The Power of Groundbreaking Pre-Construction Software with Steve Dell'Orto (ConCntric) | EP65

 So looks like we're going to buildex. That's gonna be a thing. It 

is. I know it's been a couple years, um, but we're getting back. My mic is like falling down on me here. That's, I know what's going on. Anyway, the, 

um, you know, chatting with, uh, informa, you know, they, um, that's pretty cool that they, you know, they sort of went back in their archives obviously, and were like, yeah, a site visit, you know, draw a lot of attention and it creates a lot of, um, Content for them to be able to put all over the 

place, which is great.

Totally. And a chance for their exhibitors to have a bit of a platform. And for obviously us doing what we're doing. Right now we're talking about Buildex, so Buildex in Vancouver, uh, February 15th and 16th. It's a Wednesday and a Thursday. The Vancouver Convention Center. Yeah, we'll be there. We got a triple wide booth and we'll have our whole rig totally set up and um, we will be doing, I.

Live, obviously, and you'll be able to hear them. Cause we're gonna set it up that way. Yeah, it's gonna be cool. Yeah, it will be really cool. And we will have some predefined guests that Bill Lexton and former want us to have. And also we're gonna need to schedule some, uh, some other ones. So, I mean, yeah, if anyone out there is gonna be there, drop us a, drop us a note on a DM on Instagram, uh, let us know.

Uh, we'd love to have some conversations with some of our audience. Really would be actually fun to, uh, get some real time. . Yeah. Do we, I hear it. Like it's, it's interesting, like I was dropping off, um, a mic for a feature podcast that we're doing. Yeah. And they had a bunch of their crew out front front and they saw the truck.

Yeah. They're like, oh, we love the podcast. I didn't even see anything yet. I hadn't shown them anything. It's crazy. Yeah, I know. It was really cool. So nice to see that. Um, field teams. Office teams, everyone. Yeah. They're listening to the site visit. They're enjoying it. And, uh, keep letting us know how we're doing and what kind of content you wanna be.

Yeah, totally. 

So for all of the, you, um, Vancouver slash British Columbia people Yeah. We have guests at the site. visit.com is the email if you are gonna be at Buildex and you have a story to tell and you'd like us to help drag it outta you, and, uh, we publish that. Um, it's a good platform to, to know about you, your company, et cetera.

So totally drop us an email or as Christian said on our Instagram, which. At the site visit. At the site visit. Pretty straightforward. And yeah, DM us with, uh, love to be a guest. Totally. Uh, build X and, uh, yeah, we will go from there. And, um, yeah, we're, we're pretty stoked about this. And so today we have an awesome interview.

Yeah, we 

do. We do. We, um, with this whole, uh, incredible thing called remote video, is that the internet? Oh yeah. The, the, yeah, the, I heard. That's good. I know, I know. Um, we, we obviously have been doing a lot of in-house audio stuff, um, and incorporating video now. So we're bringing in guest room all over the place today.

We have Steve Delto from Concentric. It's a pre-construction software. He's the founder and c e o. He also spent like over 25 years at Clark Construction, running the whole show and, um, uh, running some big teams there and some incredible projects. And also is a venture partner at Builders vc where he mentors.

Eight different construction tech startups. Yeah. The guy's cool. The guy's crazy. He's got some awesome experience. Kind of felt like, uh, there 

was a sort of, uh, Michael Jordan ish Yeah. Feeling. I was like, we're talking to him, going Okay. He's been, he's been to lots of, uh, yeah. Lots of games. And, uh,  had lots of trophies, so Yeah.

Totally super experienced, dude. I mean, wow. That was a, that was a pleasure to talk to him. 

So here he is, Steve Delto from Concentric Pre-Construction Software. 

Welcome to the site visit podcast leadership and perspective from construction with your host. James Faulkner and Christian Ham 

business, as usual as it has been for so long.

Now that it goes back to what we were talking about before and hitting the reset button. Yeah. You read all the books, you read the emails, you read Scaling Up, you read Good to Great. You know, I could go on to a place where we, 

we found the, the secret storm, we found secret. We can get the workers in, we know where to get once 

time was on the job site quite a while and actually we had a extra concrete and I poured like a broom finished patio of.

A guy just hit me up on LinkedIn outta the blue and said he was driving from Oklahoma to Dallas to meet with me because he heard the favorite Connect platform on your guys' podcast. Own it. Crush It and love it. And love it. You celebrate these values every single day. Why from Excite Studio. Let's get down to it.

All right, well, we are back and it is, uh, pouring rain in Vancouver and we are joined by Steve DeSoto from Concentric. It's a pre-construction software. He's the founder and c e o. He also has an extensive background in general contracting with Clark Construction and is a venture partner at Builders vc.

Steve, thanks for joining us today. How you doing? 

Hey, appreciate you guys having me. I'm, that's, uh, something I've been looking forward to. 

That's fantastic. That's nice to 

hear. Is that, that is nice to hear. Yeah. Looking forward to it. I don't get that ever in my life. Now it's like, oh no, here's James again.

That's all 

I get. , is it, uh, is it, you can see outside. This is a real picture behind us, not a real picture. It's a real setting. Is it a little nicer down where you are? You're in California finally. We had 

that weather for about three weeks straight. That's right. Right around the holidays and into January.

We're fortunate to get the rain, but having all of that in three weeks nonstop was a little much. So, yeah, it's good to see the. 

You can get that in, uh, in 15 minutes down there. That's the only thing that I can change pretty quick. Pretty, the fog and fog can roll in. It can get pretty, uh, that's all right.

Yeah. 

Nice. That's right. Cool. Okay. Well, why don't you, Steve, give us a colds note a little bit about, um, your background in construction, maybe how you kind of got started and, uh, where things culminated. And then of course we'll get into the story of concentric and how that idea was birthed, but just a little bit.

Yeah, I appreciate that. Uh, yeah, I, uh, uh, was with, uh, a major general contractor, Clark Construction for 26 years, both on the East Coast, but, uh, most of my career spent on the West Coast. Uh, it was great. Uh, built a lot of very exciting projects, uh, you know, built up the organization. Ultimately from a few hundred million a year to, uh, over 2 billion a year on a sustained basis.

So, you know, it's a big part of an incredible growth story. Um, no one person does it by themselves is obviously a huge team effort. But, you know, having, um, grown and scaled, uh, op and operation that large a few times over, uh, was quite. But I also saw, um, the things in the industry that were just, uh, a huge challenge for, uh, not only the builder, but also the designers, the, uh, trade partners, and also the owner, developer, public owners, private owners, you know, everybody.

And projects in the couple hundred thousand dollars, uh, in contract value all the way up. Um, a handful of the billion dollar plus projects that I led, and, you know, the, the issues, the challenges are all quite similar across the board and there was really no solution on the horizon that I could see at that point in time and, uh, decided I needed to do something about.

And so I made a change and I left the general contracting world to the software development technology world and, uh, haven't looked, haven't looked back. So it's been, uh, . That's good. An incredible adventure. 

It's, it's always interesting. I mean, when you spend that much time somewhere, obviously you're gonna garner a, a crazy amount of experience in a va variety of different roles and working with many different stakeholders.

Was software like always something that was kind of in the back of your mind? Did you build all sorts of crazy things yourself as you were journeying through Clark Construction? Or did it just kind of click one day and you're like, man, we could really solve this? Obviously you have that, uh, interest in the software.

As of late. Yeah, 

I, I would, I would take the word software out of that and just think about more, like a more systematic approach. Um, no, there was nothing that I was building or hacking on my own  from a software perspective, but I have, uh, literally three sketchbooks full of what would otherwise be single line diagrams and flow charts.

Hey, this, this entirety of pre-construction, which is kind of a passion area for me. If I could do it the way I think it could be done, what would that look like? And um, that was a culmination over time. You know, a lot of it lessons learned, you know, there's, you know, good experiences and bad experiences that shape the ideas that you, you know, otherwise, um, put into.

and, uh, you know, was fortunate to be in, involved in some incredible projects up and down the West Coast Museums in LA Salesforce Tower. Tallest building west of Chicago. Yeah, the Golden State, golden State Warriors Arena and Uber headquarters, which, you know, right in the middle of, at the outset actually of the Warrior's Dynasty here.

Um, you know, all very exciting stuff. , there's a lot of work that goes into just the planning and design and development of those projects, big and small. And I don't think a lot of people know or can appreciate how much work it takes to set the table for projects, you know, the big ones and the small ones.

And so, uh, for me, just the system, a more systematic approach to pulling together what is the all-encompassing. Array of workflows Sure. And ecosystems of workflows that are involved in pre-construction. You know, I just saw an opportunity and ultimately just in, as just a matter of practice, the way I was going about having those projects set up.

You know, not just me, but through a team, yielded some incredible results while I was still, you know, in the general contracting space, you know, we increased our margin.  on projects pretty dramatically, upwards of 44%. So I know that there's, you know, an impact and value to doing more than just kind of estimate a job.

Mm-hmm.  and toss it over the transom. But where you can actually truly collaborate, be an embedded part of a team with, um, with the design team, with the. And really, uh, uh, touch every facet of how to set the table, whether it's planning the schedule, how are you gonna go to market with the subcontracting community and, and bid that workout or engage with them, excuse me.

But how to manage the design. We did a tremendous amount of design build work. So you had to do that, and you had to do it well. Mm-hmm.  because that was, you know, your bottom line and ultimately, Your reputation. So, you know, just having 26 years of, of, you know, touching projects in that capacity and then now being able to take all of that knowledge and experience and really build it into software.

Um, again, I'm not doing any of the, uh, uh, the software work. I have an incredibly talented team that's helping me with that, but Nice. Um, you know, that's, that's what the industry needs. Now we can talk more about that. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm thrilled to be kind of helping lead, uh, the focus and the effort in the pre-construction space.

So, um, the, the time that it took you from sketchbook to, uh, now I need to find a team, did you use some of your networks you had at Builders VC to sort of find engineering team? Um, and having a reliability around those developers to be able to make sure they weren't gonna bolt after like, you know, you got an M V P going and, you know, all the intelligence didn't walk out the door.

Oh no. I mean, definitely, you know, the network is everything, so you'd be amazed, you know, not just me, but anybody, you know, if you're surrounded by, you know, good people and friends and a. And a good business network. Um, and you can lean on that network. You can, you know, you can find the resources you need to do most anything.

Um, you know, I was fortunate to be asked to join as a venture partner with, uh, builders right as I embarked on this journey. So they've been an incredible, um, guide and coach in those early stages. But, you know, our team has been built just through, just, yeah, my network, um, was introduced to some.  great people and they had, uh, people within their network to help assemble, uh, my team.

But, um, you know, besides builders, I was also invited as a venture partner to join Orotic Ventures as well. So, you know that network is both, uh, you can lean on it and draw from it, but you also. , like any relationship, also need to make sure you're giving more than you're taking of course. So, you know, in addition to helping those two funds, I also have eight, um, emerging startup, uh, tech solu, uh, startups, uh, in the construction space that I'm an advisor.

I'm on their advisory board, right? Um, because I believe in what we need to do to change the industry and while I'm doing my thing, , there's a lot of great people out there doing some amazing things in other areas to help the industry and you know, I like to pay it forward and, and, and be helping them as well.

So it's, it's a nice tight ecosystem of, of people trying to do some amazing things. So 

what has this span been in terms of timeline from the sketchbook to today, how many years or months? From development 

to, um, it's kind of hard to put a finger on it, but, you know, concentric and what we, what we're building, uh, and everything that we're doing.

We raised a, uh, a really healthy seed round of, uh, and it was over subscribed of, uh, roughly 3.6 million. And, uh, we close that in March 31st, 2020. . So what concentric is today and, and what our customers are using has been built in a relatively short period of time. Uh, you know, leading up to that, there was a lot of, you know, research and prototyping that I was doing.

Mm-hmm.  just to really validate my ideas and collect the ideas and opinions of others. And the great thing was, is there was a lot of. Virtually, uh, 100, 100% alignment. There wasn't anything where, you know, we were going left and the industry really wanted something more going. Right? Yeah. Um, so that, all that research and prototyping and all the conversations validating the pain points, not just from, you know, one specific workflow or one specific entity like the builder.

It was the architects, it's the owners, the builder.  and all of the pain points that, um, they're experiencing. And you know, the whole focus has always been pre-construction. There's a lot of great platforms that I've, um, over the years developed to provide solutions in the construction phase. Yep. There's.

you know, things that have been around for a while. Software to serve the estimating effort, you know, the calculator, if you will. Mm-hmm. , but the lion's share of the broader spectrum of pre-construction is vastly underserved and is primarily just a collection of ad hoc spreadsheets. Right. And you know, there, 

there's an immense there, how it goes, right?

Yeah. There's an immense amount of data and the ability to visualize data and communicate data. And really automate a lot of this that you cannot do with Excel. And quite honestly, individual point solutions tackling each one of these, the myriad of, of workflows is not either the, you know, the, the ultimate solution either because then you're just kind of creating an integration problem.

Hmm. So, um, our focus has been, we will be the platform that unites all of the data, the workflows, and the people.  and we'll either organically build what needs to be built because something doesn't exist. But if something does exist, like the great, um, estimating calculators out there, then it's more a function of how do we integrate and have, you know, we're open.

So the flow of data in both ways, right? The focus at the project and the users, um, you know, we're making them better and more efficient, and we're helping them unlock the power of their data. . We don't wanna be an obstacle to that. We, we, we wanna be an enabler. So, um, that's, that's our main focus. 

Totally.

Can you highlight for our audience, our listeners, just the components of pre-construction? We can, we can get in obviously what concentric tackles, like even specifically, or high level, whatever depth you want to get into, but just the concept of pre-construction. What are the different components and the ones that, um, you really saw the need to.

I think about, you know, pre-construction as a, a timeline or a life cycle, if you will. You know, it starts with, you know, the, the, the idea. You know, somebody may have a parcel of land, they have a, they have a need or there's an opportunity. So you just go from that, that idea. Maybe it's the developer that has the idea or maybe it's a municipality, and then you go all the way.

The other end of the spectrum is, , you're in full tilt construction. You're not designing anymore, you're not budgeting anymore. All the deals are pretty much structured and done, and you're just building. Hmm. So that entirety of that people call pre-construction, but that's not just like the builders, um, focus.

It's the design and how that design evolves through its stages.  and the owner through their pro proforma, the things that they need to do from a financing standpoint, from just generally managing the direction of that asset and what it's being geared to do and how that's going to deliver to the market.

Um, so if you take all of that into that one big bundle, you can start to really see that there's a lot of pieces and parts and facets to pre-construction when you look at it in that actual definit. . Um, so Rome wasn't built in a day, and where we really started was how do we take what is existing that is, you know, nobody's doing it.

The, the process isn't bad, right? Everybody's doing a great job. Everybody. Each company has a process. Uh, processes are generally similar, but what it really isn't is, um, formalized in a lot of cases, and it certainly is not tech. , right. But what we don't want to do is we are not coming in because you know, as an insider with that expertise, I know that nothing's broken from, that's the quality of pre-construction that the individuals are putting forward.

Mm-hmm. . So there's no need to come in and say, Hey, we've got a completely new way of doing pre-construction. Right? You all have it all wrong and we have it right. And let me show you, this is really about how do we take all of that and generally digitize it and organize. . So where now it's more tech enabled because then you can really do some amazing things, you know, help them do amazing things with their data, um, but make things far more efficient so that way the human isn't having the burden of doing all of this redundant manual work.

You know, time and time again as you iterate, and you can really make them super efficient in what they need to do and free up the bandwidth. For the other things that they could and should be doing, which is really nurturing that relationship with the, the team members, right, on a given project or within their own organization, or even freeing up bandwidth for the companies to, uh, handle more work.

Um, right now, um, you know, the industry is, uh, dying for, you know, uh, Both trade at the trade level as well as professional level. And you know, I've spoken at conferences before where you know you, the facts are the facts. Population is growing in the US especially at a given rate. 25% population growth by 2040 is what's being projected by the census.

At the same time, we have the baby boomer generation retiring at a rapid rate and we as an industry, Done a sufficient job along the way of recruiting people into the industry at the rate that we are now losing them. So there's gonna be this kind of brain drain from an experience standpoint. So something's got a give because when you have population growth of that amount, which is significant now, hospitals, roads, schools, housing.

Mm-hmm. , all of that, we need more.  and we also have to replace a lot of the stuff that we currently have. So it's twofold. At the same time, you have fewer people to do it, so companies need to free up that bandwidth because they're gonna have, you know, the, the society is depending on us to be able to keep up with this stuff.

Um, so it's a big problem. And so not only are we solving the pre-construction problem from all the process and tech enablement, but freeing up that bandwidth and making people more efficient and more effective helps also solve the problem that, um, you know, I think we as an industry, . 

So in terms of the, um, you know, at Site max we always talk about the sort of, um, people say, so what is that?

And you say, well, we always talk about, we operate from shovel to keys basically. So when the shovel hits the ground, you bring on site Max is, it's a field management tool. So in terms of centric, um, yeah. With you having more efficient data and. And it's not them having Google Sheets or Excel or, or whatever traditional spreadsheet model they had, are they inputting all of these endpoints into your software to get, so this data can be analyzed.

So is it, is it a, um, is it a rerouting of, um, how they did stuff? So it's, I'm not gonna open my Google sheet or my Excel. I'm going to open concentric. 

Yes, we want, you know, when you come into work and you're going to do your job in pre-construction. And you know, the beauty about what we're doing too is it really expands the ability for people beyond the pre-construction professionals to come in and have a hand in the planning of the project.

So, you know, the folks in the, you know, the superintendent roles and the project management roles, while they. Pre-construction professionals, this is something that's so user-friendly that they can come in and participate in all of that planning. Yeah, because I think most companies are recognizing that that is a critical part of, uh, a more successful outcome.

But yes, we want the platform to be where you come in to do anything and everything related to your pre-construction work. And right now that is primarily, you know, the builder will come in and do their work. The, in the future we also see the, the design team and the owner to be able to do the same because, you know, an architect has powerful tools when it comes to design, Revit, all those, um, you know, Bentley, all those solutions.

Yeah. But, uh, when it comes to this, the general management of process, As part of the whole design evolution, there's really nothing there. So why not come into the very place that is the single source of truth that has all the data, has all of the information that you need, and everybody can kind of work in that same work environment.

So that's, that's definitely the, the vision of, of where this platform will help drive more collaboration and more ef. , uh, with that single source of truth being the foundation to it all. 

One thing that you said earlier in the conversation myself was awesome. Um, I'm gonna use it. I gotta steal it cause it's so good.

When you said like, you throw it over the transom, um, you know, like once it's, once your project's in the water, It's going and, uh, it's really cool for you to bring on, um, you know, as you said, superintendents or, um, project engineers and bring them in and say, look, before I throw this off the transom, provide your perspective.

Um, because you are going to be dealing with this in, you know, however many weeks, months, days. Um, we are going to be throwing this off the transom together. And this is the, we're, we're, all of us are chucking it. Is, is that kind of the vision as well? Yep. 

Or to be even just making it more convenient as, you know, a, uh, a platform anybody can access from anywhere such that, uh, the superintendent from their job site, if the pre-con team needs them to help analyze a schedule or review.

Exhibits relative to the trade scope that they're intending to go to the market with, you know, you name it, they now can just jump right into the platform and provide their contribution in an organized, structured way as opposed to it being so disjointed as it is today, just both physically. Hmm. As well as not really having a system in which people can kind of come in and understand what they need to do with the proper context.

So, um, yeah, we. Uh, you know, through that, uh, collaboration, we're gonna be able to unlock a lot of an, uh, efficiency. We're gonna make it more convenient for people to provide their input and contribution. You know, the same holds true for the design team. . You know, right now if you are trying to really drive a, like a target value design oriented process or if you're over budget and you're just having to go through that big ugly value engineering process, most people don't have access to the log or the the things in which people are using to track the ideas.

And so that becomes a bit of a barrier for them to contribute those ideas cuz it's not really convening if you have that idea and, oh, I gotta go through these five steps. To be able to get that, that idea on somebody's list. Now they can just go right in and make their contribution and other people can weigh in from the team on, you know, the pricing aspect of it or, or you name it.

So, you know, really being able to break down those physical barriers, the lack of technology, barriers, everything that can make this much more streamlined and um, collaborative. Totally. 

And from a pure software standpoint, this. A Greenfield, other than, I mean, in terms of what you guys are touching, it's a first of its kind and you're not really overlapping with anything.

Are you overlapping with anything on estimating at all, or is it purely this is a new thing and people see it and they go, yep. Get it? Got it. Like they're understanding it right off the bat. Everything that needs to go into it and what it can do. . Yeah. There's, 

you know, there's, there's workflows that we've talked about.

Um, we're complimentary to the estimating calculator. You're now coming into our platform through anything we've built to do that very detailed, granular estimate. You know, the bottoms up estimates that you do in reaction to getting. A new set of documents and somebody needs that priced up. So, but those calculators are giving you that value and that snapshot in time of just the cost element of the project.

So we are ingesting that information so that way, um, from at least the summary level, we're able to unlock all of the other value that that data represents and also stitch it together.  across time, so you can be monitoring and evaluating trends. What's changing and you know, a picture's worth a thousand words.

So taking all of that data that's otherwise chart form with, you know, thousands of line items and you know, numbers all over the place. You stick that in front of your client and you say, okay, this is, this is where your job is at. That's very hard for that owner, developer, or the architect to. And understand what's going on there.

And it's like dots, you know, lines not dots. Dots only tell you one thing, but the line tells you where you're going, where you've been. So, you know, just that little simple thing is, you know, hugely important because you're at the table with, uh, decision makers, with stakeholders that have a lot at stake with the success of the project.

and you need to be able to convey what is, you know, what is going on, what are, what are the things we need to be thinking about and how do we react to that? So not only are we building out and digitizing workflows that exist in ad hoc, you know, spreadsheets, but we're interfacing with those established estimating software tools that, you know, provide valuable in, uh, Uh, to the users and, you know, there are point solutions that are addressing, you know, very specific things.

Mm. Some are new, some have been around for a while. Um, but ultimately, uh, there are maybe a few areas of overlap, but the entirety of the platform is the, is the true value in horsepower that the users. 

Totally. And it's always funny, like in, in all industries, not just construction, where something doesn't exist necessarily for that niche, you know, then they gravitate towards obviously a spreadsheet, but then there's, you know, your more general project management tools or corporate project management tools or whatever.

But then as soon as you bring in something and it's like, well, nothing's ever addressed this for construction. There's a bit of this like aha. For people. And are you seeing that as you're approaching teams? It sounds like you're starting with builders. Um, and going from there. But you've seen that right away.

They're like, oh man, this is, I get to ditch a bunch of stuff. This is fantastic. Being received pretty well. 

Yeah. It's, um, that's been just so exciting is to see Yeah. That enthusiastic reaction to what we've created and they, and, and it immediately resonates because all of the dynamic functionality we've built is starting to really unlock the story that their data is telling them.

in addition to replacing those ad hoc spreadsheets and those ad hoc spreadsheets, um, you know, the beauty of Excel is it's very customizable. The downside to Excel is it's very customizable. So when you think about risk and errors and things that can occur, you're very, very vulnerable and it's very hard to try to drive some level of standardization throughout your organization.

And so with concentric, what they immediately see,  the inefficiency of their current situation with all of these spreadsheets floating all over their company. Now they have something that really brings all their people together with, you know, more or less a common language that's also very visually, uh, appealing and clean and and simple such that they know that their clients and the design team and internally now all of that data can be better underst.

And literally at a glance, people are understanding what's happening doesn't require a lot of, uh, explanation or study and it's dynamic. So the whole idea is nobody needs to roll into a meeting and present things that are static in nature. And that's, I think a lot of the challenges you get with the, call it the generic business intelligence tools.

Right. You know, you're gonna. A set set of data into it, it creates some charts. You roll into the meeting, you present the chart. People ask you three questions that aren't addressed by the chart. Now you have to go back to the drawing board and reconfigure totally, and then two weeks later. But with us, all of the data is there and the user interface is so dynamic and bespoke to our industry.

So, um, the way the architect thinks the way. Owner thinks the will, the way the builder thinks and their needs we're anticipating. And so you can just dynamically move through the data and our tools and suite of features. It's really augmenting the conversation and the dialogue you're having in real time.

So extremely flexible that way, which is, you know, really how you can bring people together. How you can really show them what's going on, maybe the decisions that are necessary, and get everybody really fully informed and comfortable with the decisions that they have to make almost instantaneously. Hmm.

And therefore, you're also saving time and all of the energy and, and people hours it takes to, to get something moving in the right direct. How 

hard was it for you right off the hop as you're throwing this all together, like when you see your marketing material, you can see exactly what you've just said.

It is quite clean. It is simple. It is visually, um, it's, it's speaking to you when you're looking at it without really having to dig too much into it. How tough was that right off the bat? You know, just to, to keep it simple and, uh, kind of have that ethos from the beginning. 

Simple is hard and yeah, that's what I say.

Simple is hard. Um, but when you think about. , you know, at least the tools that I had when I was, um, still a general contractor. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, oftentimes they're built and they're overly complicated. They're trying to do too much. Um, it's a lot of stuff, bells and whistles that maybe most people don't really even need, but people were dreaming it up and it sounded good.

So they built. . Um, so it's like the beauty of the Apple products. I mean, I remember distinctly watching my, at the time, 18 month old, just take, never held an iPad before and before you knew it, they knew how to get to certain pictures and they could navigate that thing. Zero instructions, you know, they didn't have training.

And that's what we strive to do. And, you know, all the credit goes to my team because between our design team and our development team at. , they think very hard about, uh, distilling all of these things down to the essence of what's needed, how to properly convey that information in a way that is succinct and you're not just throwing more and more stuff on a screen and cluttering it up.

So my team's done a wonderful job of taking something that could be very, very complicated cuz it is. But how do you take complicated and really boil it down so that the essence of what needs to be underst. Is conveyed and is organized in a way that it's logical and intuitive on where you go and where you need to take it.

And, um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm 100. I mean, beyond thrilled with how the platform, the look, the personality and, and how intuitive it is. And, you know, we've strived zero training, zero implementation. Um, you know, people will need help from time to time. , this is something that, you know, you can set up a project in less than five minutes and you can just kind of go to work.

And we've watched firsthand people navigate all of this without any intervention, without any aid. And, um, you know, that's what we strive for. I can't say that we've, that we're perfect and we're, we're there, we're never there. We're con continue to make it better, but I think we're off to a really good start.

Well, self onboarding, right? Little training. That's the dream when it comes to software and something that you've. They can just pick it up and they can start going right away. 

Well, I mean, our people in the industry are working so hard. I mean, they're, they're all 150% beyond their natural, you know, capacity.

And, you know, that's long hours, that's time away from family. That's just frustration and stress. We don't need to be adding to that. We need to actually be taking that back down to normal levels and we think we can do that, um, through our. . 

So in terms of the, um, as the project moves forward over its, um, you know, build lifecycle, um, where does concentric drop in?

And then let's say, you know, you have a project management tool that is doing, you know, the different walkthrough is the punch lists, uh, all of that kind of stuff. Um, does d at concentric d does the superintendent jump in there? Period. What's the, what's the how, what's the sort of, um, the different stratas of usage and, and is there a field component to or, or a mobile component to this reporting?

Well, yeah, we will be, I mean, most of the work that the pre-construction professionals are doing is, you know, really more of in a desktop setting. Um, you know, you're not, you're not manipulating big, complicated estimates on your. Um, we will be rolling out more mobile, um, focused features so that way the project executive or the c e o having a lunch meeting or you know, meeting can pull out either their phone or a tablet and at least bring people up to speed with some of the visuals that we provide.

Um, I see okay. Of what's going on, but, you know, that's, that's coming here in the near future. But what we're really trying to do, What is, I think, absolutely needed given the state of the, you know, the, the, the informal processes and, and the lack of data structuring has really attacked this from the bottoms up.

Because if we can build those workflows to where, um, it's capturing, um, all of the critical elements in pre-construction at the project level, then all of the output as it rises up and is aggregated. Is coming from a source that is trusted and isn't going to be questioned, or doesn't have to be cleaned or scrubbed because then you're just adding work and you're, you're, you're not adding to the confidence of the data.

So we ultimately are approaching it that way. Um, now in terms of the field, um, you know, there's, uh, you know, when you're in the middle of the construction project, presumably pre-construction is generally. For sure. So we're not looking to move into the, the project management space. Yeah. Um, but Gotcha.

Okay. What, but, you know, as that kind of single source of truth at the genesis of how you set up a project successfully, we are in partnership with several, um, companies that, you know, the, the, the data that comes out, you know, think about change orders and the things that would otherwise be critical information to.

From, yeah. Start of construction to when construction's completed and understand what the differences were from the plan to what actually happened. Mm-hmm. , and be able to cycle that back through so you're better and smarter for the next one you do of a similar type project. We are also working to, you know, cycle that information back into concentric so that the, the folks in Precon can be guided and informed.

Maybe what we didn't get right in the planning here, or maybe there was something that has nothing to do with the way the job was planned and it just happened to be an execution issue. All that's valuable information, most of which we think we can do, uh, and utilize, um, to help guide everybody on the front end on how to do it better the next time and the next time after that.

And you can just think about how that flywheel works in your favor to just make you much, much, much more accurate. , um, and with a lot more predictability, which is, you know, really a big driver to our vision, which is to ultimately make the built world, you know, more affordable, more predictable, and more sustainable.

And so you've gotta be able to close that loop at all stages of the project, including the long-term operations and maintenance of a, of an asset.  to be able to also bring that forward, to plan the next job better and maybe a more sustainable, energy efficient way, 

as 

an example, right? Yeah. That's the panacea.

That, that, that would be awesome. Yeah. That's cool. 

Yeah. So you, you are obviously really excited you've got this thing off the ground. Um, but in, in terms of construction, construction, technology, the. What are you, what are you really excited about in the next couple years? Where does the big opportunity lie?

Obviously with concentric, but just things that you're seeing and, and, um, yeah, just trends in, in the general state of the industry. 

Well, I think if you see a lot of these reports and everything, everybody's points to construction as like very antiquated and resistant to adoption and, and, and all of that.

Uh, I have a slightly different perspective. Um, I. There hasn't been much available for the industry to really instantly recognize value and get excited about. And I think maybe 15, 20 years ago, adoption of technology was, um, not something that was, uh, you know, as convenient or instant, right. But I think now the rate of adoption, open-mindedness, willing to.

uh, I think the industry is getting a lot closer to that than people give it credit for. I think you have, you know, younger generations where they have grown up with, you know, the, the, the, the iPhone, if you will. Yeah. Um, they expect something more than Excel, and I think for companies being much more tech forward and figuring this stuff out and not just saying No, or I'll, I'll, I'll use it after it's.

Tried and true for 15 years, uh, that's not gonna cut it. And I think people are waking up to that fact that it's as much a recruitment and retainment tool Totally. As the talent that they have. Yeah. That the younger generation's insisting on. Um, but I also think that there's been a lot of technology, you know, maybe it's because it's been developed by, you know, outsiders that just didn't understand the nuance of the business and you know, so they've delivered something that people don't.

And therefore they're not willing to adopt it. So I think if people build, um, real solutions that are efficient and effective and provide that sort of immediate impact, then I think the industry readily adopts it. And I think they're gonna be very quick to not adopt something that is doing the opposite.

So, um, I think the industry. My industry, you know, construction I think deserves a little bit more credit than it's given. Totally. Yeah. In terms of, um, that, that adoption, um, dynamic and I think it's incumbent upon technology to actually truly understand the business and use cases and what people really need and to build good quality solutions because then, you know, then we're meeting each other halfway and I think we have a very special advantage in.

You know, we've, we've got tremendous experience in both, both realms and we're bringing all of that together. And, and, uh, I know that that's, you know, that's, it has already been very well received. 

Totally. And I think that's really well said. I mean, we talk about on almost every episode, the a attracting people to this industry.

and, and you made a great point at the beginning. It's not just labor in the field, it's not just professionals in the field, it's con professionals throughout the construction process, right? So of course, those that are sitting at, um, you know, at a desktop experience and they're, they're doing some really critical things up front or at the back end of a construction project, creating tools that are not as antiquated, but that look almost like the tools they're using when they're at home.

Why should there be such a massive gap, right? That's. So I think that's a really good point. I think that's a, it's, it's a good one to make about giving the industry just a little more credit. Cause I think yeah, definitely well deserved. Yep. But I was just rapid fire. Yeah. Rapid fire around Steve. We always, we always end, we love getting to know our guests just a little bit more and we love putting them on the spot just a little bit.

you may have seen these before, you may not, but we love ending with just three question. And if you can humor us, give us some great responses. 

Okay. I'll sound good to you? Sure. . Let's 

see what these questions are. . All right. Okay, well, we'll keep it, keep it pretty straightforward. Um, Steve, what is something that you do that someone else might think is insane?

Okay. Um, You know, I'm not exactly bungee jumping off of bridges or anything like that. Um, I think, uh, I've always built stuff and I can't stand to have other people build things that I know that I can build. So, , you know, weekends and whatnot, I think my neighbors and friends look at me and think I'm insane because, you know, I will basically build, I've, I've dug my own footings, poured the concrete frame, love it.

I mean, they just look at me like. Why don't you pay somebody to just do that , but I know how to do it. It's therapeutic for me. Totally. So it's not like I live this wild, crazy life. So from an insane thing, I think that's probably, at least in my, in my neighborhood, in my network of friends, they think I'm a bit insane for just taking on these projects and you know, wearing the grimy boots.

You know, ripped up t-shirt with a wheelbarrow full of, you know, moving. There you go. 10 tons of dirt . So, um, a true builder. 

Oh, that's great. That, that's Fanta that's, that is, uh, we don't think you're insane, but I could see how other people might Yeah, we're down. Yeah, we're down with that. Um, Steve, if you weren't doing what you're doing right now, okay.

Launching a, a software business mentoring all these other businesses, which is fantastic, what would you.

Hmm. 

I don't know if there's anything at this point in time that I'd rather be doing, quite honestly. I mean, I don't mean that to be a bit of a, you know, a cop out type answer, but, you know, I have built extraordinary buildings and teams that have actually built those buildings and, you know, uh, and that was definitely, uh, fun.

Um, but to. Be able to take all of that knowledge and experience. Hmm. And not many people have the opportunity to take all of that and now build something that is going to hopefully leave an indelible mark on, uh, in a positive way on an industry and just the lives of people. I think, um, I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing.

There's nothing else that I'd rather be doing than building. Concentric as a company and as a platform with the group of people that I have, um, and the customers that have been, um, that we've surrounded ourselves with. Uh, yeah, that's the honest answer. You know, that's, that's a 20 years from now, maybe I have a different answer, but right now I am doing exactly what I'm doing, doing and, um, I love it and I've got full conviction at this early stage that we are really building something special here.

And that's, and that's what I'm here for, and that's my mission. 

Nice. That's fantastic. That's a great response. I mean, it really does seem like a culmination of everything to date that you are getting that done right now, and that is awesome. You have talked a little bit about past projects. You've said that there's some pretty incredible ones you worked on.

Do you have a most memorable story from a past project or we're called a site visit from the job site? 

Oh, Well, I got a few of those, but may not, may, they may not be pro appropriate. That's usually how it goes. Podcast . But, um, let's see. Memorable story, because there's a few of them. I would say there's a, I would, okay.

There's a memorable feeling and what I mean by that is, yeah. Uh, you know, when you're younger in your career, in construction, you get, you walk the job, you're super excited about all the yellow iron and the cranes and the steel and the concrete flying. And those, you know, you feel that feels pretty awesome.

And then you get later in your career, and you're not building buildings, but you're building teams and teams of people. And, you know, I drew my most, you know, a lot of my energy from, uh, the pride and just the, the, the way you can bring a group of people together and, um, the chemistry and the camaraderie.

I think camaraderie would be the, the key term here. And when you do it,  and you see that clicking, there's nothing better. And so that memorable feeling has always been, I knew if I could get there with any of the teams that I built, then that that project was gonna be a, a smashing success. And then sometimes you could visit projects or other companies or whatever, and you just don't get that feeling from that team.

And you just generally know you're not gonna achieve that same level of success.  and I was just thinking about this, uh, really probably about a week or two ago, you know, right around the holidays actually, just reflecting on things and that team feeling, that camaraderie of, all right, I got the A plus team, great people, brilliant in their own ways, just, uh, you know, team focused and all of that, that level of camaraderie.

I've got that exact same feeling, uh, with the team that I have right now and, uh, what we're building at Concentric, which for me is just exciting. It's very reassuring because I know literally to the project when I've had teams that have hit that level, those teams have been, uh, those projects have been smashing successes.

And so, um, you know, I have an incredible team at Concentric that we've built and continue to build and. I cherish each and every one of them as individuals, but as a team man, they are fantastic. So, um, you know, everything that has been built to date and the trajectory that we're on is all because of that team.

And, uh, I'm excited to see what we are all going to accomplish together. Wow, 

that is a fantastic end cap on our conversation. And I think you gotta take this and you, and you gotta make sure that your team listens to this, cuz I mean, I'm sure you share it. You seem like the kind of guy that would definitely let your team know.

But that's really well said. And uh, it does sound like, yeah, you really have a fantastic team behind what you're building at Concentric. So we commend you for that and, um, we look forward to seeing the success of concentric, uh, in the coming days, weeks, and months. And, uh, We thank you. Thank you for your time with us today.

Well, thanks Steve. 

Steve, if there's anything along appreciate along the way that you want, uh, you know, us, uh, at Site Max, obviously we're at a massive customer base. Anything that you are in the Oh yeah. In the midst of, you know, reach out to us. I mean, uh, we got a lot of, a lot of renegade, uh, companies that, uh, have really pushed the limit and gone with us, so there you go.

Awesome. Yeah, would love, would love to spread the word. 

Hundred percent on that and we'll 

do the same. Awesome. That's awesome. Awesome. All right, Steve. Well, we look forward to doing this again, and we look forward to staying in touch. But thank you again, Steve and uh yeah. Take care. 

Appreciate it. Thanks guys.

Well 

that does it for another episode of the Site visit. Thank you for listening. Be sure to stay connected with us by following our social accounts on Instagram and YouTube. You can also sign up for a monthly newsletter@sitemaxsystems.com slash the site visit, where you'll get industry insights, pro-tip, and everything you need to know.

The site visit podcast and site Max, the job site and construction management tool of choice for thousands of contractors in North America and beyond. Site Max is also the engine that powers this podcast. All right, let's get back to building.