Made in America” contest, the phone has not stopped ringing for veteran and TGU Home Solutions founder Jared Gay.
TGU Home Solutions, a veteran-owned construction firm based in Aberdeen, North Carolina, was one of three businesses thrown into the national spotlight through the Fox Business contest, earning $25,000 and a feature on Fox Nation.
“To hear that you know this small company from Aberdeen, North Carolina, can be on a national stage with some pretty healthy companies … is amazing,” Gay told the Washington Examiner. “I never thought I’d own a business … [and] I never thought I’d be here, and on a national stage, and having the boys be spotlighted and get their story out feeds our story as a company.”
After serving over 20 years in the Army, Gay decided to do something he never thought he would: start his own business, which he describes as “the boys.” In 2020, he founded TGU Home Solutions, an acronym for “the ground up.”
The team of eight at TGU Home Solutions specializes in “bespoke residences,” “curated speculative homes,” and “distinguished commercial developments,” according to the firm’s website.
“When I left the military is when I really found out how hard civilian life is and that I had buddies that were struggling as much as I was,” Gay told the Washington Examiner. Starting TGU “kind of changed, changed from just me growing a business to me growing friends and family.”
Fox Business’s “Made in America” competition highlighted small businesses that “embody the American spirit.”
Military service translates to TGU
Military service remains at the heart of everything TGU does. Built by former soldiers, the business is grounded in the same values that guided them through years of service: honor, integrity, accountability, and teamwork.
“All of us have Army values … like all of those things have been burned into us for 20 years,” Gay said.
But he also said the military taught them lessons that go beyond values, including maintaining a positive mindset, even in difficult circumstances, personal or professional.
“I choose to be positive every day,” Gay said. “A lot of people just don’t choose to be positive.”
When the company started, Gay employed people outside without military backgrounds. But he noticed early on that most civilians lacked the important values ingrained in service members.
While Gay said he was heartbroken to fire those people, he explained the company would have gone bankrupt had he kept them on staff. Gay went back to his roots, hiring those who shared his values.
“All of us went from a killing company to a construction company, and we’re happy to be around each other, and we try to provide that kind of happiness to our clients as well, like just that positivity,” he said.
Employees approach projects with the same teamwork, communication, and shared responsibility they relied on during deployments.
“It’s just like a military operation, you know, that we’ve conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan, just … nobody’s shooting at us, which makes it a better day,” he said. “It’s a great day, because nobody’s dying. Even if there’s a problem, it’s not a bad day, it’s not killing anybody.”
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This shared perspective helped Gay and his team navigate some of the company’s toughest moments and shaped a culture that sets the business apart.
“Having those core principles with communication, honesty, integrity, and I honestly think a lot of that is what sets us apart from other general contractors or home builders,” Gay said. “We show you every dollar it does when you get your final bill, every single dollar that has been spent, you can see it.”
After leaving the military, Gay said he struggled to find purpose. But starting TGU helped him find that again by building a community for former service members and showing them there is life after the military.
He said that for many veterans, the six-month mark after retiring is when the “weight hits your shoulders.”
While the military teaches retirees lessons on how to manage finances, Gay said the lessons do not include helping them navigate a lost sense of identity or purpose. Through TGU, Gay strives to fill that void.
“That’s my purpose in life is just to be with the boys and make sure that they know, like, no matter what we do, we’re going to do it together, whether it’s good days or bad days,” he said. “… It just drives me to be a better human every day.”
“No one can beat us, because the team is so strong, and that sense of purpose to have more guys come is really one of the only reasons we’re continuing to grow … and hopefully by the end of next year we have five more barrel-chested freedom fighters ready to start building sales.”
The call with Fox
Winning Fox Business‘s competition accelerated the business in ways Gay never expected.
Gay was sitting in his office when he got the call from Fox that “caught him off guard.” After hearing about the contest from a Fox director, Gay thought there was a catch, asking, “This sounds amazing, but how much is this going to cost?”
The TGU founder heard laughter burst out after asking his question, suddenly realizing he was on speakerphone with a room full of producers. The Fox team eased his concerns, telling him they “got it.”
Gay would later learn that one of his friends had sent a letter to Fox, nominating his firm for the competition. Prior to this, Gay knew nothing about the contest.
“It’s been super cool to be able to put my guys in the company out there in a light that they deserve,” he said.
Simply being among the top 10 finalists generated new leads and attracted clients from outside North Carolina, Gay recalled. After the company was named a winner, demand surged.
“The phone never stops,” he said. “Six months’ worth of time has probably given us 10 years’ worth of growth.”
FOX’S MARIA BARTIROMO HONORED WITH PRESTIGIOUS AWARD
Gay described hearing Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo say on national television that she voted for his company as a cool moment.
“To hear somebody that is … so knowledgeable and so intertwined into business to be like, ‘You’re my pick,’ like, that was … validation [that the] boys were killing it, like, this is awesome,” Gay said. “We’re a real local builder, we’re not regional, we’re not national. There’s literally eight of us.”
Each winner of the “Made in America” contest receives $25,000 and a feature on Fox Nation. The other two winners are Marilyn’s in Lakeside, Ohio, and Four Branches Bourbon in Bardstown, Kentucky, another veteran-owned small business.
Gay said the cash reward will be used to help grow the business, giving each employee a bonus and folding the rest into covering the company’s debt.
The money from the contest, in combination with a property TGU is about to sell, will allow the firm to become debt-free, Gay said. Because of this, the $6,000 that would be used to pay off the debt each month can now be “put into the boys.”
“I can’t give them where I want them, but I can definitely get about halfway there by selling the property and with the Fox money,” he said.
For Gay, success as a business owner is paying “the boys” what “they’re worth.” As of now, every employee, including Gay, earns $25 an hour.
Gay said the business is about a year or two away from achieving his idea of success.
“To be able to take all this work that’s coming and provide the boys with a life that they could have never dreamed of the day they left the military, I’m successful on that day,” he said. “That’s when I will truly say that I’m a successful business owner.
“They’ve taken a risk to come hang out with me on my journey and be a part of it, and so if I can give them the life that they deserve, I feel like that’s when I’m successful.”
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Almost losing the business six or seven times taught Gay that making mistakes along the way is OK. And while there is not much mentorship in the civilian world, Gay said he hopes this business helps other veterans as they adjust to life after the military.
“One of the greatest gifts you can give the world is to plant a tree that you will never sit under the shade of,” he said.