Billd with Christopher Doyle | E155

Vendor financing for construction contractors.

In this 155th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Christopher Doyle, the CEO of Billd, a vendor–financing company that allows contractors to purchase materials via credit so they can take on bigger projects!

Episode Highlights:

  • 0:32 – Christopher Doyle introduces Billd and its role in the construction industry.

  • 1:17 – How did Billd get started and what motivated it?

  • 3:47 – What were the challenges of trying to make this platform work with being able to profile the clients accurately?

  • 6:27 – Why is commercial construction way worse than individual contractors?

  • 9:00 – Jason and Christopher discuss the risks involved in this business.

  • 10:55 – What does the process look like for contractors looking to work with Billd?

  • 13:06 – Where is the money coming from when it’s time to get paid back?

  • 14:23 – What kind of feedback is Billd getting from its clients?

  • 15:44 – Christopher discusses what has surprised him the most.

  • 18:15 – Jason and Christopher discuss the innovative tech that is being deployed in the construction industry.

  • 19:48 – What change would Christopher make in his business right now?

  • 22:00 – Christopher dives into the biggest growth problems that Billd has faced.

  • 24:11 – What excites Christopher the most about what he is working on?

3 Key Points

  1. By providing a system of material credits, Billd allows contractors to pay for their materials upfront, allowing them to take on projects that would otherwise be too large to bid on.

  2. Most of the time, when Billd has to get involved for payment, it’s because they haven’t been paid for the work. In this case, Billd gets to act as the bad guy for the contractor.

  3. Even with a slow adoption curve, more and more innovative technology is being used in the construction industry, such as robot learning and 360-degree job site digital views.

Tweetable Quotes:

  • “In construction, contractors rely so much on those upfront payments and often times it’s a limiter to growth and starting the business altogether.” – Christopher Doyle

  • “What we’re really talking about here is the reduction of burden for working capital within a business.” – Jason Pereira

  • “If we’re going to burden someone in that process, it’s the supplier...We try to keep our contractor doing what they do best.” – Christopher Doyle

  • “When you have a small group of people working tightly to build something from scratch, those little things actually will annoy the heck out of you.” – Jason Pereira

Resources Mentioned:

Fintech ImpactJason PereiraFintech