Fort Worth-based Optimized Waste Removal ranked No. 186 on the 2026 Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies. Founded in June 2020, the apartment doorstep trash-hauling company now employs more than 120 people, up from eight in 2022.
The company's origin story was profiled by the Fort Worth Report in its Made in Tarrant series. Founder and CEO Micah Stateson said he saw a trash pickup service at his apartment complex and believed he could improve it. He estimated that he made more than 1,000 cold calls over more than a year before signing his first apartment community. “I knew it was a good idea and I knew I could do it better,” he told the outlet.
That early grind shaped how the company operates today. Optimized Waste Removal guarantees that service personnel will arrive on-site within three hours of a complaint, and crews leave a handwritten apology note on a resident's door whenever a pickup is missed or a discrepancy occurs, according to Real Estate Business Review.
Scaling a doorstep-service operation
The company initially worked out of cramped storage units before moving its home base to WareSpace flexible industrial facilities. A report cited by WareSpace said the move helped Optimized Waste Removal grow from eight to 81 employees and increase revenue more than 1,100% within three years.
Stateson's academic background plays into the logistics-heavy business. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Supply Chain Management with an economics minor, plus a master's degree in Industrial Distribution, from Texas A&M University, graduating in 2017, according to the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas. Before founding the waste company, he had worked at Lockheed Martin and started a marketing firm called Voltus Digital. He's since also founded Apartment Bulk, an affiliated company handling bulk trash removal, last-minute property cleanouts and dumpster overflow management across Texas apartment complexes, per the Rutledge Cancer Foundation.
Business recognition and customer strategy
Optimized Waste Removal also ranked No. 7 on Texas A&M's 2026 Aggie 100 list, which recognizes the fastest-growing Aggie-owned or Aggie-led businesses worldwide. The McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship reported a growth rate of 183.08%. The Inc. 5000 measures multi-year revenue performance; the company's No. 186 placement put it among the top private companies in North Texas, according to the Dallas Business Journal.
What the rankings and housing data show
The Inc. 5000 ranking reflects multi-year revenue performance, not profitability. According to Inc., the median revenue growth rate for 2026 honorees was 130% from 2022 to 2025. That list-wide figure provides context for the measure but does not specify Optimized Waste Removal's own growth rate. For regional housing context, CultureMap, summarizing RentCafe's analysis, reported 28,958 new apartments expected in DFW in 2025, 22.4% fewer completions than in 2024. That comparison is a snapshot of construction, not a full account of apartment-supply changes since 2020, and it does not establish demand for valet trash.
Stateson, who sits on the Fort Worth Apartment Association board, told the Fort Worth Report that the company's pitch to property managers centers on communication and accountability: acknowledging mistakes and correcting them quickly. He said referrals remain its main source of growth and that it has retained the vast majority of the clients it had in 2022.
How the service fits the apartment business model
The business model behind valet trash explains why it has become a popular amenity nationwide. Valet trash operators typically charge property managers $8 to $15 per door per month under multi-year contracts, while apartment complexes in turn charge tenants $25 to $35 per month, creating a net operating income spread for property owners, according to BizBite. Most of Optimized Waste Removal's revenue still comes from standard valet trash service, though the company has added junk removal and other waste solutions at customers' request, Stateson said.
Local regulation shapes how the service can run. Under recommended amendments to Section 304.1 of the 2024 International Fire Code adopted by North Central Texas municipalities, doorstep valet trash collection is permitted only with specific approval from local fire code officials, a rule meant to keep waste containers from blocking hallway egress, per the North Central Texas Council of Governments. In Fort Worth specifically, commercial and multifamily properties with eight or more units must maintain a formal recycling plan, which requires doorstep vendors like Optimized Waste Removal to offer complementary recycling options, according to National Doorstep Pickup.
Growth targets and geographic expansion
Optimized Waste Removal now operates throughout Texas, including Houston, Austin and San Antonio, after originally launching in North Texas. The company has surpassed its earlier goal of 30,000 serviced units and is now targeting 100,000, Stateson said. He added that the company is bootstrapped, carrying no outside capital or investors, and that it deliberately delayed out-of-state expansion to make sure service quality held up before growing further.
That expansion is now underway. Stateson said Optimized Waste Removal is launching service in Arizona soon and is in talks about moving into a couple of other states as well, though he noted it can take a couple of years from an initial meeting with a property manager to actually starting business with a client. The company relies on a mix of referrals and outbound calls to keep landing new accounts, the same approach that got Stateson through those first 1,000-plus cold calls back when he was building the business from scratch.
