The Builder Who Killed His SaaS Stack and Built His Own (ft. Steve Young)

How Two Builders Rebuilt Their Entire Tech Stack Around AI (ft. McDevCo)

A drafter wanted a few thousand dollars and five weeks for a permit set. Ian McCormick did it in an hour with Claude. The permit was issued the next day. That is one piece of a much bigger overhaul. Ian and Sarah McCormick run McDevCo, a two-person custom home company building $5 million homes in Telluride. Ian put $600MM of commercial work in place before this. In this episode they walk through ripping out their entire tech stack and rebuilding it around AI: BuilderTrend to Resio, Proton Mail to Google Workspace, Zoom gone, Claude running everything from IT migrations to permit drawings to coordinating five trades on a modular build. If you have ever felt like you are not a "tech person," so do they. That is exactly what makes this one worth your time. What you'll hear: * Why they ripped out the whole stack at once instead of one piece at a time * Switching from BuilderTrend to Resio, and what they were really optimizing for * The $3K, five-week permit done in one hour with Claude Design * The festival blog SEO play that targets out-of-area buyers * Hiring their first Super Manager, cradle to grave McDevCo: https://www.mcdevcobuilds.com [https://www.mcdevcobuilds.com]Hiring a Super Manager: thecrew@mcdevcobuilds.com [thecrew@mcdevcobuilds.com]More from Beyond the Bid: beyondthebid.co

How To Stack 4 Construction Businesses Without VC

Join Data X Friday Office Hours (free, every Friday 11am ET). Bring your toughest JobTread automation problem and Elliott, Peter, and Dominic will workshop it with you live: https://dax.toTwo builders just walked through the actual playbook that took them from $0 capital to 4 businesses each. No VC, no partners, no permission. Elliott Wittstruck and Peter Ranney of Data X are the counter-evidence most $3M builders think doesn't exist.Elliott went from a $3,000-a-month music teacher salary to 10 self-financed rental properties to 14 W-2 carpenters in 36 months. Peter went from a Clemson accounting degree to a 14-year design-build firm with 210+ home renovations through his nonprofit Sunshine on a Rainy Day. Together they built Data X, the AI platform that has 900 autonomous agents running for builders on JobTread in under 6 weeks.In this conversation they break down the adjacent stacking framework, the Gary Vaynerchuk-style giveaway play that built their following inside the JobTread Pros Facebook group, the specific AI agents saving builders 2+ hours a day on job costing, and why most builders use just 12% of the construction software they pay for. If you're stuck running every estimate, approving every change order, and watching margins fade while overhead climbs, this is the framework you've been told doesn't exist.This is the conversation that ends the "I need outside money to scale" excuse.OTHER ELLIOTT WITTSTRUCK AND PETER RANNEY RESOURCES 🔗- Try Data X free for 14 days: https://dax.to- Join Data X Friday Office Hours (free, weekly): https://datax.to- Elliott Wittstruck on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliottwittstruck/- Peter Ranney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterranney/- Sunshine on a Rainy Day (Peter's nonprofit): https://sunshineonaranneyday.com/- Built With Love (Elliott's construction company): https://www.builtwithlovellc.com/- Randy Blair Wideman Design Build: https://www.ranneyblair.com/🎯 Get in Touch with Beyond the Bid- Instagram: @beyondthebid- LinkedIn: Beyond the Bid- Website: https://beyondthebid.co- Email: grant@gofirstconsulting.com🚀 Powered by- GO First Consulting: https://www.gofirstconsulting.com- JobTread: https://www.jobtread.com⚠️ Not financial, legal, or business advice. The systems discussed in this episode reflect the experience of the operators interviewed. Your results will depend on your business, your market, and your execution.📌 ENJOYED THIS EPISODE? Three quick ways to support the show:👍 LIKE this video so more builders find it💬 COMMENT below: which of Elliott's 4 businesses would you stack first?🔔 SUBSCRIBE to Beyond the Bid (your competitors already are)📲 SHARE this with one builder who needs to hear it© 2026 GO First Consulting. All rights reserved.

Scaling AI for Smarter Contracting | (ft. Edward Rivera of Ion Electrical)

Most trade contractors lose money two ways and never see either one. The daily leak: every clocked-in labor hour sits in timesheets and never feeds back into the next bid. So we keep estimating on a gut feeling and missing by 12 to 30 percent per job. The permanent leak: the 30-year veteran retires. Decades of margin-protecting knowledge walks out with him. No system. No backup. Edward Rivera owns Ion Electrical in New Hampshire. He plugged both leaks with one system. Four years of his own historical labor hours, layered under 30,000+ NECA labor units, with Claude flagging every estimate against the truth. Same digital twin is capturing his 46-year energy efficiency expert before that knowledge walks out the door. In this episode we cover: 00:00 Introduction 00:41 Building Ion Electrical 03:29 Digital Twins in Construction 08:06 AI-Driven Business Strategy 16:54 Scaling Operational Efficiency 24:11 Collaborative Brainstorming 32:59 The Human Element 42:34 Conclusion and Contact Featured quote:"I run it through my digital twin because it's watching my back constantly." — Edward Rivera —RESOURCES — Edward Rivera and Ion Electrical: ionelectricalllc.com Edward on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwordrivera/ The Unscaled Engine Scorecard: unscalable.zite.so GO First AI Diagnostic: www.gofirstconsulting.com — ABOUT BEYOND THE BID — Beyond the Bid is the show for residential builders and trade contractors who scaled past their personal capacity. We bring on real operators who've installed systems, automated chaos, and bought back their time. Hosted by Grant Fuellenbach, founder of GO First Consulting. Subscribe for new episodes every week. #AIforContractors #ConstructionAI #ElectricalContractor #TradeBusiness #JobTread

What Surviving 100 Years in Construction Actually Takes (ft. Christene Marie)

Get 21 Days of Free Vertical Alignments from Christene Marie (the morning practice she runs with Toyota execs and trades operators): https://verticalalignment.com Most construction brands die with the founder. Christene Marie's family business just hit 100 years — and she brands Toyota and Amazon on the side. In this episode, the 4th-generation Partner at Hoffman Painting & Finishing breaks down the brand and legacy systems she installs before any tool, campaign, or growth play touches the business. She walked into her family's 90-year-old painting company in 2017 — no website, no online presence, nothing — and rebuilt the brand from the ground up. What she names as the real reason most construction brands die with their founder isn't marketing. It's not advertising. It's something almost no $5M builder will admit they're missing — and she breaks it down using the same framework she runs with Fortune 50 healthcare and Toyota. If your name's on every contract and you've never asked what happens when you stop showing up — start here. OTHER CHRISTENE MARIE RESOURCES 🔗 - Get 21 Days of Free Vertical Alignments: https://verticalalignment.com - Listen to The Craft & Calling Podcast: [Show URL] - Christene's website: https://christenemarie.com - The Knowing Agency: https://www.theknowingagency.com - Read "Knowing" (Christene's book): [Book URL] 🎯 Get in Touch with Beyond the Bid - Instagram: @beyondthebid - LinkedIn: [LinkedIn URL] - Website: www.beyondthebid.co - Email: [Contact email] 🚀 Powered by GO First Consulting Find your #1 margin leak in 7 minutes → www.gofirstconsulting.com TIMESTAMPS: [00:00:00] Cold open: Why most construction brands die with the founder [00:01:30] Christene's first appearance on Beyond the Bid [00:03:00] The AI shiny-object problem killing entrepreneur focus [00:05:30] Why consistency beats chasing every new tool [00:08:00] Owning your data: building a "second brain" with Obsidian [00:11:30] Why Notebook LM is the right starting point for builders [00:15:00] Lifting the hood: Christene's 30-day client diagnostic [00:17:00] Customer journey buckets — where leads leak between departments [00:19:30] Don't bolt AI onto broken process (the Nate Jones framework) [00:22:00] Why most construction owners aren't visioning big enough [00:25:00] The Michelangelo principle: failing to dream big enough [00:27:30] Christene's 2017 return to Hoffman Painting and the brand rebuild [00:31:00] Why her dad was prepared to let the business die with him [00:34:00] Building a shield logo that includes all 6 kids [00:38:00] The $34M roofing company that stopped doing what got them there [00:45:00] The 11% cancellation rate most builders never measure [00:48:00] Customer concierge: where AI actually belongs in the trades [00:51:00] The 95% subconscious purchase decision (Harvard) [00:54:00] Gamifying construction milestones for team motivation [00:57:00] The Enneagram — what actually drives your employees [01:01:00] Entrepreneur vs. operator: knowing what you want [01:04:00] The Craft & Calling: family in the boardroom [01:08:00] Vertical alignment — the morning practice for owners [01:11:30] Christene's eulogy exercise at 30 [01:15:00] 21 days of free vertical alignments [01:18:00] Why your personal brand is your most valuable asset [01:20:00] Closing on legacy and brand identity — Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes. Information shared does not constitute financial, legal, or professional advice. If this episode helped — like it, comment your biggest takeaway, subscribe for weekly systems breakdowns (your competitors already are 🔔), and share it with one builder who needs to hear it. © 2026 Beyond the Bid | Powered by GO First Consulting

The Builder Who Killed His SaaS Stack and Built His Own (ft. Steve Young)

🎯 Find Your Margin Leak in 7 Minutes (Before Q3): www.gofirstconsulting.com Steve Young paid a Fiverr developer $21K in 2022 to build him an AI proposal tool. Three years later he scrapped it and started writing his own stack in Claude Code—and his close rate climbed from 13% to 20%, with a forecasted 25% on $300K average projects. Most $5M builders are stuck on SaaS that almost-fits. They pay $30K/year for software vendors who build for the average user, then patch the gaps with manual work. Steve scrapped the entire approach. He learned about Cursor at IBS, switched to Claude Code on a coach's recommendation, and spent 45 days building a Next.js operating system that does what no off-the-shelf tool does: pulls Plaud transcripts, parses scope by room, renders before/afters in Gemini Nano Banana, and auto-prices off the JobTread API by zip code. Here's the part that should keep every remodeler up at night: Steve is 54. Hadn't written code in 25 years. If he's building it himself, your competition is too. This episode is the playbook. Watch the demo, copy the principles, then go build. — OTHER STEVE YOUNG / HHI BUILDERS RESOURCES 🔗 - Visit HHI Builders: https://www.hhi-builders.com - Try the Cost Estimator: https://www.hhi-builders.com - Read Their Story: https://www.hhi-builders.com/the-story-of-our-company — 🎯 Get in Touch with Beyond the Bid - Instagram: @beyondthebid - LinkedIn: /beyondthebid - Website: www.beyondthebid.co - Email: grant@gofirstconsulting.com — 🚀 Powered by GO First Consulting www.gofirstconsulting.com — TIMESTAMPS [00:00:00] The $21K Fiverr Tool That Started Everything [00:01:30] Meet Steve Young: HHI Builders, Hilton Head Island [00:03:00] From Retail Fit-Ups to a $9M Remodeling Forecast [00:05:30] The "Bored to Death Retirement" That Built a Company [00:07:00] Why Coaching Was the Best Money They Ever Spent [00:09:30] BBA to Win Rate: When to Switch Coaches [00:11:30] The Project Manager / Project Director Sales Process [00:13:00] The 8% Design Retainer System ($200/hr Billed) [00:15:30] How CQC Home's Process Saved Their Margin [00:17:30] The 5-Year Database That Prices Bathrooms by Square Foot [00:21:00] Why JobTread Beat CoConstruct (And Why It Mattered) [00:23:30] The PowerPoint → ChatGPT → NotebookLM → Custom Stack Journey [00:27:00] Tracked Close Rate: 13% → 20% → Forecast 25% [00:30:00] Why Gemini Nano Banana Beats Every Other Renderer [00:32:00] Why Cursor Got Him Stuck and Claude Code Set Him Free [00:35:00] The 3-Way AI Debug Check (5-Person Meeting → 15 Minutes) [00:39:00] Trade-Perspective Plan Review (Carpenter, Plumber, Electrician) [00:42:00] Demo Begins: The Plaud-to-Proposal Pipeline [00:46:00] Render API Integration: Floor Plans from the Walkthrough [00:50:00] AI Estimate Generation: Catalog + Allowance + Zip Code Pricing [00:55:00] Photo Processing and the Zillow Scraper Chrome Extension [00:58:00] Live Demo: Bathroom Render in Gemini Nano Banana [01:05:00] Pricing Breakdown With AI-Explained Allowances [01:10:00] The Vibe Board Slide Deck Builder [01:18:00] Style Presets, Branding, and the Integrations Stack [01:25:00] What's Coming in V2: The Virtual Designer [01:30:00] Steve's #1 Advice for Builders (Hint: It's Not AI) [01:33:00] How to Interview a Coach Like a Hire — If you got value from this conversation, here's how to support the show: - 👍 Like this video (algorithm rewards engagement) - 💬 Drop a comment with your biggest takeaway - 🔔 Subscribe — your competitors already are - 📤 Share this with one builder who needs to hear it Disclaimer: This episode is for educational purposes only. Beyond the Bid does not provide financial, legal, or business advice. Consult a qualified professional before making business decisions. © 2026 Beyond the Bid. All rights reserved.