00:00:00:00 - 00:00:19:12 Speaker 1 Running a business is hard. I think it's often not talked about enough, but the impact of project management software is getting time back to go to your kid's soccer game or getting a little bit time back in the weekend to do something like Boston. 00:00:19:14 - 00:00:24:09 Speaker 2 You're not using something like this, and something happens to that main point of contact, man. 00:00:24:09 - 00:00:25:01 Speaker 1 It's scary. 00:00:25:04 - 00:00:28:08 Speaker 2 We can take weeks to kind of get your mind around where things are at. 00:00:28:11 - 00:00:31:08 Speaker 1 I can be rest assured that I have everything documented. 00:00:31:11 - 00:00:32:23 Speaker 2 It's all right there in the palm of our hand. 00:00:32:24 - 00:00:41:08 Speaker 1 Now, I can sleep a little bit easier at night, and I can go get an hour back, maybe two hours back. When I look for things that I like to do. 00:00:41:10 - 00:01:17:16 Speaker 2 Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the your Shepherd podcast. I'm your host, Curtis Lawson, as always, and joining me today is my friend Mitchell Castleman. And Mitchell is the founder and CEO of Rizzio Software. Rizzio is a software that we at crafted my construction company recently switched to. Prior to that, we were with another, well known software company and decided to make the transition because I felt like Mitchell and his team had a great product, which, you know, they did some things and some in some ways that we prefer to do them versus kind of what we were locked into with our previous software. 00:01:17:18 - 00:01:40:07 Speaker 2 And so before Regio launched, I was actually working with them, doing kind of a consulting role and helping them talk through, how it was going to function and just kind of being a sounding board for them as they developed the software. So we are really excited to kind of see where, the future takes Rizzio and, and how it's going to continue to evolve and help our company in our operations. 00:01:40:07 - 00:01:43:00 Speaker 2 So, Mitchell, thanks for joining us today. 00:01:43:02 - 00:01:46:03 Speaker 1 Thanks for having me, Curtis. Excited to be here. 00:01:46:05 - 00:02:02:07 Speaker 2 So tell us real quick about what your background is. And kind of I assume that you're already in a software related space before, Rizzio, but kind of tell us about where you came from and how you got to this point, to to be in the construction space. 00:02:02:09 - 00:02:20:19 Speaker 1 Yeah. So, I mean, going back to my younger days, I was always an entrepreneurial guy, always had interest in starting my own business. And I actually worked with two of my friends as an Amazon third party seller when we were much younger. We were basically taking anything you could store in a warehouse for six months that would retain its value. 00:02:20:19 - 00:02:42:12 Speaker 1 And we were selling that good on Amazon. It's a ton of fun. That was my first exposure to building your own business, and I knew it was something that I wanted to do on my own. One day. And then I married that love for building my own company with my taste of construction. And I first got exposed to this when I was at a service channel in a facility management software company. 00:02:42:17 - 00:03:05:04 Speaker 1 So I spent a lot of time with the trades, mostly plumbers, electricians, and I was helping them get jobs at retailers like CVS, Trader Joe's, Walgreens, Amazon. And what I kind of learned when I started working with these trades was two things. Number one, these businesses are a bit antiquated in terms of the technology that they're using, right? 00:03:05:04 - 00:03:24:14 Speaker 1 I would see stacks of paper and offices. I would struggle to get them to check in on job sites. And at the same time, when we apply technology in this case, service channel to get them new jobs, the impact on a lot of small businesses was really significant. It was 20%, 40%, 60% revenue growth and in some cases more. 00:03:24:16 - 00:03:56:11 Speaker 1 And so with this mindset and understanding, small business construction and contractors in general, a service channel ultimately, got acquired. I was thinking about, okay, what do I want to do next? And I teamed up with my co-founder, Ryan. Ryan had recently undergone a nasty renovation. Everything went wrong. It was delayed. It was over budget. He had terrible communication with his builder, and they were using a legacy project management software. 00:03:56:13 - 00:04:21:23 Speaker 1 So with my background in contractors and building businesses and Ryan's understanding of the pain of the homeowner experience, we started talking to more and more folks, particularly general contractors on the residential side, small, medium sized outfits, and we started to hear more and more that folks were stuck between maybe a rock, what I would call legacy software, and hard place, not using any software at all. 00:04:22:00 - 00:04:27:22 Speaker 1 And we felt like there was an opportunity for us to build a user friendly project management suite, which we've done here at here. 00:04:27:24 - 00:04:41:17 Speaker 2 Awesome. So what what opportunities that you see in the existing project management software space that that made you say, I think this could be a good opportunity. Like what? What gaps were there that you felt like Regio could fill? 00:04:41:19 - 00:05:02:20 Speaker 1 Yeah. So when we looked at the market, and we saw legacy software, we saw some companies that were 20 plus years old. There were bespoke features that maybe didn't talk to each other. So, for example, I'd be entering data on one screen and then I'd have to enter that same data on another screen, which would lead to inefficiencies. 00:05:02:20 - 00:05:19:11 Speaker 1 That would be the inverse of what you think software should do. We also talked to many folks who felt like they were using 10% 20%, 30% of that solution, and they were unable to get over a certain hump to drive any value to their business. And if we looked at those tech stacks that they were operating upon, they were outdated. 00:05:19:11 - 00:05:54:03 Speaker 1 So there was going to be limited change, if any, given the amount of technical debt that they had built up in their businesses. And in turn, there were still so many businesses we talked to that were growing at a rapid rate. You know, we started revenue in 2022, so the market was good and they didn't know maybe how much money they were going to make or they were struggling to manage their team effectively and they were doing things with manual processes Excel, Google Drive, sometimes even the old yellow pad, and we saw an opportunity for them to build their businesses, to grow, to make a lot more money. 00:05:54:05 - 00:06:04:24 Speaker 1 When we thought about a simple, user friendly product management software on the front end, but something that's also robust and powerful enough to run a large construction job from start to finish. 00:06:05:01 - 00:06:22:20 Speaker 2 Yeah. So I, I didn't want to get into more specifics on Regio here in a minute, but I kind of wanted to first talk about, you know, what, implementing a project management solutions, you know, software just in general, you know, what benefits there are for contractors and how that's changed the pace of residential construction over the last decade. 00:06:22:22 - 00:06:43:14 Speaker 2 You know, when I first started to remodel or small, small builder 20 years ago, there was really not much available, if anything, for companies my size. And so I was one of those guys, you know, you mentioned the yellow clipboard, an Excel spreadsheets. You know, there wasn't even Google Drive back then either. You know, it was like you had a floppy drive with your Excel files on it. 00:06:43:16 - 00:07:07:03 Speaker 2 So, you know, I was I was operating off of Excel sheets and yellow notepad. And I did that for a long time. And I think a lot of builders probably started that way. And from what I've seen, there are still a lot of guys who operate that way. So I just wanted to talk about how a good project management software solution helps custom builders and remodelers take things to the next level. 00:07:07:05 - 00:07:15:06 Speaker 2 So what do you think the big benefits are for a company to take the leap to? Integrating a software solution. 00:07:15:08 - 00:07:34:01 Speaker 1 Business that I talked to are looking to make money, right? So think increase their profits. They're also looking to grow their business. Right. They're looking to take it from 2 million in revenue to 10 million in revenue, or 10 million in revenue to 30 million revenue. And then there's this intangible aspect of stress. I run a business, Kurt. 00:07:34:02 - 00:07:52:24 Speaker 1 You know, you run a business, Curtis, running a business is hard. And I think it's often not talked about enough, but the impact of project management software is getting time back to go to your kid's soccer game or getting a little bit of time back in the weekend to do something that you love. And that's when I think about impact. 00:07:52:24 - 00:08:12:07 Speaker 1 Those three buckets are kind of the umbrella. And then underneath we can start to see why project management software is going to drive value. So think under make money right I'm trying to become more efficient. So what project management software does is it centralizes collaboration for the team by putting everything in one place. So I have a single source of truth. 00:08:12:09 - 00:08:29:19 Speaker 1 Now I no longer have to paying, my project manager or my superintendent, my project coordinator for information. I can see it all right there in real time. I can run a schedule. I can keep my trades organized to make sure they show up on the jobsite in time so I can increase my cycle time or decrease my cycle time. 00:08:29:19 - 00:08:50:06 Speaker 1 Excuse me. So where now I'm running more throughput and more projects on a month to month or year to year basis. I can also track my budget in real time so I can identify where I might have cost overruns, and I can reduce the risk of any profit being lost throughout the job. I can also even connect my workflow with my accounting software. 00:08:50:06 - 00:09:08:24 Speaker 1 So a lot of folks use QuickBooks online, right? I can now track QuickBooks online in ratio so that these work seamlessly together versus entering data in multiple places. All of these things drive great efficiency and allow me to make more money. Now the second bucket of hey, how do I grow my business? Well, I want to deliver an outstanding customer experience. 00:09:09:04 - 00:09:40:19 Speaker 1 I want, you know, if you're my homeowner, Curtis, I want you to go recommend me to other folks and drive referrals. So building out proposals in a project management software, doing everything where a customer can see on their side what's happening with the job site through daily logs, make selections they can, approve, change orders, get visibility into their budget and schedule should you so choose to make it available to them elevates the customer experience, which ultimately elevates your brand as a business and allows you to continue growing. 00:09:40:21 - 00:10:04:13 Speaker 1 And then finally, I think about that stress, right? The amount of times where, I actually quit story. When I was building radio, I joined a project as a GC for a little bit of time, and I got ten emails on Saturday at 11:30 p.m.. And I know how it feels to be in the general contractor shoes getting those emails, and they're like, oh my God, do I have to respond to this right away? 00:10:04:15 - 00:10:25:14 Speaker 1 But like doing things like centralizing your communication into your project management software so that your homeowners communicate directly there starts to give you your life back and reduce your stress. Fewer customer questions because they have information at their fingertips. Right now, I can sleep a little bit easier at night. I can be rest assured that I have everything documented and I can go get an hour back my week, two hours back of my week. 00:10:25:14 - 00:10:28:17 Speaker 1 Four things that I like to do. 00:10:28:19 - 00:10:56:14 Speaker 2 Absolutely. These are all great, all great points. One of the big things that I talk to to my customers about, because inevitably when we having an initial conversation with a lot of a potential client, a prospect, you know, they're asking us about how we manage our projects and what tools we use. And I always bring the software and and I say, you know, we ask that once we get started on this project that we run all of our communication through the software. 00:10:56:16 - 00:11:20:20 Speaker 2 I know that maybe to this point or to a certain point, you know, you're used to operating with the send your project manager or your builder a text message or a phone call or an email or whatever. And and I always say, you know, we would prefer that everything lives in the software, because, you know, like a lot of industries, you know, employees come and go, things happen to people. 00:11:20:20 - 00:11:45:08 Speaker 2 They, you know, either quit, get fired, hit by a bus, have an illness, whatever, might happen there. But if we funnel everything through our software, nothing goes away. You know, when that when that change has to occur. So all that information, all those conversations that have been had over the course of a three, six, nine, 12, 24 month long project, everything is right there. 00:11:45:08 - 00:12:10:01 Speaker 2 Right? And so we can research it. Whereas if you're not using something like this and something happens to that main point of contact, man, it's it can take everything. It can take weeks to, to kind of get your mind around where things are at. Who said what, what decisions are still pending and things like that. So that's one of the big things that I talk to people about, being a big benefit to using a software. 00:12:10:03 - 00:12:39:22 Speaker 2 And also, file management, document management. You know, a lot of times there's different versions of documents that live in various places. And so what was our our final decision on that appliance and what's the specifications on that appliance? Well, if you're fully implementing the software, then all that stuff can live there. And my guys in the field can pull up their iPad and see, you know, here's I mean, you know, as long as someone in the office is actually updating it, right. 00:12:39:24 - 00:13:04:21 Speaker 2 But, hey, here's the here's the, here's the most recent set of plans. Here's the most recent spec sheet for this, for the stove or whatever. It's all it's all right there in the palm of our hand. So just kind of the management of information has been one of the biggest benefits to, to me and to us as a company, I think over the last, you know, ten plus years that we've had a software solution. 00:13:04:23 - 00:13:16:21 Speaker 2 It's just kind of compiling all that data in one place instead of, oh, that's in Google Drive, that's in OneDrive, that's in my notepad, that's in an email. It's all right there, right? 00:13:16:23 - 00:13:20:19 Speaker 1 Totally. And hopefully that makes you sleep a little bit easier at night. Right? 00:13:20:21 - 00:13:46:02 Speaker 2 Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, obviously, you know, you mentioned there were some things that were kind of kind of lacking in other in other products as far as, like double entry and, you know, some, some features that were lacking maybe in some legacy software. You know, other than fixing some of those types of things, what other kind of features does Regio bring to the table? 00:13:46:04 - 00:13:48:10 Speaker 2 But set you guys apart? 00:13:48:12 - 00:14:12:05 Speaker 1 Yeah. So the way I like to think about it is the project management suite has a lot of different components to it. Right. You just went through a bunch. I just went through a bunch. I like to talk about principles and how some of our features relate to those principles. So when we built Regio, we built it on a foundation of three things one, we are going to be the most user friendly platform out there, right? 00:14:12:05 - 00:14:30:12 Speaker 1 It's 2024. Your software should feel like it's 2024. It should look like it's 2024. It should be something like easy, like you're using your iPhone number two, right? We got to make sure that you can run a job from start to finish with a connected data flow. So there's duplicative data entry points that we mentioned. And you just mentioned hey, I can have a job as 24 months. 00:14:30:14 - 00:14:52:15 Speaker 1 I got to be able to run that process from start to finish without having to recreate it six, seven times, which is often what folks run into on legacy systems. And then finally, we want to bring a rapid pace of innovation, right? We want to be not only the fastest in terms of iterating and improving our product, but we want to bring things that folks have not seen in this space before. 00:14:52:17 - 00:15:10:04 Speaker 1 It feels like, as we've looked at in the past, to project management software, as they've just been kind of reincarnations of the same set of features over and over again. And in this day and age, builders deserve that next generation, that next wave of new things that are coming. So if I look at these principles, I'll give you an example. 00:15:10:04 - 00:15:31:11 Speaker 1 So on the user friendly side, right. You think about how we built our estimating tool. We want it to be super easy for the contractor to input data and adjust, make tweaks to their estimate so it feels and it looks a lot like Excel, but it also has the power and number two of connected data flow to where that information, the estimate is now going to flow to my budget. 00:15:31:11 - 00:15:56:20 Speaker 1 It can, that budget can connect to QuickBooks. I can take the descriptions of each cost item and I can put it into a living, breathing scope of work on my specifications page that I can share out to my trades, my team in the field. So I kind of care. Hey, it's really easy to use with, okay, now it's robust and the data is going to flow throughout the job, to the right people, in the right places to get a really efficient experience. 00:15:56:22 - 00:16:16:17 Speaker 1 And on the innovation front, number three, one of the things we've done is we've started to bring AI into our platform. So we often heard time and time again, for example, here where folks are writing, even with project management software, job summaries every week, sending them out to their clients, they were doing it in Microsoft Word or in email. 00:16:16:19 - 00:16:36:18 Speaker 1 Some cases might be just a text message or something along those lines that maybe take them anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour. They do pretty mediocre job. They'd send it off, maybe do it on a Sunday. Right. And what we did at Regio was we realized, okay, you have all of your project data, like you mentioned, Curtis in Rizzio, in your project management software. 00:16:36:18 - 00:16:58:01 Speaker 1 So like when we take that data, feed it into AI and then automate automatically spit out a summary for you and everything that's occurred over the course of a week, as well as everything that's upcoming the following week. So now in a matter of seconds, I can spit out an update, send it off to my client, and at the end of each week, get time back for a project and deliver a higher quality output. 00:16:58:03 - 00:17:17:20 Speaker 2 Yeah, we've used that feature and it's really cool just being able to click that, click that button and generate a report that you can then, you know, go in and edit a little bit and customize. But kind of the bulk of the work's done for you. That's a really cool feature. I think, you know, a lot of companies, I think, you know, AI is kind of the buzzword right now. 00:17:17:20 - 00:17:33:01 Speaker 2 It's kind of the hot thing. And so I think people are like, oh yeah, we we use AI, right? But, it's it's hard to point to an example of, hey, here's how, here's how AI is actually benefiting me in how I use the software. And I think that's a great example. 00:17:33:02 - 00:18:02:00 Speaker 1 Totally. And I think I when I talk to folks that I, we talk about it as vertical AI or something specific to the personas and roles in your industry, so that I talk to a lot of other founders all the time and software, and there's a lot of people building AI for AI sake. We think about it as anything that we use AI for needs to have a very tangible business value output for those personas and in those workflows for your day to day operation. 00:18:02:02 - 00:18:10:12 Speaker 1 So, right, this one's very clear. Hey, I get an hour back for a project. Anything else we do is going to be mapped to a specific, quantifiable outcome. 00:18:10:14 - 00:18:27:00 Speaker 2 And I think probably there's a lot of builders who don't even do that weekly update. And so maybe this is a value add because this is something that they're not doing for their client before because they're like, man, I don't I don't want to do on Friday at the end of the week on a weekend, I don't want to have to do one more thing. 00:18:27:00 - 00:18:37:12 Speaker 2 Right. And so you've made it easy for people to give their customers that one more, one additional piece of information easily. Right. 00:18:37:14 - 00:18:42:17 Speaker 1 Exactly, exactly. Now, I can take that, deliver the quality customer experience that I'm looking to do. 00:18:42:19 - 00:19:00:21 Speaker 2 Yeah. So one thing you touched on, and this is this is one of my favorite things. And back when we were developing, you were in development and we were talking about how this was going to work. One of the first things that I brought up was, you know, I'm again, I'm old school. I started doing estimates in Excel. 00:19:00:21 - 00:19:18:12 Speaker 2 That's kind of where I came from. I think a lot of builders are the same way. Maybe a lot of us have a template set up. And so I said it would be awesome if we could input this information into the software, just like I'm doing an Excel sheet now. It's not like identical, right? It's not the same keystrokes or whatever. 00:19:18:12 - 00:19:45:06 Speaker 2 But if you have a feel for how that process works, you know, the quantity, you know, so 15ft² at $3 a square foot, whatever. It'll spit out that information. It'll total that up. And, you know, applying, if you want to get into the minutia of applying a specific or a different markup or margin to each category, you can do that instead of applying one blanket markup to your estimate. 00:19:45:06 - 00:20:06:14 Speaker 2 I mean, there's a lot of power there in how you input the data and how it displays. It feels a lot like Excel. And so if you're somebody who's coming from that world like me, it's a lot easier to pick up than with some of the other, software that's out there where it's not intuitive. 00:20:06:16 - 00:20:14:03 Speaker 1 Definitely. Now, I'm glad to hear, you know, you have that experience because ultimately it was shaped a lot by your input. 00:20:14:05 - 00:20:32:13 Speaker 2 You know, one of the things that I like, and it wasn't just during the development stage, but, you know, since since then, since you watched, one of the things I like is that you guys are very responsive. And part of this may just be because you're, you know, you're growing and you're new, and you want to put your best foot forward. 00:20:32:13 - 00:20:49:17 Speaker 2 But I like to think that, that you that you really care about listening to your customers. And so I love that when me or somebody on my team sees an opportunity for improvement, or maybe it's like a little bug or something like that. Like the other day I caught a misspelling and sent it to Chad to to update. 00:20:49:17 - 00:21:08:10 Speaker 2 And, you know, just just like little minor things like, but, you know, when I see something or when any user sees something, we can just ping you guys and you're very proactive about fixing it, or if it's a new feature that we suggest, you know, you'll say, hey, this is something that we're talking about already, or no, that's a great idea. 00:21:08:11 - 00:21:16:12 Speaker 2 I'll put in front of the team. And so I don't feel like my requests are like going out into the void like they have in the past with some other companies. 00:21:16:14 - 00:21:49:00 Speaker 1 Hey, it's it's in our DNA. I mean, if I kind of think about our journey when we started, I knew, hey, I know contractors. Ryan, my co-founder, knows the owner experience. We want as many construction opinions as we can to shape this product. So we saw a diverse set of backgrounds, but we also started to hone in on folks, you know, kind of yourself who are really advising us in a good direction on where this product could go and what the impact, on the impact that we could actually achieve. 00:21:49:02 - 00:22:08:23 Speaker 1 And I think about the way we set ourselves up for the long term, too, is both from a tech stack standpoint. We structured things very early on and still do today, where we're constantly evolving, and we made it so very it was very easy to iterate upon the product, right. Continue to add new features, new things based on feedback from someone like yourself. 00:22:08:23 - 00:22:26:02 Speaker 1 Because we knew, hey, two years in, we'd still want to move fast, just like we did when we were starting. And then as the team starts to grow, you know, you you mentioned Chad, our director of customer success, who's and tastic put into the culture, into the DNA of the people you bring on. And I think of Chad. 00:22:26:02 - 00:22:46:06 Speaker 1 I think of Andy, right. Who's joined our customer success team. I think of the others on our customer success side. They all are great customer advocates and great communicators, and they care deeply about each and every one of their customers. And I think that speaks to the DNA that we built here at Regio from top to bottom. 00:22:46:08 - 00:23:02:20 Speaker 1 And me personally, you know, you have my cell phone number. I think a lot of the builders that we work with have my cell phone number. So I'm always up to answer a phone call or text message. I don't know if my wife loves that, but, it's something that I care deeply about, and I'd love to build that customer relationship with everyone I can. 00:23:02:22 - 00:23:07:06 Speaker 2 Hey, you have to tell them, hey, if you have something, put it in the software. Don't forget. 00:23:07:08 - 00:23:07:23 Speaker 1 Okay? 00:23:08:00 - 00:23:29:07 Speaker 2 Just like we tell our clients, you have to tell your clients the same thing, right? Exactly, exactly. So, you know what what what other, you know, new, new features. I know that you're gonna have a calendar for rolling out new modules and features, but what other stuff do you guys have coming up in the near future that you that you like to just mention? 00:23:29:09 - 00:23:50:01 Speaker 1 Yeah. So I think we're really excited as we look ahead to 20, 25 about the things that are on your plate. First and foremost, always is, hey, the iterative customer feedback that is coming in, we are lucky enough to have very active and loud customers in a healthy way. And so we're constantly hearing, hey, I'd love to see this, I'd love to add this new feature. 00:23:50:07 - 00:24:14:19 Speaker 1 And that's often our priority. I think as we look ahead to new stuff, there's a couple of different dimensions. One is generative AI. We talked a lot about like our vertical AI approach, but we have some very targeted content. I don't want to reveal too many specifics, but some to do list automation might be one thing that you see in the future, and there will be a couple others that we'll probably reveal at the builder show in 2025. 00:24:14:21 - 00:24:15:07 Speaker 2 Oh, cool. 00:24:15:09 - 00:24:40:04 Speaker 1 Or two. Analytics and reporting. We've now started to see a lot of data flow through our system. And so how can we get you dashboards, the reports that you're looking for, the flexible kinds of data that you can slice and dice so that you can identify where are the gaps. My business where the opportunities for me to improve and then go execute upon changes and track the results. 00:24:40:06 - 00:25:01:06 Speaker 1 So we've talked to many folks, small, medium or large, depending on their organization, and they all share a need for more and more data. How can I get more numbers into my organization? And then finally, as I think about the application itself and some of our core workflows, we'll continue to see expansion in depth within a lot of the core features and functionality. 00:25:01:08 - 00:25:06:16 Speaker 1 And that's mostly based off of iterative feedback that's coming in from our customers. 00:25:06:18 - 00:25:26:07 Speaker 2 I have to think that, you know, with, with this being a new software, new product, you know, modern coding and programing languages, right, that it's a little bit easier to make changes. You know, something that I had heard from other software companies is, hey, this this base core software was written 10 or 15 years ago. 00:25:26:07 - 00:25:46:04 Speaker 2 And the changes that you want to make, you know, we can't just make that change, right? Because that that, that language, that software that is created in is kind of old tech and it's not as flexible. So I think that's probably one of the things that you have going for, you know, right, is that this is, new tech that you're working with. 00:25:46:04 - 00:25:55:08 Speaker 2 And so the flexibility and the the agility, the ability to make changes on the fly is probably better than some of those old, companies. 00:25:55:08 - 00:26:17:12 Speaker 1 Right, 100%. And it's two dimensional, right? It's not just, hey, we picked it like it's or we picked a new tech stack that is more modern than legacy tech stacks. What we've also done and Ryan, my co-founder and CTO, has done an excellent job of this, is we've actually constantly revamped our tech stack continuously over the last couple of years. 00:26:17:14 - 00:26:40:18 Speaker 1 And so what that means is you're getting the latest and greatest in November 2024. You're not getting something that was built on, hey, early 2022, right? Which is when we started. And I think about ultimately the value and the impact of this is we avoid becoming one of our competitors and a second version of that where they were built. 00:26:40:23 - 00:26:58:00 Speaker 1 I'm sure they said some similar things when they were getting started. Hey, we can move quickly. And they ended up in a very static position. In our perspective, we want to be as fast as we are today, five years from now, in terms of how we can bolt on and continue to expand upon. 00:26:58:02 - 00:27:18:16 Speaker 2 Yeah. You know, a I think a great example is, a couple of months ago, you know, that that the way some of the files and photos uploaded was a little bit slow, had a little bit of a hiccup, and you're like, you know what, Curtis? Don't worry about it. We have this new, new updated version that's being installed this week. 00:27:18:16 - 00:27:40:21 Speaker 2 This is all going to change. And sure enough, you know what? Once you guys, updated that to the newer version, it ran so much more seamlessly. So I think that's a great example of you listening to feedback. And because you're system is built the way it's built, it's easy to upgrade that module. And it brings instant kind of relief remodel issues like that that might be occurring. 00:27:40:23 - 00:28:03:04 Speaker 1 100%. And I'll give you a third benefit too. Is it? It positions us to capture the advantages of new technology. So we've actually had some there's I features I mentioned become easier and easier to build for us because we are well positioned for it. Whereas oftentimes if you look at features on your roadmap, the more time that goes on, the harder and harder they become to build. 00:28:03:04 - 00:28:14:21 Speaker 1 Because you have technology of code that can't change. And for us, we're actually seeing the exact opposite things are going down in terms of the amount of effort it takes to build. 00:28:14:23 - 00:28:35:08 Speaker 2 Awesome. Well, you know, like I said, I've, I've really enjoyed kind of being a part of this process. And it's really cool to me to kind of see something that's, that's gone from kind of the discussion stage to being implemented and growing. You know, as somebody in the construction space, it's, you know, I like seeing things. 00:28:35:10 - 00:28:52:11 Speaker 2 Yeah, I like seeing ideas kind of get birthed and then evolved and then come to completion. That's what I do. Right. And so it's cool seeing that from another industry. From, from an angle that I would normally see things. So I appreciate you, you know, involving me and a lot of other people in that, in that process. 00:28:52:11 - 00:28:56:16 Speaker 2 And it's been a lot of fun kind of watching it come together. 00:28:56:18 - 00:29:00:11 Speaker 1 And we appreciate your voice. It's made a tremendous amount of impact. 00:29:00:13 - 00:29:19:17 Speaker 2 So to kind of wrap things up, so I'll ask you kind of two sets of questions. And this is kind of rehashing what we kind of already touched on, but, as a wrap up, what are the biggest benefits to a contractor for implementing a project management solution? 00:29:19:19 - 00:29:34:24 Speaker 1 Yeah. So think of it like others back under those buckets. I share it, right. You want to grow your business, you want to make more money, you want to have less stress. So I want to have increased team collaboration and organization. I want to be able to manage my job schedules, track my financials. That's going to help me make more money. 00:29:35:05 - 00:29:53:05 Speaker 1 I want to deliver a better client experience. I want to elevate my brand. I want to professionalize it into a transparent software that I share with my home owner that's gonna help me grow my business. And ultimately, when I centralize these things in a single place, that's going to help me reduce stress and give me time back in my week for things that I like to do. 00:29:53:07 - 00:30:02:22 Speaker 2 All right. And so same question. But from a homeowners perspective, what are the biggest benefits to make a client to a homeowner for their contractor? Using a solution? 00:30:02:24 - 00:30:22:13 Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, now now that I've been through this really right here, there's there's no way I would ever go into a large construction job without a project management software. First and foremost, by everything else. Right. You're going to get transparency and visibility into your job. You're going to see jobsite updates in real time. You'll be able to quickly sign off on approvals such as selections and change orders. 00:30:22:15 - 00:30:44:12 Speaker 1 And, you know, as I've seen, that many homeowners build nowadays, as the age of homeowners get younger and younger that are building these custom homes, getting remodels, etc., you need to build your own spreadsheet. You know, you don't need to track everything on your own to do list. You have trust in confidence that your builder is going to do an excellent job because they are going to be sharing some of these things with you. 00:30:44:14 - 00:30:51:19 Speaker 1 So to me, that's powerful. The builder is going to sleep at night, you're going to sleep at night, and overall, you're going to have a great experience. 00:30:51:21 - 00:31:11:05 Speaker 2 It's funny that you mention that, because I have actually seen customers build their own spreadsheet and kind of like track along, like even even with having project management software, I've seen like them like track their own spreadsheet, like check it in software and like make sure that things are adding up and things are progressing according to the schedule. 00:31:11:07 - 00:31:17:06 Speaker 2 So it's it's just funny that people still feel the need to do that even even if the software is already in place. 00:31:17:08 - 00:31:30:02 Speaker 1 Yeah. And but you know that all of my decisions everyone have where the contractors source of truth, they were lying. The budgets, the estimate they don't miss and the project management software holds true throughout the project. 00:31:30:04 - 00:31:48:11 Speaker 2 Yep. All right. So last, last question, if you could summarize kind of the the the ratios difference, right. In one in 1 or 2 sentences. What is that what is the ratio difference this that you guys apart from the other options out there. 00:31:48:13 - 00:32:01:22 Speaker 1 Yeah, I guess I say I'd love to use a lot of words, but, I'd say we are the most user friendly project management software with a robust end to end project workflow and a culture built on innovation and trust. 00:32:01:24 - 00:32:16:06 Speaker 2 Awesome. That's a great summary. I think every, every, every contractor out there listening you should should be able to to kind of, yeah. Say what their company's differences, in just 1 or 2 sentences as well. It's kind of your, your elevator pitch. Right? 00:32:16:08 - 00:32:18:20 Speaker 1 100%. 00:32:18:22 - 00:32:39:15 Speaker 2 Well, Mitchell, I really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for for joining us on the podcast. We we actually did, like, a short version of this, a year or so ago at IBS, maybe two years ago at IBS, kind of. But, before you guys launched, we were sitting on a couch at IBS. So I look forward to seeing you there again this coming, February in Vegas. 00:32:39:15 - 00:32:46:09 Speaker 2 And, seeing what new features you guys have. And, I'm really excited to see what the future holds for you guys. 00:32:46:11 - 00:32:55:18 Speaker 1 Yeah, we're excited to be there. It's going to be fun. We'll have some surprises in store for, those that show up to our booth and, yeah, we're excited for the future as well. 00:32:55:20 - 00:32:58:04 Speaker 2 Awesome. I'll be there. I'll see you there. 00:32:58:06 - 00:33:00:01 Speaker 1 Sounds great. Thanks for this. 00:33:00:03 - 00:33:20:16 Speaker 2 All right. Thanks, Mitchell. And thank you to listening to this new episode of the awkward Shepherd podcast. We will be sure and link, the radio information in our show notes, on Spotify and YouTube and all those places. So if you're a contractor listening and you want to learn more about Regio, you can go there, click those links and connect with Mitchell and his team. 00:33:20:16 - 00:33:23:13 Speaker 2 So thank you for listening and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.