Friday, December 6, 2019
Interview with Jon Grishpul, GreatBuildz
How do you find a good contractor for your home remodeling project? Encino-based GreatBuildz (www.greatbuildz.com) says it's a high touch, concierge service. For our interview today, we talked with CEO and co-founder Jon Grishpul about the startup, which offers up its services for free to homeowners in the Los Angeles area.
What is GreatBuildz?
Jon Grishpul: GreatBuildz is a free service, where we help homeowners find reliable, vetted general contractors, and provide support during the project.
How did you start the company?
Jon Grishpul: My co-founder, Paul, had been flipping houses for ten years before starting GreatBuildz. He worked with a lot of contractors, both good ones and bad ones. Like most people, he started out by hiring contractors, based on the feeling they get when meeting with the contractors. But, over the years, he encountered both good and bad ones, and learned the hard way that it's actually pretty tough to separate the good contractors from the bad contractors. What we did, is start a company to remedy that problem. We use the same process he used for vetting his own contractors, and use that same system and process to help the clients of GreatBuildz.
How does the service work?
Jon Grishpul: The first thing that happens, is the client reaches out to us, through our website, or they can even call us directly. We immediately match them with a concierge, who gets on the phone with them, speaks to them about their project, what their goals are, their budget, and timing, and gets everything necessary to identity who would be right for the project. We take as long as necessary to find that contractor. Sometimes, the call is quick and easy five minutes, sometimes we have to ask a lot of questions to make sure we have everything we need. Once we understand what they are looking to do, we then find three contractors, selected by their needs, and get bids from them. We're also available to our clients during the entire process. Our concierge supports them every step of the way, to make sure things go smoothly, and help if anything comes up or if there are questions or concerns, and is always available, any time.
How are you funded?
Jon Grishpul: We've been around for the last year, and we've been completely self funded.
Why create another service like this, when there are many other contractor matching services out there?
Jon Grishpul: We realized that although there are lots of other services, and in an age of technology and automation where so many things can be automated, there are still some industries like home renovation and construction where you need to have a personal approach. You need a one-to-one relationship with contractors, and you have to understand what a clients needs are, in order to do a much better job than an automated process to find that right contractor. It's not just reviews and an active license, but truly someone for their best fit.
Doesn't that kind of approach make it difficult to scale?
Jon Grishpul: Because of the personalized approach we take, and also the fact that nothing really matters but quality and reliability of our contractors and the work they do, we take this slow and steady. We only operate in Los Angeles County and parts of Ventura County, and from here, we're going to gradually build our network across other areas around Los Angeles as we expand. It's not something that you could put a million dollar infusion or major investment into and be able to skyrocket your business quickly. We really want to take a personal approach. Every contractor in our network goes through a very thorough vetting process, and we meet with every one of them in person, speak to their references, to make sure they are hardworking, reliable, and trustworthy.
How did you connect with your co-founder and get into this?
Jon Grishpul: My partner is actually my uncle! He's been doing contracting for the past ten years, and I have been watching from the side. My background is in marketing and sales and consulting, and for the past eight years since graduating from school, I have been spending time diagnosing issues within multiple kinds of organizations. I've been very focused on customer experience and solving problems, for everything from homeowners to large organizations. I enjoy doing work that makes people happy, and solving big problems. I started working with my partner because of that background, and we're working on building a team around us so that we can make a serious impact on the home renovation industry.
What's biggest challenge for you as a business?
Jon Grishpul: I think the biggest challenge, is sometimes it's a hard pitch for someone who hasn't renovated before to understand the value we have. There are lots of competitors and other businesses who say the same thing, but can't back that up. For us, based on the quality we want to ensure our clients have, and the high touch element, it's really about convincing everyone that the problem is real, and hard. Sometimes, they don't realize the problems until they are in the middle of it, when that homeowners is knee deep in their home renovation, their house is ripped apart, and then they are having problems with the contractor. That's the point where they identify they have a bad contractor, and at that point, it's often too late. That's probably our biggest issue now, which is educating consumers and homeowners about all of the different issues in home renovation, and helping them to understand those issues. Whether they work with us or not, there are things they need to take heed of before hiring a contractor, and things they need to keep on top of to make sure their project goes well.
Finally, what's been your biggest lesson as an entrepreneur?
Jon Grishpul: That's good question. I would say, one of the biggest lessons through this process of forming and initially building a company, and working to grow and develop the business, has been prioritizing my time, and number two, prioritizing my tasks. At the end of the day, there are only so many things you can do, as I'm realizing little by little, I have to focus on the things that most benefit our clientele and target market. There's so much information online and so much deceitful marketing in the area, and we really are trying to provide value to our clients and anyone on the Internet looking to renovate their home. Anyone can find our pone number, call us, and we can help them, read our blog and content, as we're really trying to educate consumers and equip them with the resources they need to be successful in renovation.
Thanks!