How Koala Cooling & Plumbing Started          A Story 30 Years in the Making

By Scott Feller, CEO and Owner of Koala Cooling & Plumbing | May 2026

How it Started

I borrowed a truck, a ladder, and a hammer — and went to work. Over the next three summers, while finishing my degree, I built something real. I employed my sister, my brother, and a handful of friends. After my first full roof replacement, I had just enough cash to buy a nail gun. I borrowed an air compressor for the second job, then bought my own. Word spread fast in our small town about these college kids working their way through school. We even made the local newspaper.

The Move

I graduated in August of 1995 as an engineer — and I'll be honest with you. By that point, I had quietly decided that roofers didn't have the best reputation. I was embarrassed. I was eager to trade in the title of Roofer for Engineer, and I spent the next five years building prisons across Kansas and Iowa, working my way up from Project Engineer to Project Manager.

When the last job was winding down in Fort Dodge, Iowa, my best friend — who also happened to be my pastor — pulled me aside and asked if I was going to have to move when the project wrapped up. I was already thinking about it. Then he said: "Have you ever thought about going somewhere where the economy is exploding and starting your company back up? I'm driving to Austin, Texas on Saturday. You want to go with me to take a look?"

So I went.

And let me tell you — when someone wines and dines you in Austin, Texas, you fall in love fast. Two months later, my family was living there, and I was the proud owner of a General Contracting company. Because even then, I still thought I was too good to be a roofer.

The Phone Call

Things went well — until they didn't. I struggled, eventually going through a bankruptcy. Then, in March of 2009, a massive hail storm tore through Austin and Marble Falls. My parents had moved to Marble Falls a couple of years before, and I was flat broke.

I called my folks — and I was crying on the phone — and asked if I could come replace their roof. They said yes without hesitating.

I swallowed my pride, drove out four days later, and when I showed up at the door, they handed me a list. Thirteen of their friends who also needed their roofs replaced. That list turned into more roofs, which turned into a full summer of work, which turned into something I didn't expect — a realization.

I didn't need to be ashamed of being a roofer.

From that moment on, I made myself a promise: I was going to be a good person who happened to be the best roofer in the room. And I was going to change the way customers thought about the roofing industry — one roof, one family, one honest conversation at a time.

Stacie

Along that road, my family moved from Austin to Manor. While in Manor, I went through a divorce. Later--I'll save the full story for another time--I met my fabulous wife, Stacie.

Why HVAC

Here's where most people would expect a long, complicated answer. Mine isn't.

We're members of a group called CertainPath — a national organization that coaches home services companies across roofing, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. Over the years, working alongside other owners in those trades, Stacie and I started to notice something.

There's an old saying in roofing about the lifecycle of a roof: Repair, repair, repair, replace. You patch a leak. You patch another one. Eventually, the homeowner accepts that it's time for a new roof. The job of a great roofing company is to be honest about where a roof is in that cycle — to repair when repair makes sense, and to recommend replacement when it genuinely doesn't.

HVAC, it turns out, runs on the exact same philosophy. Repair, repair, repair, replace. The systems are different. The skills are different. But the relationship between the homeowner and the contractor — the trust, the honesty about when to fix and when to replace, the long-term relationship that follows — that's identical.

Once we saw that, the decision was easy. Stacie and I would start an HVAC company built on the same philosophy that had built KangaRoof: we would run the best residential AC company in Round Rock, and we would earn trust and loyalty one customer at a time.

Where We Are Now

That's how Koala Cooling & Plumbing was born.

Today, we're headquartered in Round Rock at 1102 S Industrial Blvd, serving homeowners across Round Rock, Austin, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Hutto, Leander, Pflugerville, and Taylor. We've added plumbing to the business because so many of our customers asked us to — same philosophy, same standards, same promise.

The kid who borrowed a truck and a ladder in 1993 didn't know any of this was coming. The engineer who was embarrassed to be a roofer didn't either. But the guy who cried on the phone to his parents in 2009 — he made a promise that's still running this company today.

Be a good person who happens to be the best in the room. One customer, one family, one honest conversation at a time.

That's how we started. That's how we still operate. And that's the standard every Koala team member is held to, every day. That standard comes with our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee - a written, practiced promise that comes with every job we do.