Smarter Construction Funding with Brad David

Episode 92 • 28th June 2023 • Construction Disruption • Isaiah Industries

Intro/Outro:

Welcome to the Construction Disruption podcast, where we uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.

Todd MIller:

I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, a manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building materials Today, my co-host is Ryan Bell. Ryan, how you doing today?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:00:26

Hey, good morning, Todd. I'm doing great. How are you?

Todd MIller:

: 00:00:30

Doing well also, so it's early in the morning on a Friday when we're recording this. So I'm looking forward to a great episode here. So I hear you may have a couple of things to start us out with, a couple stories or something.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:00:43

I do. So we recently released the episode where you had dad jokes or one dad joke brought to us by Google Bard, which is the A.I., Google's A.I.. And so I wanted to see, I've been playing around with ChatGPT and wanted to see if it could produce a better dad joke for us than what you got back from Bard. So I.

Todd MIller:

: 00:01:09

Bard was not very good at it.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:01:10

No, not at all. And I, it's debatable whether this is better or not, but so I actually, I gave it a few chances and I started by asking or saying the prompt was tell me a dad joke that Todd Miller would find funny.

Todd MIller:

: 00:01:24

Oh, no.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:01:26

Why do scientists trust atoms? Why don't, I'm sorry. Why don't scientists trust atoms?

Todd MIller:

: 00:01:36

Atoms? I like the way this started out. I don't have a clue.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:01:38

Because they make up everything.

Todd MIller:

: 00:01:43

Jeez. That's definitely better than Bard. This is good. We're onto something here.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:01:47

And then, so then I said, You know, I gave it the same prompt that you gave to Bard, which was Tell me a dad joke about something new. And the response was, Why was the math book sad when it got replaced?

Todd MIller:

: 00:02:02

I do not know.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:02:04

Because it had too many problems to solve and was feeling booked out.

Todd MIller:

: 00:02:10

Booked out.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:02:13

I don't know that that's better.

Todd MIller:

: 00:02:16

You know what we ought to do, is Google those jokes and find them on the Internet.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:02:21

Oh, I'm sure they're, I'm sure they are in every dad joke list on the Internet.

Todd MIller:

: 00:02:26

Yeah.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:02:27

I haven't seen them. I have not seen them.

Todd MIller:

: 00:02:30

No, I'm not familiar with either one of those. Good stuff, though. Thank you. Good way to start. So, as a reminder to our audience also, we are doing our challenge words and our guest will be in on this as well, where we each have a word that we have been challenged by one of the others to work into the conversation today. So our audience can be listening for weird words that we may say and think, Gosh, I wonder if that's a challenge word. And at the end of the episode we will divulge whether we've been successful or not with our challenge word challenge. So today is going to be a neat episode. So what we want to look at is how do builders, home builders, how can they best fund their projects and their development? So I'm really looking forward to this discussion. Today's guest is an expert in that area, Brad David. Brad is Executive Vice President of Snap.Build. Now, Snap.Build is a financial services and technology company that is trying to disrupt the residential construction industry by bridging the gap between builders and lenders. Their goal is to help builders do their work faster and at the same time increase or grow their business and grow their profitability as well. So Brad, welcome to Construction Disruption. We're really anxious today to learn about what Snap.Build is doing.

Brad David:

: 00:03:52

Thank you for having me. It's a, that's a pretty tough opening to follow, but I'll do my best, you know for sure.

Todd MIller:

: 00:04:00

Our openings are never tough to follow, believe me.

Brad David:

: 00:04:03

I feel like I need to have my ChatGPT app open and find some rebuttal jokes, But I guess maybe we'll wait till the end for that.

Todd MIller:

: 00:04:16

Well, you never know. Well, let's kind of start out with this question. I'm kind of curious. I know that there are, you know, several leaders there at Snap.Build. Whose brainchild was this and how did it all get started?

Brad David:

: 00:04:30

Sure. You know, so we've been in business and in some different iterations since 2016. And really, you know, the the genesis of the company and the platform, we had a founder who's no longer with us. He exited last year after being with the company, you know, since inception. But he came out of the mortgage industry. And so after the crash, you know, he had builder clients that were having trouble finding funding, just getting funding for spec projects mainly as we all know how that was. And, you know, so through the combination of a technology platform that that he developed and relationships in, you know, Wall Street private equity, private money markets, he was able to combine those two things and then go out and find builder clients that needed money. So that was really the genesis of the company and how we kind of formed. And we've just been building off of that platform ever since.

Todd MIller:

: 00:05:34

Very interesting. Well, give us kind of an overview about, you know, what Snap.Build does and how you are helping residential builders across the country. I mean, what does the process look like?

Brad David:

: 00:05:48

Yeah, so, you know, in the simplest terms, we are a private residential construction lender. And so what we do is we try to find builder clients that either through a combination of factors, they need additional capacity for in their lending channels, they run up against their, their limits, etc.. A lot of guys are a little worn out trying to use traditional lenders in the residential space because it's a cumbersome process. You know, there are some hindrances to speed and building efficiently. And so what we do is go out and that's kind of what I'm tasked with. My background is not in the banking sector. I'm not a private equity guy. I'm not a technology guy per se. I was a builder developer in metro Atlanta. My family was in the business for 40 years and have always been attracted to technology as a way to kind of level the playing field between a smaller builder company, which I always was and we always were with, you know, in metro Atlanta, for example, we're competing against the monsters, the publics, the national builders. And so one of the ways that I always saw that we could do that was through technology. And so as technology evolved, I felt like, Hey, I've got the ability to compete against Horton. Or, you know, when I got out of the University of Georgia, I went to work for the largest home builder in the country company, I mean, country Centex Homes. And so I kind of had seen the inside of that and I knew what I was up against. And so technology to me was a way to compete with with those guys. And so now what I do for the company is I go out and talk to builders, I speak the language, understand the pain points, and I'm able to help them solve a couple of problems. One is, how do they get funding for their projects? That's that's the number one problem. If we can't solve that, everything else that supports it, it really isn't that critical. And so that that's ultimately in a nutshell what we do. We're adding a lot of, you know, other options, features, offerings. But at the core of what we do, we're a residential lender.

Todd MIller:

: 00:07:55

Wow. Okay, very interesting. So for the builder, are there different requirements they may have working with Snap.Build versus other lenders or does that look very similar for them?

Brad David:

: 00:08:08

Yeah, you know, it ultimately looks similar. You know, one of the things that builders are consistently doing is trying to make sure they've got capital, you know, to fund their pipeline. Now, everybody's pipeline is different in terms of size, scale, etc.. But for our builder clients, it's literally no different than what they would do with the traditional kind of brick and mortar lender. We're just private. And, you know, as such, we market ourselves, and I believe this to be the case, is we're a builder-friendly lender, meaning we're actively going out finding builders that need money and finding ways to get those projects funded. So from our perspective, you know, the way that we underwrite and look at builders and project is very similar, you know, to any other lender with the exception of we want to do the projects and we want to build a long-term relationship and continue, you know, lending to builders, helping them grow their business.

Todd MIller:

: 00:09:05

Interesting. Well, you know, one of the things that we hear a lot about in the news and dont have to watch the news very long and some stories coming up about, you know, really a shortage now and in the future of affordable and livable housing in many areas of the country. So do you see, you know, what you folks are doing as being able to help that by kind of simplifying this process of a builder developer to to be able to fund their projects and carry things out?

Brad David:

: 00:09:37

Well, we certainly hope so. Yeah. You know, there are so many issues. And again, I always approach this, you know, my default position is that position of a builder, that position of a borrower, that's just the history of where I've been. So, you know, the builder on a daily basis faces a lot of challenges, you know, and in our current market. You know, one of the issues that they're constantly facing is how do I, you know, deliver the house at a price, you know, that appeals to the most people? So kind of to your point, that affordability piece, you know, how does how does a builder do that? They don't have control over land costs typically. That's kind of a set piece of their capital stack. And sure, obviously, I think you're from the material side of the business. You're a supplier, you understand how that piece works. Some of those, you know, hard costs are set and so we don't have a lot of movement there. One thing that we can sell our builders on is, look, we can help you build faster and more efficiently. And there's a couple of ways that we do that. You know, when I refer to our platform, ultimately what our platform is, is a draw management platform so our builder clients can borrow money from us. And the thing that we do throughout the course of the build is we control the flow of money and we do that through our platform where our builders are able to just upload their invoices. As work is completed, we turn around and pay those invoices. I say immediately, almost immediately, we have what we feel like is best-in-class payment and draw management capabilities. And so we're able to help builders pay their their roofing supplier faster, on time, in full. And hopefully what we're able to help that builder do is then go negotiate better terms. Their suppliers know that when they have Snap.Build as a lender, they're going to get paid all the time as fast as anybody in the industry. Hopefully that gives the builder the opportunity to go negotiate better pricing, build more efficiently, you know, shorten cycle times. All of those things kind of factor into that. We hope at the end of the day they're able to hit their targets, deliver product that's affordable and, you know, solve some of these big-picture solutions.

Todd MIller:

: 00:12:00

Well, I can certainly see how, you know, suppliers would come to like that. And yeah, that certainly has to help the suppliers go out there and start telling your story as well. Hey, we've got a builder that's using Snap.Build and everything seems to be working well. So hopefully that allows them to carry your story out a little bit. So, you know, you folks are part of a world that's a little different than what we normally play in as a supplier, we are much bigger on the remodeling side of things than the new construction side of things. But, you know, I see you folks referred to as I believe it's pronounced fintech company. Is that correct? Okay, just wanted make sure I said that right. So, you know, so so you're kind of this blending of, you know, a technology company and a financial services company? Which side of that, I think I know the answer, but maybe I don't. Which side of that sort of drives you folks to be a disruptor for things?

Brad David:

: 00:12:58

Yeah, you know, I think a lot about that and it's a great question. And I get it in different forms. You know, who you really building this for? And, you know, at the risk of being ambiguous or not answering the question directly, I would tell you this, our business really serves two masters, for lack of a better way to say it. We, in one channel, we fund builders and we do all those things that I've kind of referenced. We provide them capital. That's obviously a core piece of what we do. We hope that we provide them consulting services that improve their business and we give them a technology platform to do that with. And look, if a builder goes out and tries to buy a product like we provide with each loan, it's expensive. It requires, you know, an initial capital commitment. You've got to have people to run it, etc.. We're providing that for our builders. So that's one focus of what we do. The other is, is how we deploy capital for our partners. And, you know, one of the things that that we do that's just a huge benefit to those capital providers is we help them to mitigate the risk associated with residential lending. We can go back and talk about all those stories, etc.. But the thing that our platform does is through paying vendor subs suppliers directly, we don't release money directly to builders. And so I have a, the task that I have every day is educating our builders on you're not getting the money. It's going to flow straight to vendor sub suppliers directly, fast, efficiently, etc.. Well, our capital providers love that because they know the capital is safe. They know that every penny deployed goes in the house. We can show them to the penny, here's what's been paid. Builders can't run ahead of our jobs, which is a critical thing in the lending space floor. And again, I'm a builder. I always default to defending builders. But I will tell you, there may have been a case or two where a builder got a draw and maybe paid critical bills, took care of some other things along the way. We just take all those opportunities out of the equation, you know, by sending the money directly where it needs to go. We got our builders built. They don't have to worry about that piece of it. Our capital partners know the money's going exactly where it's supposed to go. We always use 100% of construction cost in our budgets, and it really is a huge benefit to both. So that answered your question. That was a little ambiguous, I know, but I believe it.

Todd MIller:

: 00:15:37

Well as a supplier, obviously, you're singing music to my ears. I'd love to work with you guys on a project. This is fantastic. So your capital providers. Are these traditional lenders in some cases, or are they more venture capital groups or who is the money behind all that?

Brad David:

: 00:15:55

Yeah, it's it's an interesting combination of of all of those. You know, so as we've developed the platform early on, it was mainly Wall Street funds that wanted to deploy capital in our space. They saw our platform, they understood the technology piece of it. And that's where really that fintech label comes from. We're just a financial technology solution. And so, you know, we have a combination of all those things and really how we decide who gets funded by whom is, it's a regional, it's the type of product. You know, we have certain lenders that will give us a box and say, Hey, we just want to do single-family, detached in the Sun Belt or this state. And so we will kind of channel those opportunities to what fits them. Some guys are like, we don't care where it is. We believe in your underwriting platform, your piece, place our money wherever you see fit. And so we can do townhouse or attach products. And so we really got flexibility that way for our capital providers.

Todd MIller:

: 00:17:01

Interesting. And so you personally are, you're still a builder there in Bulldog Country, is that right?

Brad David:

: 00:17:09

Well, you know, I would answer the question this way. And it is kind of like you see in the movies. You know, just when I thought I was out, it pulled me back in. The building business is very much that way for me. I grew up in it. I was in business with my father, my uncles, and their partners, who I consider family members. I'm a licensed contractor in Georgia. You know, I try not to build right now because I'm so busy with our Snap business. I travel the country and I meet builders and that really satisfies that building itch for me is talking to builders and helping them with their challenges and seeing their successes. But hey, I'm going to leave here today. I've got to drive down to a meeting and on the way I'll pass some lots and I'll go, I wonder who's going to build on those. So it's, when it's in your blood, like it's in mine, it's just kind of hard to let go. But that's where I, that's where I come from. So, yeah.

Todd MIller:

: 00:18:07

I can well imagine. So on the builder side of things, can you share any specific examples or stories of builders that Snap.Build has been able to, you know, really help them take their businesses to a new level? Anything come to mind?

Brad David:

: 00:18:24

It does you know and we're like I said we live across the country, we like to focus in the Sun Belt because it's a geographical area that we know and understand. And then maybe specifically, I still cover Atlanta personally just because, again, having been in the market for that long, I know the players, I know, you know the locations. It's ever-changing. But we partnered with a a builder there four years ago. And this was a guy who was in a related industry. He was in the sales side of the business and, you know, saw an opportunity to kind of start growing a lot portfolio, whether he was either going to flip or sell or do something with. And I got to know him and he said, Man, I think I'd like to build on some of these lots. And I said, Well, hey, look, you know, kind of walked him through our platform, the opportunity. And so the first year we helped him grow, I think this was 2019, if I've got my dates correct, probably did 15 houses, you know, which for a first year build right out of the box is great. He and I had a conversation yesterday and we were reviewing his numbers from last year. He closed 247 units last year and this year has a pipeline of lots. We got to you know, everything's got to line up. We've got to get the economy sort of humming again, etc.. He's got the opportunity to build 400 units. And he would tell you a major reason for that is what we've provided to his company through technology, through, you know, the ability to properly manage his builds and a lot the capital that's associated with it. You know, so for him, you know, there was kind of that, for lack of a better way to say it. There was that cowabunga moment where the light kind of went off and he thought, I can build what I want to build with these guys. And I use that as a as a great story all time. Look, not everybody we deal with wants to build 200 houses, but most guys that are building five or ten, they'd like to do fifteen or twenty. Um, for all the obvious reasons. When I was in the business, I was always trying to figure out if I can build the same number of houses every year and maybe grow, you know, incrementally, keep my overhead the same, but make more money. That's the path I want to take. A lot of guys want to go from 10 to 20 to 50 to 100. And so we kind of we have the ability to tailor our product to each one of those opportunities.

Todd MIller:

: 00:20:56

Very interesting. You know, and I love what you're doing. And I'm sitting here and my brain starts stirring. Gosh, how could you guys get involved in funding major remodel projects? You know, it'll be very different than what you're doing.

Brad David:

: 00:21:11

I hope that you can have me back on in a few months, maybe six months, and we can have a discussion about that.

Todd MIller:

: 00:21:18

Oh, cool. I'd love that.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:21:20

So I'm going to throw kind of a spontaneous question in here. At the beginning, you mentioned working that you actively go out and find builders that are looking for funding. Can you explain kind of what that process look like? How are you going out and finding them? And how does a builder that's looking for funding find you or, you know, put that that flag out there that they're looking for funding?

Brad David:

: 00:21:44

Sure. Yeah, we do that a couple of different ways. So I manage our national sales platform, which is a glorified way of saying, you know, I've got guys like myself in, in different parts of the country. We have an office, our original office is down just outside of Jacksonville, we have an office in in Buckhead in Atlanta, and then we've opened an office out in Austin. And so we find our clients through a variety of channels, so to speak. One is just kind of that old school approach where Metro Atlanta for me was easy enough. I kinda got word out that, Hey, I've got money. If you know any builders that need it, call me. That makes the phone ring. We have a corresponding lender program where we work with different mortgage lenders who do not have new construction funding as a piece of their business. And so we serve that that function for them. We kind of become a, we call it tool in their toolbox as they're trying to get, you know, that in loan, new build or new construction business, builders always need money for construction. And so a lot of times those guys didn't have an option. You know, they're mortgage brokers, but they don't have a construction product. And so we partner with the mortgage loan originators. And when they're having conversations with builders about business, we can be the capital provider on the construction side. So that's a really large piece of our business. We do the same thing with real estate brokers and agents, you know, we'll partner with them, and we'll go in and do presentations and show, Hey, this is what we do for builders. When you hear your builders talk about, Hey, I could, I could give you more houses to sell. If I could build more, to build more, I need money. Well, then they've got the answer. Hey, I've got the money, guys. Here's how they were. So, you know, then we talk to traditional lenders that, I'll be perfectly honest with you. I talk a lot about traditional lenders versus who we are and what we do. I have a lot of really good contacts in that in that industry, and the majority of them don't want to be in the residential lending space. They want the blocking and tackling banking, you know, deposits, checking accounts, etc., all those things that we do not do. And so I've got, you know, traditional bankers calling me all the time saying, Hey, I got a builder that needs more money, I can't give him any more. We really just don't want to do it. But I don't want to lose him as a client. Can we work together? And so we'll provide the construction financing. He's still doing all his banking business there. And so that's been a a a good source as well. And then I'll be honest with you, word of mouth, when builders find out there's somebody close by with money, they track us down. And so we target guys that we really want to grow with. We target markets, like I said, to the Sun Belt and then, you know, kind of layering those other things on top of that's how we've grown our platform.

Todd MIller:

: 00:24:45

Very interesting. So how does you know, once that initial connection is made, what does that onboarding process look like for a new builder or a new client for you folks?

Brad David:

: 00:24:56

Yeah, it's relatively simple, honestly, We'll, I'll have an initial call with a builder. And all my sales guys do the same thing. And really, it's just, Hey, tell us about your business. Tell us about the immediate opportunity, what you're looking for, and then kind of where you're going, what you want to do. Because we're not in the business of doing one-offs or doing a, you know, just a build here or there. We want to partner with builders that are in the business to do volume and volumes to find different ways. But we want a track record. We want a builder that's not doing this as a sideline or a hobby. We want guys that are growing their business and then we do a typical kind of application onboarding process like most traditional lenders would do. We're no different in that regard. You know, we we have to do our homework. We have to know who we're doing business with. Our capital providers expect that.

Todd MIller:

: 00:25:52

Sure, very interesting. So, yeah, and I think this is cool because who knows, we may have somebody out there in our audience that has done some homebuilding, wants to grow their business.

Brad David:

: 00:26:03

Yeah, absolutely.

Todd MIller:

: 00:26:03

Hopefully we can make some connections here, like the Dating Game.

Brad David:

: 00:26:08

Go check us out at snap.build and there's a, you just click a link. Like everything these days, we try to make it as seamless and as easy as possible to at least get connected.

Todd MIller:

: 00:26:19

Very good. So I'm kind of curious, you know, with you having your feet both in, you know, technology and building, is there anything else you're seeing coming up down the pike that you think is going to have a big impact on home building or remodeling in terms of technology or really anything else or even any trends that you're seeing in terms of home building that might be interesting to our viewers?

Brad David:

: 00:26:43

Sure. Well, you know, we started our our conversation, and I know Ryan's got an entire portfolio of his own jokes, but he did use some A.I.-generated content there. I'll tell you, I think it's going to be a really interesting piece of all technology platforms moving forward, but we certainly see it in our business. And I mean, you know, we've got a really, I mean, to me, a mind-blowing tech team that's out in Austin, and they just do incredible things on our platform and we're improving our platform every day. We're starting to have these conversations about how does A.I. become a piece of that platform? And what's it going to do for us? And we have multiple things throughout the process that I know I will kind of come in and grab and take over, underwriting being one of them. You know, we've got these processes that all of our underwriters use. I think once we can automate that and A.I. starts to understand that, the immediacy with which we can get back real-time results, that's the other thing. You've got to be careful. We're not at a point yet where that stuff is 100%, if it says it is true. But I think the A.I. had a conversation with some brokers recently talking about how they see it sort of integrating in the sales side of the business, in the sales cycle and in those things. So I think it's going to be really interesting. I look, I would be remiss if I didn't say I think our platform has the ability to have some serious impact on the industry. You know, I hate to be as presumptuous to to use things like disruptors, but we're in a disruption, you know, discussion here today. And we've taken a totally different approach to funding and managing the draw process that, look, this is the reason it it pulled me into the company. They had me come down initially and pitched me as an investor. When I saw the platform, I said, I've borrowed money from private guys, from traditional guys, from hard money guys. You know, I've never had a loan managed this way. And as a builder, once I get over the fact you're not just giving me the money and I get to do whatever I want to with. I thought this is a way to totally change the residential lending industry. And so there's my shameless plug about us and our ability to do what you were talking about.

Todd MIller:

: 00:29:14

No, I love it because I love what you're doing. Good stuff. So this has really been informative for me, in particular. We really are close to wrapping up sort of the business end of things. Is there anything we haven't covered yet today that you'd sure like to share with our audience?

Brad David:

: 00:29:30

I can't think of anything. I mean, look, we've talked about who we are and what we do, and you've allowed me to kind of give a little bit of a plug about how to find this, that's an accomplishment for me. But hey, I love talking, you know, the tech side of things, and I'm dangerous enough in that area. And then how it impacts homebuilding. I could talk, you know, that particular topic all day.

Todd MIller:

: 00:29:54

Fantastic. Well, here in a little bit, we'll have a little bit more information on how folks can get in touch with you. And of course, it's going to be in the show notes as well. But I do need to ask before you before we close out, we do a little something here on the show called rapid fire questions. These are seven questions that may range from serious to silly. You have no idea, of course, what we're going to ask. So are you up to the challenge of going through our rapid fire questions?

Brad David:

: 00:30:20

I think I'm up to the challenge. We'll give it a shot.

Todd MIller:

: 00:30:23

They're not too scary, I promise. So we will try alternating questions here. I will let Ryan. Do you want to go first?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:30:32

Sure, I would be glad to. Question number one, can you think of a product that you've purchased in recent memory that's been a game changer for you?

Brad David:

: 00:30:42

Yeah. So in my personal life, I'm kind of a foodie. I like to cook, you know, So that's the...

Todd MIller:

: 00:30:49

We hear you.

Brad David:

: 00:30:50

And so, and I've gotten pulled down the rabbit hole of TikTok. Now I'm just going to go ahead and admit it and it shows you all of the cool gadgets that you don't have that you should have other than myself. So I'll tell you what I ordered this week, a watermelon cutter.

Todd MIller:

: 00:31:09

Ok.

Brad David:

: 00:31:10

So now it's going to somehow pop up on your feed somewhere. But, you know, in the South this time of year, it's one of the big things that we eat all the time. And it's, you know, I've got a method where I typically cut the fruit, watermelon. Saw this thing on TikTok, does it in one swoop, had to have it. So that's something I just, I said Oh my goodness.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:31:30

Does it work for cantaloupe?

Brad David:

: 00:31:32

You know, I think it's got to. I think it's got to. I'll report back.

Todd MIller:

: 00:31:36

Sounds good. So you don't have it yet?

Brad David:

: 00:31:38

I have it, but I haven't tried it. It just, you know, of course, I ordered it, it's there the next day, which is just mind boggling, but I haven't used it yet. So, I'll report back.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:31:47

You may need to share the link to that with us because, like, I cut a lot of watermelon and cantaloupe here.

Brad David:

: 00:31:53

You're going to love this thing.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:31:54

Awesome.

Todd MIller:

: 00:31:54

Yeah, well, we'll try and get that link in the show notes, too. So question number two, Brad, what would you like to be remembered for?

Brad David:

: 00:32:05

You know, I am so fortunate in my life with, I have an amazing family with a beautiful wife and two really amazing daughters. If I'm just remembered as a good father and husband, that's a success to me.

Todd MIller:

: 00:32:21

Hey, man, I think Ryan and I are right there with you on that.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:32:24

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Next question. You're trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. What's one person do you most want on your team?

Brad David:

: 00:32:38

This is tough. And I'm going to tell you, I happen to know after listening to a few of your podcasts, I've heard this question before, and there were some great answers. I think Elon Musk was probably the best answer I heard. But again, I'm going to go in there and we'll go back to I, I would have my wife, Sydney, with me. She's helped me manage things that I would consider as difficult as a zombie apocalypse in my career. And so I need her with me for sure.

Todd MIller:

: 00:33:06

You know, it's funny you say that because I, I was thinking about that question this morning. I thought my answer would also be my wife. We just have, we always talk about it, but we can make it through anything. We've been through some crazy stuff in life, but that's.

Brad David:

: 00:33:21

Absolutely.

Todd MIller:

: 00:33:22

Okay. Next question. What is your favorite color?

Brad David:

: 00:33:26

Well, I have two favorite colors and you'll pick up on a theme here and there. Red and black.

Todd MIller:

: 00:33:35

I hear you. Go Bulldogs. Okay.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:33:38

What was the first car you ever purchased?

Brad David:

: 00:33:41

Oh, very easy. Chevy Blazer. And I'm drivinga Tahoe today, so I've stayed right there with them through all the iterations. But a red and white K5 Chevy Blazer, diesel. I love that truck. I wish I still had it.

Todd MIller:

: 00:33:55

Well, that opens the door. I will confess, I recently bought one of the new Blazers.

Brad David:

: 00:33:59

Did you really?

Todd MIller:

: 00:33:59

And I got to tell you, I love it. It's an amazing vehicle. Yeah, I got the RS. So it's got the six cylinder, but it's just, it's a great car. Okay, is it up to me? What's my question? Okay, as a homebuilder, what's a truly innovative product you've seen come along during your time as a homebuilder that has kind of changed the homebuilding business, other than Snap.Build?

Brad David:

: 00:34:27

I appreciate you getting me out of that necessary answer. I think the engineered products really, you know, especially framing and lumber material, all the engineered products, you know. I can remember when I first started building houses 25 years ago, dating myself a little bit. And, you know, the TJI products were were just becoming popular. Now I look at all of the engineered products and, you know, for a builder, they're so critical because it just gives you that consistency. I mean, you see this as a supplier and the one thing a builder wants to be able to know is that the product, the material I'm getting is consistent. It's the same every time. If I can solve the labor problem and I'm giving them good material. So these engineered products are just amazing. Now I see flooring and some of the products are just, they're mind blowing. Really are.

Todd MIller:

: 00:35:21

Yeah, I hear you. Good stuff.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:35:24

Okay, this is the last question and it's very fitting for what you mentioned earlier about being a foodie. What is your favorite meal?

Brad David:

: 00:35:38

See, this is where I get in trouble because I have a couple of really good friends. And we, you know, and we sit around, have a cocktail. We do these top five last meals, you know, and then there's so many categories, you know. So it's very, very difficult. I was just out at the beach this weekend, so I love fresh seafood, but had a meal recently in Atlanta. And if if I had to eat one thing, it would probably be it was dover sole. And it's just one of those things I can't get my hands on. The way it's prepared is probably over my ability level so that dover sole with brown butter and capers. It's like a, that's a over-the-top foodie answer, I know, but that's it.

Todd MIller:

: 00:36:22

Good stuff. I've had that once or twice, you don't see it very often.

Brad David:

: 00:36:25

Yeah that's right.

Todd MIller:

: 00:36:26

It's hard to run into. Nah, delicious. Very interesting, well Brad, his has been a real pleasure and we certainly wish Snap.Build the best as you guys continue to go about disrupting the residential building industry. So for folks who want to get in touch with you, how can they most easily do that?

Brad David:

: 00:36:46

Sure. You know our website is snap.build, very simple, very clean. And we've got all the kind of contact tabs and channels to do that. That stuff comes to me as as a sales leader, that's really the easiest way to do it. You can kind of get a glimpse about who we are and what we do and we love to help folks. So, you know, thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.

Todd MIller:

: 00:37:10

Very good. Well, this has been great. Now, before we do our final close out, I do need to let folks know on our challenge words. Brad, you had the word?

Brad David:

: 00:37:20

Cowabunga.

Todd MIller:

: 00:37:22

Cowabunga, you worked it in seamlessly. So my word was bulldogs. And honestly, I kept telling myself, Don't use it with Georgia Bulldogs. Find something more creative. I didn't, but at least I got it in there. Ryan, your word was?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:37:39

Spontaneous.

Todd MIller:

: 00:37:41

You did work it in? I missed it entirely.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:37:45

I said, I want to throw out a spontaneous question.

Brad David:

: 00:37:49

I missed it too. And so I was thinking, Did he get it in?

Todd MIller:

: 00:37:54

Good on you.

Brad David:

: 00:37:54

Lot of fun.

Todd MIller:

: 00:37:56

Well, thank you so much. We have really enjoyed this episode. I know it's going to be great for our listeners as well. Enjoyed the time with you, Brad.

Brad David:

: 00:38:03

Thank you all. Have a great weekend.

Todd MIller:

: 00:38:04

Yeah, and thank you to our audience for tuning into this episode of Construction Disruption with Brad David of Snap.Build. Please watch for future episodes of our podcast. We're always blessed with great guests. Don't forget to leave a review, please, on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. Until the next time we're together, though, we encourage our audience. Keep on disrupting and challenging designers, builders and remodelers to better ways of doing things. And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter. Make them smile, encourage them, simple yet powerful things you can do. So in the meanwhile, God bless and take care. This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode of Construction Disruption.

Todd MIller:

: 00:38:47

Intro/Outro: This podcast is produced by Isaiah Industries, a manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building products.

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