Scaling Industrial Refrigeration through IT and AI Integration with Thomas Sweet

Guest Introduction

Tom Sweet is the Chief Information Officer of Industrial Refrigeration Pros, a fast-growing company specializing in large-scale refrigeration systems for warehouses, agriculture, and food processing. Tom joined as the third employee in 2022 after serving as VP of Cloud at a financial company, making a bold move into a new industry. Since then, he has overseen rapid growth fueled by private equity investment and the acquisition of eight companies in just three years. His leadership focuses on IT integration, security, and enabling scale while supporting a business that designs, builds, and services mission-critical refrigeration infrastructure.

 

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Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn

• Why Tom left a financial cloud leadership role to join a new venture in industrial refrigeration

• How private equity shapes growth strategy and acquisition timelines

• The challenges of integrating IT across eight acquired companies

• Why educating users is key to smooth transitions after acquisitions

• How Industrial Refrigeration Pros migrated new companies into their tenant in just 17 days

• The risks of small businesses running without IT infrastructure or proper security

• How Tom leverages AI tools like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT for coding and automation

 

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In This Episode

Tom explains how he became one of the first employees at Industrial Refrigeration Pros and how quickly the business scaled under private equity backing. Within three years, the company grew to 540 employees and completed eight acquisitions, giving Tom firsthand experience with rapid integration. He shares how the private equity model often involves building value for a future exit, requiring IT teams to move fast and establish consistent processes.

He details the IT challenges of acquisitions, noting that many small firms lacked formal IT departments or even admin credentials for servers. Tom emphasizes the importance of user education, explaining how simple but critical changes like MFA or DNS filtering must be rolled out carefully. His team developed a playbook for onboarding that included migrating email, SharePoint, and device management into their tenant within just 17 days of closing a deal.

The conversation shifts to service models and IT expectations. Tom compares private equity roll-ups to the managed service provider space, where rapid acquisition can strain service delivery. He reflects on the importance of balancing client acquisition with retention, pointing out that service quality often suffers when growth outpaces capacity.

Tom also highlights how Industrial Refrigeration Pros uses AI tools to support IT operations. Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and agentic AI systems now generate 80 to 85 percent of PowerShell code for automation tasks. This has accelerated system maintenance, strengthened security posture, and streamlined workflows, proving how AI can support even non-software industries.