When Hill Dickerson moved into a new house, he discovered that his next-door neighbor Mark Thompson was a software developer and entrepreneur. Around the same time, Dickerson’s company of eighteen years, Dickerson Hearth Products, was being acquired.
Dickerson has grown up and spent his entire life around construction, and said he is well aware of the communication issues that are common among builders.
“It was so hard to do business in construction because there is very little communication. It all stems from communication,” Dickerson said. “Builders are notoriously not good communicators.”
Dickerson said Thompson had recently built another home and had experienced these same communication issues firsthand. Together, they realized they could combine Dickerson’s construction experience and Thompson’s software development experience to create a solution to the problems.
The pair founded BuilderPad in 2021 with an aim to build an app that would streamline communication for builders and homeowners.
“You can’t build houses with legal pads and whiteboards anymore,” Dickerson said. “You gotta get up to speed with technology.”
He said it can be very frustrating for builders to find past messages from their clients when they have to keep track of text messages, multiple group chats, and email chains with lots of different people. BuilderPad is built to keep communication between builders and clients all in one place.
Dickerson said the technology and startup space was new for him, and he didn’t realize how much easier communication could be until he started using tools like Slack and JIRA.
How BuilderPad works
With BuilderPad, the builder can create a project in the app and invite users to join that project; these can include the clients, project managers, designers, or anyone else involved in the build. Messages about the project are confined to a messaging board within the app, such that communication is kept simple and in one place.
Additionally, the builders can take photos of the job site and share them on the message board to keep the client updated. There is also a progress tracker within the app that keeps the client updated on the build; for example, the client could see that the builder is 50% done with the framing stage of the project.
Beyond these foundational tools, though, Dickerson and Thompson realized that if they wanted to make BuilderPad the one-stop shop for building communication, they would need to incorporate additional features.
“I realized, building a piece of software is a lot like building a house. You have a vision for what you want it to look like, but as you start building it, you go, ‘Well, we might want to put a pool in the backyard.’” Dickerson said. “So it was interesting that it took the shape of the industry that I was used to.”
Now, they’re developing a built-in fixtures library, selections templates, and an invoicing feature so the builder can get paid for the project through the app.
While BuilderPad does have competition in the space of software for building-related communication, the founders feel they’ve differentiated themselves by building a native mobile app with push notifications.
Additionally, they’ll have lower prices than their competitors. Right now, BuilderPad’s basic package is priced at $50 dollars a month. Users at this tier can manage up to three active projects at a time with unlimited users. The next two price tiers can manage up to 15 projects at a time for $149 a month and up to 30 projects for $199 a month, respectively.
Currently, BuilderPad has 15 subscription clients.
“Our client is specifically small custom home builders, guys that build from 1 project a year to 15 projects a year,” Dickerson said.
While the startup does offer a license for up to 30 projects per year, Dickerson said he thinks 15 is the magic number because BuilderPad is a simple, yet comprehensive software.
“It’ll do all the things you need for a small operation,” he said.
QUICK BITS
Startup: BuilderPad
Co-Founders: Hill Dickerson, Mark Thompson
Founded: 2021
Team size: 2
Location: Raleigh
Website: www.builderpad.com
Funding: Bootstrapped; raising pre-seed
BuilderPad recently won best pitch in the Work and Productivity Pitch Session at the Center for Entrepreneurial Development’s Venture Connect.
Dickerson said his goal is for the startup to have 200 users by the end of this year, 1,200 users by the end of 2026, and 3,000 users by the end of 2027.
BuilderPad is currently seeking a strategic investor. Dickerson said anyone who believes in him, or BuilderPad’s story, should reach out directly at 919-810-4598.
