Meet the Baby Boomer whose life changed when 2 Gen Z AI founders walked into her plumbing business. She became their first COO

Marcelle Flowers, a 62-year-old owner of Armstrong Plumbing in Sacramento, California, had a life-changing encounter in June 2024. When two young engineers, AJ Jain and Aditya Ketkar, walked into her plumbing business, she initially thought they were selling chocolate bars for a soccer team. However, these engineers were actually the founders of Broccoli AI, a company developing AI agents for plumbing, HVAC, and electrical companies.

Flowers, who had a history of opposition to AI and fear that it would take jobs, was initially skeptical but quickly became a fan of their product after just five minutes of demonstration. The company's AI agents can answer inbound calls, book jobs into scheduling software, follow up on open estimates, and renew service memberships.

Since its founding in 2022, Broccoli AI has raised $52 million in two rounds, from Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, and Operator Partners. The company now has over 150 employees and serves more than 1,500 businesses, including Ace Hardware Home Services, Mr. Electric, and Any Hour Group. Broccoli AI's growth was largely due to Flowers' endorsement, with her word of mouth turning one customer into 10, and the door-knocking marketing strategy coming to an end.