Summary
Chris Doyle, CEO of Billd, joined Joseph O’Bell on Moontower Business – a podcast that spotlights successful businesses, startups, business leaders and entrepreneurs in Austin, Texas. Billd is a construction finance company that partners with regional and national suppliers across the U.S. to offer project-based financing to contractors. Their short-term finance solution facilitates immediate payment to suppliers, while providing contractors the flexibility to pay for material purchases over time.
Chris dives into his construction background, having started at the age of 16. He began as an entry-level home-framing contractor at a friend’s business, where success (jokingly) was defined by the number of wood beams he could carry at one time. From there, he studied at Texas A&M where he went on to work as a residential home builder for 5 years.
After 5 years, he moved into commercial construction in Dallas, working on anything from billion-dollar stadiums to smaller half-million-dollar projects, which gave him ample exposure to the industry. After finishing business school at Rice University, he began to focus on the solar space. He eventually founded his first company, SiteCapture, a job site surveying application.
Drawing on his experience in the construction industry and as an employee at Dividend Finance (a solar finance company), he identified a major issue with the construction finance industry as it related to the timing of payments. He saw an opportunity to address the working capital needs for contractors, and from there, Billd was born.
Chris goes on to discuss how he launched Billd, secured a $60 million investment, and why there is such a need for a new construction financing solution.
“Builders are not paying subs until they have the appropriate draw on the bank. The subcontractor is getting the brunt of that deal from a cash flow perspective, which is why our product is in demand for these kinds of projects.” – Chris Doyle
